SINGAPORE, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Singapore will continue to back up for the better and quicker economic transfer of its enterprises, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said here Saturday evening ahead of the formation of this year's financial budget.
Singapore hosts some 180,000 small and medium-sized enterprises, and pushing those enterprises in its economic transfer is a very arduous task, the finance minister said.
The minister said he was currently consulting with different trade associations and chambers to ask for their suggestions for the smooth transfer of the entire industries, either in employees' training or in the technology usages.
He also made clear that lion's share of the country's revenue comes from the investment returns of the national reserves. Living in a country with no natural resources, the country's pioneer generation had dealt with the national reserves very cautiously, thus benefiting the latter generations, Heng said.
The minister made the remarks in answering questions raised at the launching ceremony of the English and E-book editions of The Story of Singapore Teochews at the Chui Huay Lim Club. This is the book presented by the Teochew Poit Ip Huay Kuan, which is a 90-year-old society set up by the immigrants from China's southern Chaozhou, which is also known as Teochew. The Chinese edition of the book met its readers last year. It tells the stories of the eminent Singaporeans with Chaozhou origin.
