Adopting Preschools' Anchor Operator Partnership Model for Other Sectors to Moderate Costs
Ministry of Trade and IndustrySpeakers
Summary
This question concerns Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng’s inquiry on adopting the preschool Anchor Operator model for other sectors to moderate costs and enhance supply chain security. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong explained the model is unsuitable for essential goods because prices are dictated by global market conditions. Instead, the Government prioritizes diversifying import sources and promoting free market competition to provide consumers with competitive choices and prevent market distortions caused by funding support. To mitigate cost of living challenges, the Government has enhanced the Assurance Package with $800 in Community Development Council Vouchers and additional U-Save rebates for eligible households. The Minister also highlighted that social enterprises like FairPrice Group moderate costs through targeted discounts, while the Price Kaki app enables consumers to compare prices and stretch their dollars.
Transcript
66 Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry whether the Anchor Operator partnership model in the preschool sector can be considered for partners in other sectors for the purposes of moderating the cost of living and enhancing supply chain security of food and essential items.
Mr Gan Kim Yong: The Anchor Operator scheme in the preschool sector is designed to enable access to quality and affordable early childhood education by subsidising selected operators. Such a scheme is not appropriate for businesses supplying food and essential items, such as the supermarket sector, as the prices of these items are subject to global market conditions, like supply chain disruptions and cost fluctuations. Providing funding support to these businesses may distort market prices and undermine fair and healthy competition.
As a small and open economy that imports most of our supplies for food and essential items, the Government's priority is to diversify our import sources and promote free market competition, so that businesses will price their goods competitively and provide consumers with more choices.
The Government recognises that households continue to face cost of living challenges. To address this, we have rolled out further enhancements to the Assurance Package as announced at Budget 2025. These include $800 in Community Development Council Vouchers in financial year 2025 for all Singaporean households to defray their daily expenses as well as additional U-Save for eligible HDB households to cope with their utilities expenses.
Social enterprises and industry partners also have a part to play in expanding households' access to value-for-money products and equipping consumers with the tools to make informed choices. For example, the FairPrice Group has introduced various initiatives to help moderate the cost of living for Singaporeans, such as by controlling price increases for selected essential items, offering regular discounts for Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS) card holders and seniors and giving special SG60 discounts for its Own Brands products. Consumers can also use the Price Kaki app developed by the Consumers Association of Singapore to compare prices of hawker food and daily essentials across different stalls and shops and stretch their dollar.