Statement by the Permanent Mission of Singapore during Agenda Item 3 of the 40th Session of the Human Rights Council on 8 March 2019

STATEMENT BY THE PERMANENT MISSION OF SINGAPORE DURING AGENDA ITEM 3 OF THE 40TH SESSION OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL ON 8 MARCH 2019

Mdm Vice-President,

The High Commissioner in her annual report has rightly highlighted “gross inequalities” as one of the fundamental challenges confronting all countries 

This year, Singapore celebrates its bicentennial.

We have made significant progress as a country and a multicultural society.  

We have also managed to achieve good social outcomes, despite generally low tax rates.

But we are very much aware of the many longer-term challenges confronting us, including inequality, ageing, social mobility, economic transformation, climate change and the broader geopolitical uncertainty.

Our broad approach to overcoming these challenges and caring for our people is to keep Singapore safe and secure; continue to transform our economy to provide opportunities for our people to realise their potential; keep our society open, egalitarian and united; build Singapore as a global city; and achieve these goals in a fiscally sustainable way.

In particular, inequality and social mobility are key issues of our time. They have multiple causes and we try to tackle them on multiple fronts practically and not ideologically. We have doubled our social spending from $15 billion in 2009 to $30 billion in 2018 to help combat inequality and to build a more inclusive society. 

Last month, the Government announced a suite of comprehensive measures to uplift Singaporeans to maximise their potential; provide greater assurance for healthcare and foster a community of care, including investing in pre-schools and introducing the Merdeka Generation Package (MGP) that will help relieve the healthcare costs of about 500,000 senior Singaporeans born in 1950s.

Singapore will continue adopting innovative and pragmatic policies to build a fair and inclusive society and we look forward to learning from others. 

We therefore hope the Council can do more to promote the sharing best practices on overcoming inequalities and discuss ways to promote more inclusive societies.  

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