127. Mr Speaker, Sir, I believe that overall, our approach of targeting help at the most needy and those willing to help themselves is working. People who are in genuine need have benefited and have got useful help.

128. Under the Job Re-creation Programme, which is spearheaded by NTUC and WDA, the tripartite partners from 13 sectors have come together to re-create jobs and retrain job seekers. Last Friday, I went to DXO. It is a disco, but there was no music. This was just a Job Re-creation Programme Awards Night. Mr Lim Swee Say invited me. I gave awards, among other things, to 15 JRP participants, workers, and I spoke to them all after that. I was very impressed and moved by their commitment. One of them is Mr Arumugam s/o Ramalingam. He is 45. He had a business failure back in 1997, and he was declared bankrupt. He worked for a cleaning company for five years - he got retrenched in May 2004. But he did not lose hope. He did not give up. He took up a National Skills Recognition Scheme course in landscape maintenance. He became a landscaping technician. Starting pay, $1,150 just February last year. He did well. After four months, he got a raise to $1,300 and last December he was promoted to supervisory position. Now, he earns $1,500 a month and oversees the work of a four-man team at Marina City Park. So it is a small programme to assist the person, but it has helped him to make good in his life. The other recipients all had stories to tell and were proud of themselves, and I think that is the way we should help people. It shows us that as long as we believe in our workers, and people believe in themselves, it is possible for them to move up the job ladder, earn higher salaries, and live better lives.

129. With the Progress Package, we will provide much needed help for the lower-income. So after I announced the Budget, the newspapers went and looked for specific cases to see how it affected people’s lives. Shin Min Daily reported one odd job worker, Huang Qichang, who lives in a three-room flat with his wife and two daughters. The family will get Growth Dividends ($800 each husband and wife), Workfare Bonus for him ($600), NSmen’s bonus for him (he had two daughters, so only for him, $400), U-Save rebate because three-room flat ($100); adds up to $2,700. He told the papers that he will use the money to pay off his outstanding bills. His daughters currently have to go to their classmates’ houses to use computers to do their school assignments, so with money from the Progress Package, he is going to buy a study table and a new computer for his daughters.

130. And there was another example in Lianhe Zaobao, a 32-year-old lady, Wang Suyan and her family. She earns $300-$400. She just works part-time as a coffee shop assistant. Husband is a factory technician, monthly income less than $1,500. So when asked how she would use her family’s share of the Progress Package, she said she would save the money for the education of her two young children, aged five and six, as the road ahead is still long for them. So, not everybody is buying 4D. These are the stories which give you heart and hope, and convince me that we are doing the right thing for Singaporeans.

131. Ultimately, we can only help Singaporeans if we can continue to grow the economy. Therefore this Budget also focuses on attracting investments to grow the economy, and to create jobs. The incentives and the measures we have put in place in this Budget and in previous years are beginning to bear fruit. We have seen good growth in a wide range of areas and let me just cite you a few.

132. In transport engineering, we have become the largest and most comprehensive centre in Asia for the provision of aerospace maintenance, repair and overhaul services (MRO) - that means aeroplane engines being serviced and overhauled in Singapore. Our shipyards build 70 percent of the world’s oil rigs and platforms and their order books are full for the next five years. We are competitive.

133. In retail trade, wholesale and retail trade has been growing double digits in the last three years. I know HDB shops are still having some difficulty and MND has been helping to tackle some of their problems, but overall, the retail sales have been doing well and even provision and sundry shops in 2005 did better - went up by 8.6 percent compared to 2004.

134. In financial services and wealth management, we have had double-digit growth over the past five years - assets under management reaching $570 billion by end 2004. Each time I meet them, I ask them how well are you doing? They say “Sshhh”, do not tell anybody, but they are doing alright.

135. And so jobs have been created - 111,000 last year. If you look at university graduates, last year 92 percent got employed within six months of final exams. Poly students - 91 percent found jobs within six months of final exams.

136. So overall, I am confident we are on the right path. Our strategy of competitiveness and cohesion is the right approach for taking us into the future.