Remarks By Mr Lawrence Wong, Deputy Prime Minister And Minister For Finance, At DBS/POSB Community Event on Support Measures for Cost-of-Living on Saturday, 12 August 2023 at West Coast Food Centre

李部长、各位西海岸的居民还有朋友们，大家中午好。已经很久没有回来这边了，我之前在西海岸集选区服务的，你们记得吗？可是不是在这边，是在文礼，可是还是属于西海岸集选区。所以今天很高兴回来西海岸看到我们的居民。我们今天有几个节目，知道大家都期待今天的歌台表演。

我今天想讲两个课题。第一，关于数码技能，很多年长者都有手机，大家都会用手机来拍照、交流，可是你们的手机还是可以用来做很多事，包括付钱。我也知道很多年长者在新加坡很担心，我用手机付钱，那会不会被骗？我们知道年长者有这些担忧，所以我们今天有一些活动，让我们的年长者学会数码技能。

另一方面，我们也知道大家也很担心通货膨胀、物价上涨的问题。这是全球各个国家都面对同样的挑战。政府已经推出了一系列的计划和措施。接下来还有额外的补助，尤其是中低收入的家庭能得到更多的帮助。今天我们也很高兴DBS响应了政府的号召。他们也做出了贡献，帮助低收入家庭应付物价上涨的负担，所以我们感谢DBS和POSB 团队赞助我们的活动。我们共同努力，政府向人民保证一定会一起度过这一次难关。祝大家周末愉快、身体健康。

West Coast residents, good afternoon. I am joining Minister Desmond Lee, together with many of the West Coast grassroots leaders and our friends from IMDA as well as DBS and POSB for today’s event.

Of course, there is a Getai (show) later, I am sure all of you are looking forward. But we are here for two things. One, we have a digital (literacy) workshop as you can see, to help all our residents, especially seniors, learn more about how we can have better digital skills, especially using your handphone to do a whole range of different transactions.

Your handphone is very powerful. It is not just to take selfies and wefies or to do WhatsApp. You can do many things on your handphone but not many residents know what to do with it, especially the seniors, so we have workshops to teach you. Many seniors are worried (that) the more they use (their handphones), the more they might get scammed, so we also have workshops to help you how to stay safe while using your handphones and while using new digital technology. We hope you make full use of the workshops, make full use of all the activities, get access and start learning how to make greater use of digital technology.

A second reason why we are here is because of the concerns that many Singaporeans have about cost of living and rising prices. That is something that is happening in many countries around the world because of the war in Ukraine, and because of supply chain disruptions. We are facing this in Singapore too.

The Government has already rolled out quite a number of measures. (For example,) CDC vouchers were given out. More help is coming in the next few months. But today, we are very happy to have DBS and POSB join us in this combined effort to help lower-income families reduce your cost of living. In particular, DBS has announced a whole range of measures to help lower-income families including rebates at hawker centres, transport rebates, ways to stretch your dollar, to help with your home mortgage, to help with your extra savings. So DBS is here to partner you and we are grateful for their contribution. Let's give them a big round of applause.

The CEO of DBS is here, all their people are here, and even their senior management – it shows their commitment as a company not just to do well as a company but to do good and to be a good corporate citizen contributing to Singapore success and really making an extra effort to uplift all our vulnerable and disadvantaged families in our community.

This is, we hope, the spirit that we can (have to) move forward. There are challenges, but there will always be challenges in our nation-building journey. The Government will do more, but we cannot just rely on government efforts. We hope community groups will do their part. We want companies to do their part too, and working together, we can have every confidence that we will overcome every challenge. We can look forward and build a better future for everyone in Singapore.

Thank you very much and enjoy the rest of the day.