https://mothership.sg/2020/06/vivian-balakrishnan-cnn-interview/#
S'pore citizens to be prioritised in Covid-19 economic response: Vivian Balakrishnan
However, there will still be a role for expats and other foreign workers.
Andrew Koay|
June 17, 2020, 05:54 PM
Singapore citizens will be prioritised as the government sets the wheels of recovery in motion, said Minister of Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan.
"Our priority has to be our citizens," said Vivian in an interview with CNN, "because citizenship has its privileges".
He was responding to a question about Singapore's economic recovery and if jobs for Singaporeans would take precedence at the expense of migrant and expatriate workers.
Trends accelerated by Covid-19
While he acknowledged that Singapore would still need migrant workers in the field of construction work, Vivian said other sectors experiencing a "cut-back" would likely see employers favouring "our own locals".
"I don't think that is an unreasonable position to take," he added.
The foreign affairs minister told CNN that while the pushback against globalisation and free trade had "been going on for years", these trends were being accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Covid-19 has not altered the course of history, but it has accelerated trends already there beforehand," he said.
Another on-going trend to have been sped up by the crisis was the digital revolution, he said. "There are old jobs which are disappearing, creative destruction is going to occur at a massive scale."
Opportunity for those who adapt
Those who stood to benefit from this upheaval, posited Vivian, were those with the skills, networks, and countries with adequate policy, infrastructure, and finance.
"So, what we are doing, to use three Rs as an example, we are going to reboot the economy, re-skill our population, and restructure the economy."
And while citizens would be prioritised in this effort, Vivian said that there would still be a role for expatriates and foreigners.
"No one country has a monopoly on skills, entrepreneurship and on the fervour and fizz that comes with this new economy," he explained.
"So I wouldn’t view this as a zero-sum game."
TraceTogether more effective in local context
The minister also talked about contact tracing in Singapore, and in particular, the government's decision to forgo a system developed by Apple and Google in favour of its homegrown TraceTogether system.
In a June 14 Facebook post, Vivian had explained that the Apple and Google system was "less effective in our local context".
When quizzed on this by CNN host Julia Chatterly, Vivian stopped short of labelling Singapore's system superior.
"Every society has to find the right balance between protecting public health on one hand and respect for personal privacy on the other. And I think every society, depending on its own circumstances, will have a slightly different balance point," he said.
"In our case, we have a system which still depends on human beings making human judgments and decisions, and technology is only a supplement."
Complementing efforts of human contact tracers
The minister explained that the government still wanted human beings to inform individuals of the implications of being in contact with an infected person, and the options available to that individual.
The system used by Singapore would then serve to complement the judgements and decisions of human contact tracers by providing "a little additional information".
"In particular, it will provide information on how, when and where, and from whom you got the infection from or whom you may have passed the infection to."
Vivian pointed to the nature of Covid-19 infections which produces "a significant pool of asymptomatic patients and potential carriers."
"In that case, the ability to track transmission chains in detail is the only way you are going to find asymptomatic carriers in your population," he said.
TraceTogether to be mandatory for foreign workers
The introduction of a TraceTogether token, which would not rely on an individual's phone, was for the purposes of digital inclusion, he added.
While adoption of the TraceTogether application has thus far been voluntary, Vivian did indicate that it would be mandatory for Singapore's migrant worker population.
These workers, who the minister noted as being essential to Singapore, needed the added level of protection contact tracing systems would bring, he said.
Vivian told CNN that workers who could not use the application on their phones would be provided with tokens.
"We do need to protect them because if you think about it, the risk is you will have to shut down the whole site again, and it causes enormous impact on livelihoods."
You can watch it below:
The full transcript of Vivian's interview with CNN can be read here.
S'pore citizens to be prioritised in Covid-19 economic response: Vivian Balakrishnan
However, there will still be a role for expats and other foreign workers.
Andrew Koay|
Singapore citizens will be prioritised as the government sets the wheels of recovery in motion, said Minister of Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan.
"Our priority has to be our citizens," said Vivian in an interview with CNN, "because citizenship has its privileges".
He was responding to a question about Singapore's economic recovery and if jobs for Singaporeans would take precedence at the expense of migrant and expatriate workers.
Trends accelerated by Covid-19
While he acknowledged that Singapore would still need migrant workers in the field of construction work, Vivian said other sectors experiencing a "cut-back" would likely see employers favouring "our own locals".
"I don't think that is an unreasonable position to take," he added.
The foreign affairs minister told CNN that while the pushback against globalisation and free trade had "been going on for years", these trends were being accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Covid-19 has not altered the course of history, but it has accelerated trends already there beforehand," he said.
Another on-going trend to have been sped up by the crisis was the digital revolution, he said. "There are old jobs which are disappearing, creative destruction is going to occur at a massive scale."
Opportunity for those who adapt
Those who stood to benefit from this upheaval, posited Vivian, were those with the skills, networks, and countries with adequate policy, infrastructure, and finance.
"So, what we are doing, to use three Rs as an example, we are going to reboot the economy, re-skill our population, and restructure the economy."
And while citizens would be prioritised in this effort, Vivian said that there would still be a role for expatriates and foreigners.
"No one country has a monopoly on skills, entrepreneurship and on the fervour and fizz that comes with this new economy," he explained.
"So I wouldn’t view this as a zero-sum game."
TraceTogether more effective in local context
The minister also talked about contact tracing in Singapore, and in particular, the government's decision to forgo a system developed by Apple and Google in favour of its homegrown TraceTogether system.
In a June 14 Facebook post, Vivian had explained that the Apple and Google system was "less effective in our local context".
When quizzed on this by CNN host Julia Chatterly, Vivian stopped short of labelling Singapore's system superior.
"Every society has to find the right balance between protecting public health on one hand and respect for personal privacy on the other. And I think every society, depending on its own circumstances, will have a slightly different balance point," he said.
"In our case, we have a system which still depends on human beings making human judgments and decisions, and technology is only a supplement."
Complementing efforts of human contact tracers
The minister explained that the government still wanted human beings to inform individuals of the implications of being in contact with an infected person, and the options available to that individual.
The system used by Singapore would then serve to complement the judgements and decisions of human contact tracers by providing "a little additional information".
"In particular, it will provide information on how, when and where, and from whom you got the infection from or whom you may have passed the infection to."
Vivian pointed to the nature of Covid-19 infections which produces "a significant pool of asymptomatic patients and potential carriers."
"In that case, the ability to track transmission chains in detail is the only way you are going to find asymptomatic carriers in your population," he said.
TraceTogether to be mandatory for foreign workers
The introduction of a TraceTogether token, which would not rely on an individual's phone, was for the purposes of digital inclusion, he added.
While adoption of the TraceTogether application has thus far been voluntary, Vivian did indicate that it would be mandatory for Singapore's migrant worker population.
These workers, who the minister noted as being essential to Singapore, needed the added level of protection contact tracing systems would bring, he said.
Vivian told CNN that workers who could not use the application on their phones would be provided with tokens.
"We do need to protect them because if you think about it, the risk is you will have to shut down the whole site again, and it causes enormous impact on livelihoods."
You can watch it below:
The full transcript of Vivian's interview with CNN can be read here.
