Sound Smarter in Sixty Seconds (SSISS) is Mothership’s daily brief on the important headlines of the day. We will also contribute our views on the issues at hand.

Civil service needs to retain the public's trust

Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who was speaking to 300 officers at the Administrative Service dinner and promotion ceremony, said that if the Civil Service fails "to manage public trust and if we end up with the deep scepticism about government seen in many other countries, it will reduce our space (to) manoeuvre, both in making difficult domestic policy decisions in Singaporeans’ long-term interests and in managing our external relations.”

He also said that there was "considerable scope" for the Civil Service to work with the public to come up with solutions. Head of Civil Service Peter Ong said the Government will work towards giving Administrative Officers at least one posting in operational positions to build closer links with the ground.

The Head of Civil Service wanted the Administrative Officers to be close to the ground. This means that there are currently Administrative Officers who did not have the chance to do so when they implement policies. Here's a thought - how can policy-makers implement the most optimal policies for SMEs if none of them have ever worked with SME owners or have actually run their own business?

One such example comes to mind when the alcohol tax was raised 25%. The Good Beer Company made a compelling argument of how policy-makers can sometimes not understand the ground when they push out a policy.

Singapore looks for open skies agreement with EU

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that Singapore is looking to seal an open skies agreement with the European Union to promote greater connectivity. Singapore will approach EU member countries once the EU Parliament has undergone elections in May. Open skies agreements allow carriers to operate any number of flights between and beyond the signatory states.

This is something that will keep Singapore economically competitive. Allowing the world easier and cheaper access to Singapore translates into more chances for new businesses and investments to come to the island. While it sounds good economically, the Government has to ensure that social problems that will arise from this will be addressed. As it stands, some quarters of Singapore are unhappy with the amount of foreigners here and have pinned the blame of the ailing public transport network on the influx of foreigners.

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