Malaysia Can Learn From S'pore's Revamp Of Food Services Sector

By Massita Ahmad SINGAPORE, Sept 30 (Bernama) -- As the tabling of 2017 Budget approaches, it will be good for Malaysia, which faces a dilemma on how to tackle manpower shortage in one of its most important industries, food services, to observe Singapore's major makeover of the sector now. The makeover is imminent as Singapore is running out of manpower in the industry and it has strategised for the future to address it squarely. The industry is important to Singapore as its "diversity and quality" brings a distinctive flavour to Singapore's appeal as a tourist destination. The industry is a significant employer -- 160,000 workers, or about 4.5 per cent of Singapore's total workforce. If it includes the hawker centres, the industry employs over 205,000 workers, or over five per cent of total employment in Singapore. Singapore hopes to develop a highly efficent food services industry with no loss in quality of food offerings and with high quality jobs. To achieve this makeover, Singapore recently launched the Food Services Industry Transformation Map (ITM). By making over the industry, Singapore in fact is transforming its whole economy. The Food Services ITM is one of 23 ITMs being developed under the S$4.5 billion (S$1 = US$0.73) Industry Transformation Programme announced in this year's Budget. The ITMs lay out the growth and transformation strategies for the 23 key industries over the next five years. Singapore has done well so far in the externally-oriented sector of the economy –- it has seen high productivity growth in the last five years. But progress has been slow in the domestic market-oriented sector, which includes food services. "In our own case, we have also been sensitive to the fact that a significant part of the workforce in domestic services like food & beverages comprises older, lower-skilled workers. "Most did not have the benefit of much education, but they are hardworking citizens, from the generation that grew up in the fifties and sixties. "Many of our older workers will retire in the next five to 10 years," said Deputy Prime Minister & Coordinating Minister for Economic and Social Policies, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, when he launched the Food Services ITM recently. There are four main thrusts of the Food Services ITM and one of them is promoting mass adoption of technologies even within established business formats. The manpower growth Singapore saw in food services in recent years –- which was much faster than for the economy as a whole -– "is a thing of the past." From 2010 to 2014, the food services workforce grew by six per cent annually on average. "Older Singaporean workers are retiring. Younger Singaporeans' aspirations are changing, and you can't find many young people who will do low-skill jobs and stay with the firm for long. "Neither can we continue to grow foreign manpower," said Shanmugaratnam. Singapore believed that the industry has to work on the basis that there will be no further manpower growth in the industry. Singapore felt the heavy reliance on low-skilled workers also will not continue. New entrepreneurs have to come into the business knowing how tough it is to find workers though the industry sees a high churn of enterprises with an average, 28 per cent of food establishments are replaced yearly. Thus, innovation has to be the name of the game, from the time a business is created. That is the reality of the tight labour market, with no manpower growth overall in the industry in the coming years in the republic. One of the ways forward is to embrace digital service, including electronic payments where Singapore will be promoting it actively. It aims for at least 50 per cent of the industry having adopting technology-enabled operations by 2020. It is estimated that it will make possible productivity growth in food services of two per cent per year on average from now till 2020. To help achieve this, Singapore will offer time-limited grant support for the accelerated adoption of various productivity initiatives. -- BERNAMA