GE2025: DPM Heng asks voters to give PM Wong strong mandate as S’pore navigates ‘big storms’ | Singapore Breaking News & Latest Updates

GE2025: DPM Heng asks voters to give PM Wong strong mandate as S’pore navigates ‘big storms’ — Follow our live coverage here. SINGAPORE –Outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat on May 1 made a pitch to East Coast residents and Singaporeans...

Follow our live coverage here.

SINGAPORE –Outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat on May 1 made a pitch to East Coast residents and Singaporeans to give Prime Minister Lawrence Wong a strong mandate, so that the country can ride out ongoing storms and emerge from them stronger.

Speaking to reporters after a walkabout in Bedok with the PAP’s slate for East Coast GRC, DPM Heng said the world is going through big storms and urged voters to strongly support the Government, as well as the party’s East Coast team, which he is leaving.

“The tariff war, the trade war, the tech war, the strategic competition between the US and China will have very significant effects on all of us,” he said.

“The tariff on our Asean neighbours is going to affect the entire supply chain, and (for) Singapore, even though the tariff on us is only 10 per cent, the knock-on effect is huge,” DPM Heng added, referring to the Trump administration’s tariff on imports from Singapore.

DPM Heng’s comments echo recent appeals to voters by senior PAP leaders, who have said the ruling party is best-placed to take Singapore through the economic uncertainties.

“I hope that Singapore stays as the oasis of stability, that we are trusted by countries all over the world, and that we can continue to develop the economy to create jobs for our people,” he said.

He added that in the age of artificial intelligence (AI), there will be new competition, and the Government will have to invest in AI and robotics to create better jobs for Singaporeans.

“We have a plan, and I hope that Singaporeans give us stronger support, so that we can not only ride through this huge turbulence that is coming, but we come out of it a lot stronger, a lot fitter, and that Singaporeans will continue to enjoy a very high standard of living,” he said.

The needs of a growing number of seniors, he added, will also have to be cared for.

On the PAP’s East Coast GRC slate, DPM Heng said it isan “excellent” team, with a mix of new and old.

He described Culture, Community and Youth Minister Edwin Tong, 55, who succeeds him as leader of the team, as a very good minister.

Senior Minister of State Tan Kiat How, 47 – whom DPM Heng brought into politics – has “done a very good job” in his first parliamentary term, said the Deputy Prime Minister, who is retiring from politics after 14 years.

DPM Heng added that four-term MP Jessica Tan, 58, has been a core member of the East Coast team, and that the new members, Mr Dinesh Vasu Dash, 50, and Madam Hazlina Abdul Halim, 40, will be able to draw on their professional experience to represent Singaporeans.

Mr Dinesh was chief executive of the Agency for Integrated Care, while Madam Hazlina is a senior vice-president at advisory firm Teneo.

DPM Heng said building Singapore is the work of every Singaporean.

“We make the right choices on who we elect as our leaders and who we elect to form the government,” he said.

He also said many residents have thanked him for the work that he has done.

“I said, ‘Well, the best present you can give me is to vote (for) my team here’,” he said.

Mr Dinesh, who is taking over DPM Heng’s Bedok division for the PAP, said residents have been appreciative of his predecessor’s work.

“I find that the East Coast residents are very well-informed,” he said. “It is a very well-informed electorate that is not going by rhetoric, but going by what real work that is being done.”

The PAP’s East Coast GRC candidates – along with DPM Heng and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Maliki Osman, who isalsoretiring from politics– began their walkabout at Block 216 Bedok Food Centre and Market atabout12.15pm on May 1.

During the 1½-hour walkabout, many patrons of the hawker centre lined up to take photos with the team.

Some who said they were residentsinthe constituency approached the candidates and were heard raising municipal issues with them.

Mr Tong and Madam Hazlina alsoput on an impromptu performance with buskers.

A couple, whom DPM Heng met at the hawker centre, returned about10 minutes later with a bouquet of flowers, which they presented to him.

DPM Heng said the couple had gone to the wet market to buy the bouquet,to thank the PAP team for its workin the constituency.

“It’s so heartwarming. I’m going to bring the bouquet back to my wife to thank her,” he added.

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