today • Thursday 6 April 2017
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TODAY, THURSDAY, 6 APRIL 2017, PAGE 2
young Singaporeans to be highly
adaptive and have a healthy appetite
for risk-taking. He posed several questions to the audience, whose responses
were compiled into word clouds. The
discussion was anchored on the most
prevalent words or phrases that came
up for each question.
Mr Chan noted that fluctuations
in the economy can present “tremendous opportunities” for those who
wield them to their advantage. “But if
you are on the wrong side of the value
chain, you might end up in the minus
2 (per cent), and that is scary,” he said.
Even technology is but a neutral
tool that users must learn to master.
“Whoever can use technology to
complement them better and evolve
their business model wins. The same
technology, if not well applied, will
cause us to be fearful of our jobs, because indeed, someone might steal our
lunch over the Internet,” Mr Chan said.
“Adaptability” was the response
that stood out to his question on the
“most important skill set for tomorrow” that students hope to graduate
with. Agreeing, Mr Chan pointed out
that while it takes an average of two
years for new skills to be identified and
passed on to the students, new technologies and product cycles today can
be turned around overnight.
“Many of the things that we learn
may belong to the history books quite
soon if we are not careful,” he said.
Citing the Israeli Defence Forces’
approach of training versatile combat
soldiers to deal with a wide variety of
scenarios — with different missions,
various enemies, across varied terrains — Mr Chan stressed the importance of continually evolving and not
being stuck in tried-and-tested methods of approaching problems.
He then posed a question to the university’s faculty, which sparked laughter from the audience: “Would you
dare to set an exam where you don’t
have the answer? You should be, because if you only dare to set an exam
with a known answer, then that must
be a history test. But in the world today, there are many situations where
we do not necessarily know the answer, and we have to evolve those answers along the way.”
Mr Chan added: “If we get the
questions right, we will find the answers. If we only get the answers right
but the question is wrong ... We are
completely irrelevant.”
While students here start from a
“much higher education base” than
others in the region, Mr Chan cautioned that they must not rest on their
laurels. “Because someone who is hungrier, someone who can adapt faster,
will overtake us,” he said.
Singaporeans must guard against
complacency, which poses the greatest threat to competitiveness in the
new economy, he said. Urging the
students to uphold a “sense of ownership”, Mr Chan said: “So long as we
stay hungry, not complacent, always
watching out for the next competitor
who might take our lunch away ... I
have no fear for your generation.”
S$1.7m in Medisave grants paid mistakenly for babies to be recovered
Mr Amolat Singh from Amolat &
Partners added: “Money mistakenly
paid is always recoverable in law as
that is unjust enrichment of the recipient. It is recoverable as a debt and
some sort of an instalment plan can
be worked out perhaps.”
Tampines GRC Member of Parliament Desmond Choo said while the
money has to be recovered eventually,
he hoped the CPF Board can be “sensitive to the financial needs of families
who might have used the funds”.
“This did not begin as a fault of
the parents. A case-by-case approach
should be taken so as not to impose undue financial distress,” he said.
Adding that “everyone makes mistakes”, Nee Soon GRC MP Louis Ng
said “what is crucial is that we admit
our mistakes, be transparent about it
and put our efforts into rectifying the
mistake ... finding out and addressing
the root cause of it”.
“The CPF Board has done exactly
this. Moving forward, I do hope that
they will also share with the public the
results of the ‘thorough review’ they
are conducting,” he added.
They must ‘stay hungry and not be complacent’
Adaptability key for young
S’poreans: Chan Chun Sing
KELLY NG
[email protected]
When asked by labour
chief Chan Chun Sing how they would
pitch the Republic to potential investors, a vast majority of students at the
Nanyang Technological University
(NTU) students’ union ministerial forum yesterday cited “safety” and “security” as the country’s selling points.
The response, however, revealed a
mindset that was “way too conservative”, he told the undergraduates.
“If you are trying to convince people to come because of stability ...
(Singapore has) essentially become
a bond market,” said Mr Chan, who
is also a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, at the dialogue with 400 undergraduates.
Citing the “winning combination”
of an innovative business model, adept
use of technology, and skilled talent,
he challenged the students: “Isn’t it
true ... that if you want to sell an idea to
somebody to attract investments here,
you have to convince me that you have
SINGAPORE —
Continued from page 1
child’s Medisave grant for newborns,
a CPF Board spokesperson told
TODAY. “Upon investigating, we discovered that the child had been given
a higher (grant) amount than he was
eligible for,” the spokesperson said
Stressing that the processing error — which occurred between March
last year and January — was confined
to the specific scheme, the spokesperson added: “Some records of children
who were not Singapore Citizens at
birth were wrongly processed as citizens at birth. This resulted in the
overpayment.”
The sum will be recovered from
the Medisave accounts of the affected children by April 12, and notification letters were sent to their parents
on Tuesday.
For those who have already spent
part of the money and have insufficient funds in their Medisave ac-
one or more of (these factors), over and
above stability and security?”
The ability to anticipate and adapt
to changes around the world is key for
the next generation, said Mr Chan.
At the annual forum, which had the
theme of Advancing Our Competitiveness in the New Economy, Mr Chan
painted the picture of a fast-changing
future economy which will require
counts for recovery, they will be asked
to pay the shortfall in cash. The CPF
Board will work with them on alternative arrangements if they have any
difficulties, the spokesperson said.
Fewer than 100 children do not have
sufficient funds in their Medisave Accounts for full recovery. Of these, the
maximum shortfall is S$159 per child.
Apologising to affected parents
for what is understood to be an unprecedented slip-up of this nature, the
spokesperson said the CPF Board has
“conducted a thorough review and enhanced the work processes involved”,
by having additional payment verification checks on all newborns who are
eligible for the grants.
As part of the Marriage and Parenthood Package, all newborn citizens are
credited with a S$4,000 grant in their
CPF Medisave account, which helps
parents defray their child’s healthcare
expenses, such as MediShield Life
Mr Chan Chun
Sing speaking with
NTU students
yesterday after the
Ministerial Forum,
which was attended
by about 400
undergraduates.
Photo: Jason Quah
Since 2012, about
150,000 children
have received the
Medisave grants
for newborns. The
number of children
affected by the
processing error
makes up less than
1 per cent of the
total cohort.
premiums, recommended childhood
vaccinations, hospitalisation, and approved outpatient treatments. Since
they were not citizens at birth, these
885 children were either not eligible
for the grant or should have received
a pro-rated amount.
The grant, introduced on Aug 26,
2012, was enhanced from S$3,000 to
S$4,000 for citizens born from Jan
1, 2015. Children who are not born
Singaporeans but obtain citizenship
before they turn two years old are given pro-rated amounts, depending on
when they become a citizen.
Lawyers noted that those who received the grants erroneously were legally obliged to return them, “unless
they are able to show that their position has so adversely changed that it
would be inequitable for the families to
pay back the sums to the CPF Board”,
said I.R.B Law managing partner Mohamed Baiross.