Prime
Minister Lee Hsien Loong has expressed his optimism for the
upcoming year of the tiger -and is hoping that Singapore's economy
will grow between three and five per cent this year.
Speaking at a community event in Ang Mo Kio, he added that
Singaporeans must also look beyond this year and upgrade
themselves.
" We want a better living. Every one of us would like a better
life. But the only way to do that is to be able to get the skills,
get the education, get the training, get the upgrading - to work
hard and therefore also work better to be more productive and earn
more for ourselves."
Looking back at 2009, he said that the government had worked hard
to deal with the troubles then.
The most important help given to Singaporeans was the resilience
package in the budget, which included jobs credit and other
schemes, said PM Lee.
"As a result of all these we are able to keep our unemployment not
too high- it went up a little bit but now it has come back down.
And the recent number, the unemployment numbers has gone from three
per cent back to only two per cent, which is really very low, and
almost as low as it was before the crisis began."
This is a reflection of the policies taken as well as the attitudes
of Singaporeans who were willing to take the work available to see
through the difficult time, said Mr Lee.
--938Live
