Singapore:Is Budget 2010 an election budget? Well, if it is, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam did not give away anything obvious in his speech. It was delivered in his usual matter-of-fact manner, in sync with the technocratic expertise and precision that went into the crafting of the Government's financial strategy for the years ahead. Aligned closely with the recommendations of the Economic Strategies Committee, the Budget makes clear that economic restructuring and transformation is top of the Government's agenda in the coming financial year.
Not surprisingly, the focus is on raising the nation's flagging productivity by 2 to 3 per cent each year over the next decade, and to gear the economy to grow by 3 to 5 per cent over the next five to 10 years.
The Budget provides a nuts-and-bolts road-map and a wide array of incentives and drivers to retool Singapore by encouraging productivity, boosting innovation and nurturing the inclination for life-long learning.
Becoming an advanced economy requires the development of superior skills and generating quality jobs in order to justify higher incomes. And the Government seems quietly confident that real incomes of Singaporeans can increase by one-third in a decade. -TodayOnline
