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SMRT Enterprise Wins Award For Enterprise Risk Management Programme

SMRT Corporation has won an international award for its enterprise risk management programme – first time that SMRT has won such an award.

The public transport operator won the Delivering Value through Risk Management award at the Institute of Risk Management (IRM)’s Global Risk Awards 2015 – an international industry award recognising the highest standards of excellence in risk management.

In a media release issued on Wednesday (Feb 25), president and group CEO Desmond Kuek said SMRT was honoured to receive such an award, which was presented to the company last Thursday (Feb 19) in London. “The rigorous judging process reaffirms that SMRT’s enterprise risk management programme is truly world-class, and delivers superior value for our stakeholders,” he said.

Companies shortlisted for this award were assessed for evidence of sustained revenue enhancement, cost savings or other improvements such as reduced error rates, that can be attributed to a risk management initiative or programme; acknowledgement of the role of risk management as a value-added function within the organisation; and value delivery in the context of an overall risk management programme.

The Global Risk Awards’ judges praised SMRT’s “forensic focus on how risk management could be used to support corporate strategy”.

February 26, 2015
Chan Chun Sing: Build Social Cohesiveness Through Property Design

SINGAPORE: Building rental units next to new Build-to-Order flats and getting real estate students to also study social sciences – some of the ideas raised by Social and Family Development Minister Chan Chun Sing to have more social inclusiveness in Singapore.

Mr Chan was speaking to 50 engineering and real estate students from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) at a dialogue on Wednesday (Feb 25).

Homes today provide greater privacy – for instance, common corridors are no longer seen at newer blocks. Flat owners can have greater privacy this way, but it can have social implications, said Mr Chan.

“In short, today’s privacy will be tomorrow’s social isolation,” said Mr Chan.

“That common corridor doesn’t just serve a functional role to allow people to get from the lift lobby or staircase back to their house – it allows mixing, it allows people to get to know their neighbours, it allows people to walk past and greet each other,” he explained.

“When we take away that in the name of privacy, then we have to ask ourselves the next design that we need to incorporate that will allow people to have privacy and at the same time, not create a situation where in 20 to 30 years’ time, we will have an aged population with a social problem.”

Mr Chan said in fostering social interaction, those in the real estate industry have an important role. Developers could consider building different types of flats, including rental units, in a single project to bring together people of different social and economic status.

“Perhaps it’s important, in our whole society, to have social mixing whereby the rich grow up understanding that there are poor people in this society, that we will count our blessings, that in this society it’s our responsibility for those who have been more blessed to extend a helping hand to the poor,” he said.

Mr Chan added that in cases of the “not-in-my-backyard” syndrome, designers and architects can also help to mitigate the situation through careful design.

But for the property sector to play that role well, those in the industry, and real estate students, need to have a good understanding of social needs. That is still lacking in the curriculum of some universities in Singapore, said Mr Chan.

“If you want to be a good architect, a good real estate student, beyond architecture and real estate, you should really study sociology, demographics – you should study social sciences,” he said.

When asked if the government will consider building HDB flats at prime locations such as downtown Marina to improve social interaction, Mr Chan said he is sceptical it would work, as there are other issues to consider.

For instance, buyers can purchase HDB flats in prime areas at “artificially low prices”, only to flip them in the resale market and enjoy a windfall.

“Who is cross-subsidising them? The Government? Actually the Government has no money to cross-subsidise,” he said. “The real answer is the rest of the people – the three-room flats and the four-room flats are cross-subsidising them. That comes to another point which is then, is this a fair system? So there are complex considerations on where we want to build.”

Organisers of the dialogue, the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore, said it hoped to foster a better understanding of the real estate environment amongst youths.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

February 26, 2015
Proposal – NSFs Receiving Financial Aid From SAF To Be Automatically Referred To MSF After Service

Less well-off national servicemen who receive financial aid from the Singapore Armed Forces may continue to receive help even after they have completed their full-time stints.

Under a proposal by a feedback body to the Government on defence matters, these servicemen will not have to re-apply for financial assistance after their mandatory stints. Instead, they will be automatically referred to the Ministry of Social and Family Development, which will likely to pick up the tab to help them.

This is one of the 18 proposals submitted by the Advisory Council for Community Relations in Defence (Accord) to the Defence Ministry on Wednesday.

They include partnering women’s groups to organise small group information sharing sessions to improve the understanding of defence issues among women; notifying employers and firms earlier when their staff are called up for in-camp training; and grooming ambassadors to promote the SAF Volunteer Corps and encouraging more people to sign-up as volunteers.

The proposals come six months after Accord, formed in 1984 to help shape the efforts of Mindef in getting the buy-in for defence and NS, was restructured into three separate councils to strengthen broader community support for defence and NS.

Accord member Claire Chiang, who sits on the Family and Community Council, said the panel wanted to address the “life-cycle needs” of less well-off national servicemen who might face hardship after NS and might need financial help.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

February 26, 2015
Fewer Cars On The Roads As COEs Play Catch Up

Singapore’s private car population has fallen to its lowest level since 2011, and the shrinkage could continue.

The latest available figures from the Land Transport Authority show that there were 598,219 cars as of the end of last month – down from 600,176 last year. The number stood at 607,292 in 2013, and 605,149 in 2012.

The car population is now at its lowest since 2011, when there were 592,361 cars on the road.

The shrinkage is a rare occurrence in Singapore, where a quota system allows the vehicle population to grow annually at a pre-determined rate.

Observers said the contraction is a sign that the supply of certificates of entitlement (COEs) is lagging behind actual replacement demand.

Since 2010, COE supply has been formulated largely by the number of cars scrapped in the preceding months. This often does not correspond with the number of cars scrapped in the following months. For instance, last year’s May-July COE quota for cars was determined by the 7,083 cars scrapped from February to April. But actual scrappage from May to July was higher at 7,514.

Over time, this leads to a population shrinkage.

NUS Business School Associate Professor Chu Sing Fat said the shrinking Open category, which can be used for any vehicle type but ends up mainly for cars, also contributes to the phenomenon.

Mr Lee Hoe Lone, managing director at Audi agent Premium Automobiles, said: “It will be worse if they start holding back some COEs.”

He was referring to a widely expected move by the Government to “save” some COEs arising from the 2015-17 supply bonanza for the next low-supply period starting from 2019.

“The writing is on the wall,” said Dr Park Byung Joon, an urban transport management expert at UniSIM. “I do not see any other way to avoid having a few years of massive COE supply followed by a dry spell.”

National University of Singapore transport researcher Lee Der Horng concurs, adding that “a more equalised COE supply between years is more healthy”.

While motor traders agree that a peak-and-trough COE supply pattern is not desirable, they reckon an adjustment – by holding back some certificates – will not be well received by consumers who have been waiting for supply to surge.

“If they hold back 30 per cent of next year’s supply, it could potentially mean 30,000 car-owning families giving up their cars,” a trader said.

Jardine Cycle & Carriage managing director of motor operations Eric Chan suggested that Singapore could accommodate a higher vehicle population once the second generation of Electronic Road Pricing (ERP II) is up.

On top of time and location, ERP II can charge according to distance clocked. With the system, expected to be ready before 2020, Mr Chan said “we can have higher car registrations but fewer cars on the road”.

But even if COE supplies are not tweaked, the car population is likely to shrink for a few more years if the current COE quota formula is not changed.

Observers pointed out that the Government aims to raise public transport’s share of morning peak journeys to 70 per cent by 2020 – up from 63 per cent in 2013.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

February 26, 2015
SDP: Government Less Elitist, But System Still Far From Fair And Sustainable

By raising income tax rates for the top 5 per cent and setting up the Silver Support Scheme to give payouts to the lower-income elderly, Budget 2015 has shifted the Government to a “less extreme elitist position”, said the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) in a statement responding to the Budget today (Feb 25).

But while measures to aid the “poor and weak” are welcome, Singapore is still far from a fair and sustainable system, the party said.

The shift in the Government’s policies have come about not because of a change in the People’s Action Party’s ideology, but because of electoral pressure, the SDP said. “In the meantime, the ruling party continues to ignore the critical issues such as minimum wage, universal healthcare and retention of our CPF savings,” they added.

Adding it was imperative for Singaporeans to support the SDP in the next General Election, the party said it plans to campaign on policies which include raising taxes on the top 1 per cent earners in Singapore to pay for financial assistance. “This Budget is a clear demonstration of how a competent, constructive and compassionate opposition like the SDP benefits Singaporeans,” they said.

Source: www.todayonline.com

February 26, 2015