PM Lee Hsien Loong's Meeting with ASEAN Journalists at the 7th ASEAN Journalists Visit Programme (JVP)

PM Lee Hsien Loong: Welcome everybody to Singapore.

Hermien Kleden: Thank you.

PM Lee: You have been here a few days already?

Aye Aye Win: Yes, since Monday.

PM Lee: Monday - very happy to have you here. It is our 50th anniversary, it is the SEA Games year for us, about to start and it is also the year when they are going to form the ASEAN community at the end of the year. So these are significant moments and I hope we have a good conversation. So I am open to any questions you may have.

Nguyen Hai Van: Mr Prime Minister, I just realised Singapore and Vietnam have a problem in common of housing, expensive housing. And I can imagine like for young family here, it could take like 10 or 15 years just to own a house. So how do you deal with the problem and do you think this is really a sign to recognise that Singapore is experiencing a wealth divide?

PM Lee: I don't think that we have such a serious problem that you must wait 10 or 15 years to own a house. I think if a young couple are getting married, planning to start a family and start life together in their late 20s or early 30s and they have been working for five, seven years, I think it is quite possible that they would be able to make the down payment and book a HDB (Housing and Development Board) flat and by the time they get married, they would already be able to have a HDB flat in their name. Our home ownership now in Singapore is about 90 per cent, so nearly every household lives in a flat of their own. Earlier on, there have been periods when it took a little bit longer and people worried about not getting their flat soon enough as the price was high. But in terms of affordability and a flat in Singapore costs five times, five-and-a-half time annual income is about the same as many developed countries and lower than many cities in Asia and with Government subsidies for the lower income Singaporeans, in fact, it is even more affordable than that if you buy a small flat. So I think that it is something which we pay a lot of attention to but I believe we have well under control. In fact, it is one of the success stories in Singapore - housing.

Nguyen Hai Van: So the second part that I would like to …

PM Lee: The wealth divide?

Nguyen Hai Van: Yes.

PM Lee: Well, it is one of the ways in which we make sure that whether you are rich or poor in Singapore, you have significant asset to your name. And in fact we had one statistic that the lowest 20 per cent of our households, on average have about a quarter million dollars-worth of net-worth in their house, which is quite a remarkable statistic. So yes, we worry about the income stretching out, we worry about the low-end income not catching up fast enough, but through our Public Housing Programme, that is one of the ways in which we make sure that we level up and even the low-income Singaporeans have a substantial asset to their name.

Hermien Kleden: Thank you, Prime Minister. Tempo, Indonesia. This will be the first anniversary, the upcoming is the first anniversary of Singapore without the father of the nation, Mr Lee Kuan Yew. Could you please, if can you define the difference between Singapore without Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Singapore with Mr Lee Kuan Yew?

PM Lee: Well, Mr Lee retired as Prime Minister 25 years ago in 1990 and he retired from the Cabinet completely four years ago in 2011. And really a new team has been in charge since 1990 and there has been a turnover even in the new team, so I am not the second generation leader, I am the third Prime Minister. So in a way, Mr Lee has been preparing Singapore for the day when it carries on without him for a very long time and now he has left, it is a very sad thing that on the 50th anniversary he is not able to be with us to celebrate the success which he had such a big part in creating, but I think he has prepared well and Singapore is well set to move ahead and take our country further steps forward. Of course, we would have like to continue to have his wisdom, his advice, the confidence that he has been with us all along and that whatever happens, he can help us to see through from thick or thin, but the reality is increasingly in the last 15 years, it is a new team which has been taking Singapore, making the decisions, carrying them, persuading people or dealing with problems when they have risen and I think that will continue to be so now.

Aina Nassruddin: Sir, I am from Malaysia. As you know the region has recently seen an influx of problems relating to refugees and human trafficking and my Prime Minister Sri Najib, he has mentioned that an ASEAN solution, a holistic ASEAN solution can be the most effective way of dealing with this. So can I get your comments on that?

PM Lee: Well, it is an issue which affects quite a number of countries in the region, so we need to discuss and see what we can do about it. It has to be dealt with upstream in the source countries where the conditions for the people, I think must be quite tough for them to want to think of becoming refugees in this way. You have to deal with it also with the human traffickers who are well-organised entrenched groups in several countries. And they make money out of this and they have an interest in keeping the flow going and extorting money from the desperate human beings who are trying to go somewhere. And then there are the countries that have to have some help so that they are not suddenly faced with an influx which they cannot handle. No country can take an endless number of refugees and say we just take them on humanitarian grounds. And your own people will not accept it, it is not possible. So therefore, it has to be dealt with upstream, the human traffickers have to be put a stop to, and then when they do come, well there has to be some way these people can be dealt with, either they go back where they came from or they have to go somewhere which can accept them.

Waqiuddin Haq: I am from Brunei, sir. In my country, there has been a speculation that since Singapore's economy has grown very robust, it might affect our currency interchangeability. So my question is, what is the possibility that the currency interchangeability be changed or reviewed?

PM Lee: Well, it is an agreement between two countries, it has lasted more than 40 years now. We are very happy with it. I think the Brunei Government, as far as I can tell, are also very happy with it. So I don't see any particular push from either side to want to change it. And the Singapore Dollar, well it sometimes goes up a bit, sometimes goes down a bit, it is a stable currency. Right now, it is low against the US dollar, it is high against the Euro, against the other currencies, but it is a stable exchange rate if we look at it overall and that is useful for Brunei because that gives you a peg and you don't have to manage your own which is a very big overhead for a small country to do.

Waqiuddin Haq: So it is going to stay, is it?

PM Lee: Unless you have heard otherwise from the Bruneians, I have not heard anything that we want to change it.

Khan Sophirom: Prime Minister, how do you see Asia after the regional integration on 31st of December where currently development gap is the main challenge for the new Asians like Cambodia?

PM Lee: Well, I think when we make the ASEAN community by the end of the year, that is a very big step but that is not the end of our completion of our cooperation. There is more agenda to be done, even the target for what we want to do by December this year, I suspect there will be some items which we will not have completed by then and which will be outstanding business. But beyond that, we need to think what we want to do as a next step in our regional integration and cooperation. And we have got an ASEAN group, which is studying this. I think they got a wise men’s group (Note: refers to the High-Level Task Force) looking at this and we look forward to their recommendations and part of their recommendations I am sure will be how to work towards narrowing the development gap and how the Indo-Chinese countries can help to grow faster, either through Human Resource Development or trade or technical cooperation and we look forward to the ideas.

Yophiandi Kurniawan: Kompas, Indonesia. How do you see about the economic relations between Indonesia and Singapore today? I see that you are talking with Mr President Joko Widodo when you last met and you talked about the investment to Indonesia. How is it going?

PM Lee: Well, we have very intimate relations between Singapore and Indonesia, economically but also even on political relationship and security cooperation. On the economic side, our trade is substantial, our investments are very substantial, we are one of the biggest investors into Indonesia. And President Jokowi has said that he would like to increase that, those investments from Singapore and would like to work more closely together. So I am happy to do that. But I think that there are also issues which we have to deal with when it comes to economic cooperation, for example, Indonesia has investment guarantee agreements with many countries and ours, the duration extends until next year and Indonesia has served notice that they do not want to continue with this and they would like to renegotiate investment guarantee agreement. While these are things which are the sovereign right of countries but really when investors go in to a country, they are looking for reassurance and confidence that the framework will be there and the better an IGA you have, the easier it will be to persuade investors to come in. So I think these are factors which investors will look at when they decide whether they want to invest in Indonesia, when they want to decide where they want to focus their attentions and we hope that we will be able to make progress and both sides will understand how to create the conditions for this.

Boutsadakham Litdavong: I am from Laos. As the biggest economic development country, what will Singapore do to promote Singapore in their AEC integration?

PM Lee: Well, we work closely with our ASEAN partners, I think integration in itself by helping our markets to have fewer barriers, helping our people to do business across boundaries will help to promote development all over ASEAN, but in addition, we have the IAI, the Initiative for ASEAN Integration, we have technical cooperation Initiatives, we have programmes for Human Resource Development, for example, for Laos, hundreds, if not thousands of your officials have come to Singapore and studied English in Singapore, including quite a number of your ministers. So we have friends all over Laos and we hope that we will be able to do more of this over the years.

Kamolwat Praprutitum: Bangkok Post. I have got one question about the democratic development. Is there such thing as a Singapore-style democracy and at what stage of economic and democratic development is Singapore now?

PM Lee: Well, I don’t know whether you call it Singapore-style democracy but we have a democratic system in Singapore and it works for us. And we have elections every five years or so, we have a Parliament and we have a President who is also elected directly. So it is a system which has delivered stable government and competent government for Singapore and one which has a mandate to govern effectively and do what Singapore needs. It is a system which is evolving over time because our society is changing, expectations are changing and so the way it operates I think will gradually adjust. So we are looking for our own way forward. I don’t know if you call it a Singapore model for other people to follow, but it is a model which Singapore is making it work for ourselves.

Kamolwat Praprutitum: With more opposition MPs in Parliament now, do you think it is a sign of them progress and …

PM Lee: I think the progress comes from the quality of the discussion in Parliament, it is not the numbers which count, it is what contribution they make. And if you have an opposition which is responsible, which raises serious issues which concern the country, which offers real alternatives to the population and which then debates the hard choices which the country has to make because it is very to say yes all the time but in government you cannot say yes all the time and when do you say no and what choices you make. And that is the duty of the opposition. If they do that, whether they have one member, whether they have ten members, they are good opposition. If they don’t do that, you may have 20, 30 members, you are not being responsible. So, I would not go on the numbers. I would go on the substance of the debate.

Yin Yin Tint: I am from Myanmar, Sir. There are thousands of migrant workers are working in Singapore, including those from Myanmar. And some Singaporeans complain that these workers are stealing their livelihood. And some were alarmed by the rapidly increased number, view them with hostility and I would like to know what is your opinion of increasing growing number of migrant workers? Are you concerned about it?

PM Lee: I think from the economic point of view we need migrant workers in Singapore because there are many jobs which our economy have created which there are not enough Singaporeans to fill. Some Singaporeans are not there at all, like construction or maritime industries. Others we don't have many Singaporeans there and you need a significant number of foreign workers, for example, in manufacturing. There are others where we have quite a number of Singaporeans but you need to top up with some foreigners like many of the service industries. And then you have management jobs, technical jobs where you need a wide range of background and expertise and people who have been all over the world to come and then you form a team and there is a multinational team and you can work together. And if you are running a bank it is like that, if you are running an international law firm, it is probably like that. If you are doing an IT company, you probably need talent from all over the region. If you are doing media company or what do they call it, you are making movies or animations, Lucas firm-type movies, you need talent from all over the world and we need them. But if we have too many, then there is a social impact because then Singapore feels not quite the same and also if it is too concentrated, then the Singaporeans who are working there, side-by-side with the foreigners will feel, how is it all my colleagues are non-Singaporeans and it takes a while to get used to. So there are social issues to be concerned about. Integration issues as well and we have to be sensitive to them which is why we are trying our best to make a balance. We can't do without the foreign workers but at the same time we have to manage the inflow.

Nguyen Quang Thong: I come from Vietnam.

PM Lee: Yes.

Nguyen Quang Thong: We know that in Vietnam there are many people, your fans' page.

PM Lee: Oh, thank you. I did not know that.

Nguyen Quang Thong: We know that you are a prominent Facebooker who is a really young and dynamic.

PM Lee: Not so young!

Nguyen Quang Thong: Do you think the channel of communication is an effective approach to further tightening the mutual understanding between you and your citizens, especially the youth. In addition, I am also your Friend page and I have read your status about the gold medal of Team Singapore.

PM Lee: This morning, thank you. I think it is one avenue which is growing in importance. If you look at the way young people consume media or even not so young people consumer media, more and more people are spending time firstly on their mobile devices, secondly on the messaging type platforms like, in other words, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter even Snapchat. And not so much time on the formal news sites. So, they will not go to BBC but they expect to see BBC turn up on their Facebook feed or Nantian or whatever it is, and so, I want to be there too. And it does not meet all my needs because sometimes you need to make a speech and it is very difficult to have a one hour speech in a Facebook post. But there are people who will be on the Facebook who will not often be reading speeches and this is one way to reach them. And also if you have, its more informal. If I want to congratulate somebody on a gold medal, I just make a post and you look at it, if you are interested, if you are not interested, you don't have to look at it. But if every time I congratulate somebody for getting a gold medal, it is on front-page of the newspapers, I think soon people will get tired of me. So, this is a way I can do it in an informal and well, you consume what you like. Yes.

Waqiuddin Haq: Sir, how confident are you that ASEAN will be able to realise the regional economic integration by the end of the year and do you think that ASEAN can remain united before it resolves the South China Sea dispute?

PM Lee: I think we will have an ASEAN Community by the end of the year. What the quality is depends how hard we work. There are outstanding things to be done. The more we can do, the better community we will have. The South China Sea dispute is an issue which directly affects four of the ASEAN countries but indirectly affects the whole of ASEAN because it is a security issue in the middle of Southeast Asia. ASEAN has a stand which is that we should be negotiating a Code of Conduct. We want to complete the Code of Conduct with China. We are in the process of doing this. It is taking a while but I think there is an ASEAN view on this. I think in terms of nuance, different ASEAN countries will have slightly different positions because if you are a claimant state, well you have a stake directly there and you have to fight your corner. If we are not a claimant state like Singapore, then we are not in a position to say, because part of Brunei or the Philippines is in ASEAN, therefore we back your claim. We cannot, we are not in a position to judge the claims. But we are in a positon to say we are affected by how this dispute is resolved and if it is not resolved peacefully, we will have a problem and if it is not resolved in accordance with international law or the Convention on the Law of the Sea, we will have a problem. So, that is where ASEAN stands. Sin Chew?

Yeoh Eng Nean: The marriage and parenthood package was introduced in 2001. What was the result or considered failed?

PM Lee: No, no. It didn't fail. We have had many marriage and parenthood packages even before 2001. We have been progressively doing this since I think about 1985, 1986, when first we shifted course and we said No, from "Two is enough", our old slogan was Boy or Girl, Two is Enough. And then we changed to say, Have Two or More If You Can Afford It. It has not turned the trend around and caused more babies to be born. But I think it has slowed down a very strong downtrend in people getting married and people having children. And if you look at the most recent numbers, well the marriage numbers have gone up. I think birth numbers have gone up a little bit. In terms of fertility, it is still not where we would like it to be. So, we have to consider what we can do to do more.

The main thing is it is not just a matter of dollars, it is also now what are the practical issues which parents face, young parents face when they have children, to reconcile their responsibilities as parents, what they desire to do, taking care of the kids. And also their aspirations to work, to have a career. And the women as well as the men want to work and have a career and go back to work. So that means they need childcare, they need infant care which is affordable, which is available. And they need to be sure that their children will be well taken care off while they are away and we do not have to worry. So that is one of the things which we are putting a little effort in. Increasing childcare and infant care places and affordability. Tempo?

Hermien Kleden: Okay, thank you Sir. There are a number of critics who claim that Singapore tends to be "closed" in economic and trade relationships between Indonesia and other neighbouring ASEAN countries. Any comments on this?

PM Lee: I do not understand how we can close off when we have the most open economy. We have no tariffs, we have hardly any non-tariff barriers. We would like to do more. And usually when we cooperate with other countries, the other countries have different rules and we have to take some time to come to some meeting of minds how we can open up. So, we would like to do more but we proceed at their pace which countries at a tempo which other countries are comfortable with. Yes Vietnam?

Nguyen Hai Van: My colleague asked you about your approach to young people. So, I would like to ask you about old people. Though I heard last year Singapore already initiated the Pioneer Generation Package for older people after you hear that old people did not get enough care.

PM Lee: No, no. I didn't say it is because older people did not get enough care.

Nguyen Hai Van: Okay. Okay then. I would like to know how much budget you have to spend on the programme and can it be understood.

PM Lee: How much what?

Nguyen Hai Van: How much extra budget the government has to spend on the programme and can it be understood that Singapore used to spend, concentrate a lot on younger generation in the working age rather than older people?

PM Lee: Well, the Pioneer Generation Package is because we felt that Singapore had come very far in 50 years. And a lot of the progress we made was because of the work of the first generation of Singaporeans, the one who were in adults around 1965 when we became independent. The ones who helped to make, build the country from nothing when it was very poor and who when they were working their incomes were not so high as peoples' incomes today. And now they are retired and well they built this and I think we should make a gesture to thank them especially on our 50th anniversary. So, we made the Pioneer Generation Package. Overall, I think it cost us, we put aside $8 billion from the budget into a fund. And the fund will have income over the years. So, by the time we spend the money, we estimated that 12, 13 billion dollars will be spent on this pioneer generation. And it is mainly for healthcare purposes.

For others we take care of all Singaporeans including those who are old but not quite in the pioneer generation . But the pioneer generation is special. I would say in the past an old, we did not have a problem with old people because most of our population was young. But now our population is ageing. About one in nine is more than 65-years-old and the proportion is increasing rapidly. And I think many of them will be able to take care of themselves because we have a HDB flat. So with a flat they have an asset, they have property, they have roof over their heads. Because that they have CPF (Central Provident Fund), they have savings from their working age. They have their children who will help to take care of them. But some of them will need extra help because they may not, they may have been low income workers or they may be special family circumstances. And so we have introduced new schemes to take care of them, for example, Silver Support which is to complement our CPF scheme for retirement. And I think we need to do more with older workers in the years to come. But we also need to engage older workers more, we need to do more with older citizens, but we also need to engage the older citizens more so that they are able to make a contribution. Many would like to continue working, maybe part-time, maybe half-time. Many can help to look after their grandchildren. Many will want to do community service and the more we can engage them in a life of a society, I think the better off we are.

Antonio Velaquez: May I ask question now?

PM Lee: Yes.

Antonio Velaquez: From the Philippines. I was told that this would be very informal. Very casual. So, when we were thinking about questions to ask you, I thought is it all right to ask the PM about his views on gay marriage. Same sex marriage seems to be taking off in other more developed countries as well. Is Singapore ready to take that issue as well?

PM Lee: No, I do not think Singapore is ready. There is a trend in the developed countries. In America they have gay marriage. It is state-by-state. Not all states have agreed. In Europe, some countries have done it. I think the British have done it, the French were doing it, but there was big considerable resistance. The Russians are quite conservative. But even in America, there is a very strong pushback from conservative groups against the idea. So, in Singapore there is a range of views. There are gay groups in Singapore, there are gay people in Singapore and they have a place to stay here and we let them live their own lives. And we do not harass them or discriminate against them. But neither I think if you ask most Singaporeans, do we want the LGBT ( Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) community to set the tone for Singapore society. The society is basically a conservative one. It is changing but it is changing gradually and there are different views, including views especially from the religious groups who push back. And it is completely understandable. So, individually we have views on gays, on how it happens and how they should fit in. But the government view is that where we are I think it is not a bad place to be. There is space for the gay community but they should not push the agenda too hard because if they push the agenda too hard, there will be a very strong pushback. And this is not an issue where there is a possibility that the two sides can discuss and eventually come to a consensus. Now, these are very entrenched views and the more you discuss the angrier people get. Yes. Kompas?

Yophiandi Kurniawan: As I know that Singapore has rejected Timor-Leste in joining ASEAN. I want to know why?

PM Lee: No, no. We have not rejected Timor-Leste. I think you misunderstand. ASEAN has set up a working group of the ASEAN Coordinating Council to study this question of Timor-Leste joining ASEAN because there are big implications for ASEAN. There are big implications for Timor-Leste. And before we make or take a view or make a decision, I think we need to know what all these implications are. And so the working group has been studying this. In fact they are looking at three aspects of this, one is the economic side, one is the political security side, one is the social-cultural side. And what are the implications, how ready is Timor-Leste? How will it affect ASEAN cooperation and integration and how can we get Timor-Leste ready, more ready to participate in ASEAN activities. So, the group has been meeting and I think we are hosting, Singapore is hosting the next meeting which is going to be this month in Singapore. And we look forward to the report from the group. But ASEAN, there is always a trade-off between how quickly you expand and how deeply you make your cooperation. The wider you go, the more difficult it is to reach consensus and to work out programmes which benefit everybody and which can go in-depth and make a real difference. The European Union has this trade-off. I mean they are now 28 and it is a very complicated process and ASEAN is now ten. And it has taken us sometime to become ten and even with ten, there is a question of how do the original six countries match with the Indochinese countries new members, the development gap and so on. So, to have a new member is not a trivial issue. We have to spend some time and understand the issues carefully and decide. But as far as helping East Timor to get ready, Timor-Leste to get ready, I think ASEAN is doing quite a lot. They are participating in some of the group, ASEAN activities in order to understand them and to develop their capabilities and ASEAN is helping them to develop their capabilities in a wide range of areas.

Boworn Tosrigaew: Corruption is root cause of civil problem in every country, including my country, Thailand. Singapore has a great reputation for lowest level of corruption. How can you achieve this? What is the key to stem, eradicate corruption?

PM Lee: Well, I cannot speak for other countries but in our experience we have gone for zero tolerance approach. Right from the beginning and right from the top to the bottom. And I think that is the only way you can tackle the problem because if we decide a little bit is okay, too much is no good, it is very difficult to work. And it has to start form the top down because if the boss is corrupt then he must have secretaries, he must have officers, they must know and they must conclude that if the boss can do this and we can also do this. And then they will help themselves and so the whole system will become impossible. Or it becomes accepted as part of the system. And so we started off right at the beginning with an attitude that we completely do not accept corruption at all. From 1959 when the PAP first became the government of Singapore, we were very strict and we have shown that we are prepared to act against whoever is found to be engaged in corrupt behaviour. It could be a policeman, it could be an immigration officer, it could be a civil servant, it could be a minister. If you have transgressed and it is proven, then you have to pay the price and the penalties are severe and we have done that. People have seen that we have done that. So, they take it seriously. We have an anti-corruption agency. We call it CPIB. Everybody knows the initials, Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau. It comes directly under my office and reports directly to me. And if the CPIB invites you to drink coffee , well, you are quite worried. I think that's a good state of affairs.

Kamolwat Praprutitum: This one on doing how you maintain your party's popularity base because your party, the PAP, has been in power since independence. Is there anything that your father has taught you in the way, with regards to how to …?

PM Lee: Well, I think there is no secret to this but you must have policies which are in the interest of the people and you must also show to the people that you actually care for them and you working for them. And you have to work with them at the ground as well as at the policy level. So, if you look at our Members of Parliament, they are there 3,4 times a week, every weekend, many nights, late, working on projects, meeting residents who have problems organising activities or participating activities which bring people together so that you are with them and they know you and therefore you are able to hold the ground. It does not mean that we win everybody. In the last election we had 60 per cent of the votes. So, it is a clear majority but it is not 100 per cent. But I think that is so in any society. It is not possible however hard you work to…

Kamolwat Praprutitum: So what went wrong then..?

PM Lee: I am not sure whether I would out it as what went wrong. I would say 60 per cent is a good result. If you look at the developed countries, in Britain, they have just had an election, 60 per cent voted and about one-third voted for the Tories. So that means 20 per cent of the population have chosen this present government of the United Kingdom. And if you go to America it is also about 60 per cent voting and about 50 per cent will win you the presidential elections. Sometimes 50 per cent plus one vote. Sometimes even less than 50 per cent. So that is the way democracy works. I mean there are different views within the society. We try our best to bring together people so that we have a broad consensus of support for the government. You may not like everything which the government does. But on balance, you are prepared to say this government is not bad. We vote for it.

Kamolwat Praprutitum: Right. And anything you are taking out of your father’s book? Any leaf that you are taking out of this book?

PM Lee: Well, I think if all the years he was in government he never stopped making the effort to make Singapore better. And you have to be able to do that. I remember going to one country once and this was about 25 years after the government had taken power. It is a Latin American country and every time their people briefed us before the revolution it was like this, after the revolution it is like this. But the revolution is 25 years ago. What happens since the revolution? Not so many things have happened since the revolution. But that was the milestone and after that, well they just carry on and no not so much progress. And I think we have tried very hard not to be that bad and we have to keep on moving forward. There are also stresses and strains moving forward. It is not so easy to keep on making progress because people have to change. But if you do not make progress, I think we would be finished.

Antonio Velaquez: Sounds familiar. May I ask another question? I was reading, I think a recent speech that you made about Smart Nation, Singapore and how you should integrate technology and improving the way things are done in Singapore. But with the ASEAN integration coming up and your concept of a smart nation for Singapore, do you think that it should be done or replicated as well for other ASEAN countries?

PM Lee: I think many ASEAN countries will have projects. Cities certainly will have projects and if you look around the world, we’re not the only city which is trying to become smart. What exactly people mean when they say smart, that varies. Some people think that means putting TV cameras all around, so you know what’s happening. Some people think that means you have a control centre, so you can respond to emergencies and disasters. Some people think you can have a call in, one telephone line, anything to do with a place, you call this centre and we will look after the back end and get it done. There are different ideas what it means and I think different cities in ASEAN will want to do that. Countries which have more advanced infrastructure will want to go beyond their cities and link up even to the rural areas and we will be happy to work with them and to link up with them.

In Singapore we say smart nation because in Singapore we are not just a city. It's a country government so not just municipal things can be made smart but even the government functions like healthcare, your health data, records can be shared amongst different hospitals. We can do tele-medicine. If you are at home, you need a physiotherapist, you just go onto skype and skype will look at you and see whether you are doing the right exercise or not and you can monitor your blood pressure, your cholesterol and so on at home and it can be uploaded and your doctor can look at it and have a tele consult with you and many other things which the government can do online. These are things which we can do as a country which is a city and we hope it gives us a little bit of advantage. But I’m sure the other cities will be doing their own ideas. They will look at us and we will look at them too.

Antonio Velaquez: Hopefully, we can adopt some of the things that Singapore has already put in place?

PM Lee: I think we will be looking at one another. Many cities will be doing this. Even now between people who are working overseas and their families back home, it's very common for them to be skyping, private messaging on Facebook, constantly interaction. They don’t have to go to a telephone booth and book a long distance phone call, pay money. It is all free.

Antonio Velaquez: The reason why I was so interested about your speech about smart nation, recently our tax collection agency, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, had obliged taxpayers to go online to file their tax returns but then most people found out the website for that agency was not even compatible with modern day browsers.

PM Lee: We've had some of these problems but I think in Singapore, a very big proportion of our people file their taxes online like 70, 80 per cent and quite a number of people don't have to do anything but the data is entered for them and their taxes are calculated for them.

Aina Nassruddin: New Straits Times, speaking on the same topic of taxes, Malaysia has recently just implemented the goods and services tax and we found that the people have been anxious and sceptical about the tax. To ease the process, we've been told that Singapore is one of the success stories of GST implementation. My question is how has Singapore benefitted from GST since its implementation and was the initial reaction from the people positive or negative?

PM Lee: I think it's a very important tax for us. Our GST is 7 per cent and I can't remember how much we raised in revenue now but I think it raises about 3 per cent in GDP, maybe 2.5 per cent in GDP of revenue. It's a very significant revenue source. We took a long time to do this. We started talking about it in 1985-86. In fact I was on a committee which recommended a goods and services tax. At that time, we didn't have one, zero, and we were not short of money yet, but we thought it would be wise to put this in because in the long term, we would need the money. We studied it, we looked at other countries' experiences. In the end, we did not start to move until 1992. It was about six, seven years before we published a paper, 1993 we published a White Paper on doing it, how to do it, how to take care of the impact on low income Singaporeans particularly because they had never been paying tax before and now they would be paying the GST, so what can we do to buffer this and phase it in over time? We had a White Paper in 1993. We implemented the tax in 1994 and it was quite smooth, firstly because the tax was quite low, it was only 3 per cent. Secondly we reduced other taxes to offset the new tax. We brought income tax down, we brought corporate income tax down. Thirdly, we gave households a lot of direct benefits to help them to tide over, in fact, more than tide over the new tax they would have to pay. So depending on whether you are a poor household or not so poor household, you'd get a certain amount of offset, dollars for your utility bills and some of it actually direct vouchers in cash. Actually, we could say when we introduced a new tax for the first few years, nobody is worse off. Nobody likes a new tax but this one we are able to do, revenue neutral and everybody is not worse off. I think that was a very important message, we took our time to explain it and then over the years gradually, we raised the tax from 3 per cent to 5, from 5 to 7 and each time we made sure we took care of the impact on the lower income.Now we have a system, we have a GST voucher scheme which is institutionalized and every year automatically, if you are a middle low income household, you get a voucher from the government which is some cash, some money into your CPF and some offset in your utility bills. And it makes sure that you are not adversely affected and you are taken care of, If you are an old person, you get somewhat more than if you are a young person. We took a long time to come here, even then, nobody likes a tax and I understand that but we do need it and today it is raising good revenue for us.

Aina Nassruddin: The six to seven years that you took to start, was the idea discussed only at government level or the people were already told about it then?

PM Lee: The first report was published in 1986 and we talked about it but you know people will not actually pay attention until you are doing something. Then after that, it subsided and then we published a white paper in 1993 and I think at that time everybody took notice because a white paper means it's serious, something is going to happen and then we had quite intensive publicity over the next one year before it was implemented in 1994. I would say we took a different approach from many countries and in particular different from Malaysia because many countries make a goods and services tax and they have a lot of zero ratings and exemptions. Food is exempted, clothing is exempted, sanitary things may or may not be exempted and you have a long list of items and then you have to discuss carefully what is in, what is out and how much and so on. We decided to take a different approach. We decided we cover everything, no exemption but we will give you an offset. I give you some money so it's more than enough for what you have to pay for milk powder, food, books, clothes, the whole lot. I think administratively that's easier, even politically it's neater but you have to be able to go and explain and it’s not so easy to explain because people take the voucher. They say thank you, then when they spend the money, they are not so happy because the voucher is once a year, they money is every day. You can do the sums for them but psychologically the impact is still something which we have to spend some time to explain. But I see you have just introduced a tax and your Finance Minister is spending a lot of time focused on that.

Aina Nassruddin: It's been two months.

PM Lee: Two months already, still early. We started in 1994, so this is 21 years now.

Aye Aye Win: I have a follow-up question regarding the migrant problem. As you know there have been this issue of irregular migration in the Andaman Sea and the Malacca Strait with about 4,000 boat people stranded and landed in Indonesia and Malaysia. Foreign media reported ASEAN being unable to really find a solution, demonstrates how toothless ASEAN is, would you like to comment on that?

PM Lee: There are many problems in the world. ASEAN cannot solve all of them. Even serious problems we can work together, we can influence one another, we can encourage other countries but ASEAN is not one country and it's not possible for ASEAN to say you do that and you put a stop to this. I think the Rohingyas, Myanmar doesn't use this word but the Rohingyas are a complex problem. They are in Myanmar there are also some population in the Bangladesh side. I think the living conditions for the people must be pretty severe, otherwise, they would not be going to sea and putting themselves in such danger of life and limb with their children and women folk and at the mercy of the traffickers. But these are problems which the countries have to resolve. We can encourage, we can discuss but the countries have to tackle these problems and minimise or at least mitigate the hardships and work together so that people do not feel impelled to put to sea and so that others are not exploiting them in order to make money and have an organised racket. I think there is some organised racket. I was reading in today’s newspaper that the Malaysian Special Branch had been saying there's some problem at the border and the Thais have also been looking for a Thai general who has surrendered himself. I presume if a general is involved, there must be other people involved too. Countries have to tackle these problems themselves. Yes, Kompas?

Yophiandi Kurniawan: We know that there are some critics in Indonesia, it is about the extradition treaty that's been pending for a long time. Do you think it will move forward after you discussed with Mr Joko Widodo?

PM Lee: I have not discussed with President Jokowi. It’s up to the Indonesian side. We had an agreement we had signed it. We are waiting to ratify it, on the Indonesian side, it has to be ratified by the DPR (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat: People's Representative Council) which at that time raised some issues who had not done so. Now you have a new President and a new DPR. I'm not sure what their thoughts are on this matter. It's not just the extradition treaty but we actually signed two agreements together and they were linked together, the extradition treaty as well as a defence cooperation agreement. It was a package, we had negotiated the package as one and we were prepared to implement it but Indonesia, I think there were second thoughts somewhere in the political system, so it's been held up. 2007 till now, it's been eight years.

Nguyen Quang Thong: Dear Mr Prime Minister, about the matter of youth. As we know, the youth play a role as the foundation of national development. For Singapore's 50th anniversary celebrations, do you have any valuable advice to the youth?

PM Lee: They're living in a very exciting age. They have enormous opportunities which the previous generation did not have. They may be anxious about competition, anxious about change, anxious that the future is not certain but in fact we have given them and they are well-prepared and probably better prepared than youth in many other countries to deal with the challenges ahead. Education, they have got resources, we an economy which is competitive, which creates jobs for them, a society which values ability, which values contributions and which encourages people to do their best. The next 50 years is actually for the young people to write and we’ve written our chapter. We hope your next chapter will be even more exciting and brilliant. Thank you.

Participants of the 7th Journalists Visit Programme (L-R):

Mr Boutsadakham Litdavong (News Senior Journalist (Foreign News Service), KPL News)
Mr Nguyen Quang Thong (Editor-in-Chief, Thanh Nien Newspaper)
Mr Boworn Tosrigaew (Thai Rath Daily, Foreign News Chief)
Ms Yin Yin Tint, (Senior Editor, SKYNET)
Ms Nur Aina Farhani Bt Mohamad Nassruddin, (Journalist, The New Straits Times)
Mr Kamolwat Praprutitum (Assistant News Editor (Politics), Bangkok Post)
Ms Siamphone Simahano (Deputy Director, News and Current Affairs Section & ASEAN News Desk, Lao National Radio)
Mr Yeoh Eng Nean (Senior Reporter, Sin Chew Daily)
Ms Aye Aye Win (Foreign Correspondent, Associated Press)
Mr Antonio Victor Torrente Velasquez (Broadcast Journalist, ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC))
Ms Hermien Kleden (Chief Editor for Tempo English Weekly Magazine, Tempo Magazine)
Ms Nguyen Hai Van (Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Vietnam News)
Mr Waqiuddin Abdul Haq, (Journalist, Brunei Times)
Mr Azaraimy Hj Hasib, (Chief Reporter, Borneo Bulletin)
Mr Khan Sophirom (Journalist, Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP))
Mr Yophiandi Kurniawan (News Editor, Kompas TV)
Mr Sroy Nika (Journalist, Rasmei Kampuchea Daily (RK))

Explore related topics

• Foreign affairs