Plenary

STATEMENT BY MISS JILL WONG, DELEGATE TO THE 65th SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON AGENDA ITEM 24, ON ERADICATION OF POVERTY AND OTHER DEVELOPMENT ISSUES, 29TH PLENARY MEETING, 13 OCTOBER 2010

Mr President,

The eradication of poverty promotes an indelible sense of peace and security. The architect of the Marshall Plan, George C Marshall, had said that, "Wars are bred by poverty and oppression. Continued peace is possible only in a relatively free and prosperous world." Marshall was confronting the devastated and imbalanced landscape of European economies after the Second World War. Today, a similarly daunting global landscape of poverty confronts us. In 2000, our leaders pledged to tackle the situation by committing to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). But we remain far from attaining them. Rising commodity prices, internal and cross-border conflict and natural disasters are just some of the factors hampering developing countries' efforts to pull their populations out of poverty. Even amongst developed countries, there remains an underclass that has not been able to participate in the economic opportunities available to fellow citizens. It is a sad state of affairs that in the 21st century, millions still lack access to basic needs like food, shelter, health, education and security.

2. A reassessment of poverty eradication philosophy and methods is needed. Financing to provide individuals with access to food, shelter, health, education and security is important but it is only one aspect of development assistance. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and founder of Grameen Bank Muhammad Yunus' vision of putting "poverty in a museum" is underpinned by the philosophy that to raise people out of poverty, we must empower them to pursue economic self-advancement. In Muhammad's model, financing, in the form of microcredit, was not used to fulfil the needs of the poor directly. Rather, it was used to equip individuals with the means to provide for their own needs. In this way, financing was used as a tool to spur self-reliance and self-sufficiency.

Mr President,

3. Singapore shares the philosophy that if we are to see sustained results from our efforts to raise people out of poverty, we must ensure that first, there is broad access to economic opportunities created by growth, and that second, individuals are equipped to tap on these opportunities. Fostering inclusive growth is a major thrust of Singapore's growth strategy for the next phase of our development. We have traditionally invested heavily in education, training and skills upgrading to enhance the employability of our workers. But we recognize that the lower-skilled and less educated face particular challenges in staying employed. To help these individuals improve their economic prospects, we need to motivate them to seek work and provide them with strong support to upskill and upgrade over time. For low-income families, we need to ensure that their children have full educational opportunities, to help them break out of the cycle of poverty.

4. To encourage low-wage workers to seek work and stay in employment, Singapore introduced the Workfare Income Supplement Scheme in 2007. As its name suggests, the Scheme provides an income supplement to low-wage workers, to encourage them to work regularly and to help them build up their retirement savings. In this way, the Scheme supplements the income of low-wage workers while preserving the work ethic.

5. To complement the Workfare Income Supplement Scheme, Singapore launched the Workfare Training Scheme in July this year to help low-wage workers upskill and secure better jobs. It takes into account the specific challenges faced by low-wage workers in attending and completing training. Employers are given funding support to encourage them to send their low-wage workers for training. To encourage workers to complete their training, they are given training awards for completing the requisite skills modules. Low-skilled workers, particularly those without a secondary education, can receive customized training programmes that cover basic literacy and numeracy skills as well. All low-skilled workers, regardless of their employment status, have access to these customized training programmes. Community programmes to help low-income workers and families raise their aspirations form another critical aspect of our assistance efforts. Low-income families with young children can receive coaching on parenting skills, counseling and family support, and assistance to enroll their children in kindergarten and childcare.

6. While poverty eradication is often an issue of internal, rather than external, factors, the task can be complemented by assistance from bilateral, regional and international partners. Singapore agrees that developed countries can and should provide strong support to developing countries, particularly the LDCs, to raise their people out of poverty. On their part, developing countries should continue to take ownership of their own development, ensure good governance and view development assistance as a means to support their ultimate goal of self-reliance and self-sufficiency at both the macro and individual levels.

7. On Singapore's part, we provide assistance to our external partners under the Singapore Cooperation Programme (SCP), which is administered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Just as we believe that low-skilled, low-wage workers in Singapore are best helped by providing them with the skills to secure good jobs rather than financial handouts that run out in time, the SCP offers technical assistance to developing countries, to build up competencies in the areas most relevant and useful to them. Since 1992, the SCP has organised training programmes for over 70,000 participants from 169 countries in various areas including Economic Development, Trade and Tourism Promotion, Education, Environmental Management, Urban Development, Healthcare, Disaster Response, Public Administration and Governance. To date, the SCP's total commitment has exceeded S$400 million.

8. Cooperation through regional institutions and initiatives - from the sharing of best practices, to the creation of new economic opportunities through economic integration and liberalization - can also help accelerate the progress of efforts to raise people from poverty. ASEAN's efforts are a case in point. ASEAN has set ourselves a target to form an ASEAN Economic Community by 2015. Towards this end, ASEAN decided last year to pursue an ASEAN Connectivity Initiative to deepen physical, communications, system and people links between ASEAN countries. Greater ASEAN connectivity and the opportunities inherent in the creation of such networks will help to narrow the development divide between ASEAN member countries. ASEAN leaders have also pledged ASEAN's commitment to addressing socio-economic disparities and poverty by developing and implementing an ASEAN roadmap towards realizing the MDGs. Singapore would like to take this opportunity to re-affirm our commitment to working with our partners, both within and outside of ASEAN, to help realize the MDGs by 2015 and to help eradicate poverty.

9. Thank you.