ONE of the country's sacred cows could be slaughtered during the Budget this Thursday, as the Government mulls over a move to dip into Singapore's rainy-day savings: the national reserves.
The leaders are now considering the unprecedented step of drawing from the reserves to fund the aggressive pain-relief measures needed in this downturn, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong disclosed on Sunday.

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Govt may tap reserves .. my comments is people are watching... whether will this kind of option becomes a habit.. people are watching... the impact have not even blown up yet... in 1985 crisis when the impact far worst then current condition.. did the govt at those times.. request for such an option..? jus a fair comment..

If we can afford to use our reserves to rescue foreign banks which continue to report billion dollar losses, than Singapore government should not hestitate to dip into our reserves to save Singaporeans/Singapore.

Every billion lost results in Singapore being poorer by US$300 per Singapore citizen.

SM Goh, who is more important. Singaporeans or foreign banks.

hubhubhub,

As billions of dollars had already been pumped into rescuing foreign banks (very quick) whereas none for Singaporeans so far (still under consideration), the answer is pretty obvious who is more important or have top priority.

"MAY" dip in reserves?

I think "MUST" is the appropriate word.

International economic "FUNDAMENTALS" have shifted.

Economic recovery is "NOT" equal to going back to business as "USUAL".

Business "STRATEGY" has to "CHANGE"; and it will take "TIME" to make changes.

Just like a mahjong session completed, "WASH" and "REARRANGE" all the titles; nobody know what kind of titles he will be getting.

"MNC" need to "REPOSITION" themselves; "LOCAL" companies also need to do so. "SINGAPORE" must do so too.

Paradigm has to be "SHIFTED"; many countries will want to make this "SHIFT".

Singapore has no "CHOICE", the government need to "SAY" more.

It is a "MUST".

Rather than having more of our wealth lost through unwise investment, e.g. those equity investments into the collapsing US financials, I would rather we spend our reserves to help Singaporeans pull through this economic crisis.

China, Korea and Japan had already started pump-priming their own economies rather than dropping their hard-earned reserves into those Western sinkholes. Whereas our Singapore government is still contemplating investing more. Wonder why?

'how lian' (show off) more important!!!

'The weather is so bad, and we've always said the reserves are for a rainy day. If this is not a rainy day, I don't know what is a rainy day,' he said. Sound like ng gum kuang.....

Look like he has been kpkb and some father and son team did not agree with his view.....until he managed to garner enough support from the 'inner circle' group to override the objection of the father&son team who have always insisted that the reserve cannot be touched - ONLY CAN BE USED IN TIME OF CRISIS. NOT THE PRESIDENT BUT ONLY THE FATHER & SON TEAM CAN DECIDE WHAT IS A 'REAL' CRISIS.

In 1959.. singapore GDP was only US$400 per mth...

In 1965, we were out on our own as an independent nation... we face the follow crisis as below...

1. No good public housing system..

2. No good transport system..

3. No clean water for everyone ..

4. Heavy Unemployment Rate (awaits British to withdraw their forces in 1971 and risk of economy collapse)

5. Threats From communists and social disorder

Did the leadership in 1965 resort to national reserves those day? Do they have such option?

Does the leadership in 2008 require national reserves to be dip.. when problem and crisis is not yet measured..and resulted yet... it seems like it's going to be a bad rainy day..

but how about 9th august 1965? did they hav such option? national reserve? no...