Singapore (CU)_ As part of the country’s annual budget, Singapore has allocated a huge multi-billion-dollar package to support the businesses and firms affected by pandemic and to finance vaccination campaigns. The financial hub of Asia has been greatly affected by the pandemic which has resulted in worst-ever recession, hitting hard the vital sectors of aviation and tourism. The new package worth of Sg$11 billion (US$8.3 billion) was revealed by the Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat while he released the annual budget in the parliament.
The Finance Minister stated that a significant portion of the fund will be assigned to support the workers and businesses impacted by the pandemic, especially the travel and aviation industries, and over 40 percent of the funds will be allocated to public health and initiatives to revitalize the economy safely. The public health initiatives entail inoculation drives where vaccines are provided free of cost to all people, and the surveillance of individuals who may be exposed to a coronavirus carrier. Heng said nearly 250,000 people got their first injection, and 55,000 had their second dose.
The new financial aid package is an added fund allocated by the government in addition to the Sg$100 billion that was rolled out last year. In recent months, Singapore’s economy, which contracted a record 5.4 percent last year, has begun to recover. However, Heng cautioned that the revival was unbalanced. The global war against the pandemic is still not over. Most of the areas still face high rate of infection and increase in number of positive cases. With almost 60,000 cases and 29 deaths, Singapore encountered a relatively mild epidemic and has recently reported very few local transmissions.
