There has been quite a bit of discussion on social enterprise hawker centres for quite a while.

But loads of people have weighed in recently.

With fine-tuning being carried out as we speak.

For example, the much talked-about 20 cent tray return fee was recently amended.

Now, Senior Minister of State for the Environment & Water Resources Amy Khor weighed in again on the issue in a Facebook post on Friday, October 19.

Challenges

Khor acknowledged the very strong public reaction regarding the social enterprise hawker centres.

"There has been a lot of discussion on our Social Enterprise Hawker Centres lately. We have 114 hawker centres, of which 7 new centres are run by social enterprises. The passionate views shared by many show the important place our hawker culture has in the hearts of Singaporeans. Such conversations are important, and we welcome the feedback so that we can continue to do better."

Before giving her take on one of the biggest challenges Singapore will inevitably face in the sooner-than-later future.

"One of our concerns with the hawker trade is that the median age of hawkers in our hawker centres is now 60."

These, she writes, pile onto other concerns such as manpower constraints, a problem that also needs to be balanced out with the needs of the consumer as well.

Khor said she believed social enterprise hawker centres could help with these issues:

"Some flexibility is given to these enterprises to try out different ideas and innovative practices, to bring about vibrancy in our hawker centre scene, and benefit both patrons and hawkers."

Social enterprises

That goal has met a few initial roadblocks, though, with many calling out operators for including what they deem to be unfair terms in contracts signed with the hawkers.

Khor addresses that point in her post:

"We hear the concerns raised, especially on the issues of cost and contractual terms used by operators. NEA is working closely with operators and hawkers to address these issues.

I have asked NEA to quickly iron out the problems and to do a stock-take of the Social Enterprise model. NEA will not hesitate to take operators to task if they are found to be errant."

Khor also revealed that NEA is already reviewing some of the contractual agreements:

"NEA is already reviewing the contractual agreements with the view to prescribe some of the terms used by operators in these contracts.

We will continue to fine-tune the management model, to safeguard the interests of Singaporeans — patrons and hawkers — and achieve the objective of ensuring that Singaporeans have access to affordable food and hawkers can make a decent living."

You can view her full post here.

Image from Amy Khor's Facebook and Joshua Lee