The Singapore Experience Creating our playing field for co-operatives Chan Tee Seng Chairman Singapore National Co-operative Federation 6 th Asia Pacific Co-op Forum 4 th September 2010 Beijing, China

Population: 5m Size: 700 km 2 Economy: Export Driven service economy About Singapore

Co-operatives in Singapore NTUC Co-opsNon-NTUC Co-ops Supermarket Insurance Child care Health care Elder care Food Housing Thrift & loan Media Thrift and loan Campus / School Services Security Food Bereavement Travel Number of Affiliates: 72 Membership : 1.7 million Revenue : USD 3.5 billion

Stretching the dollar Modernisation seminar of the trade union movement (1969) Formation of co-operatives to stretch the dollar of the worker

Guiding Principles Fully Competitive Areas with natural built-in advantage Professional Management Strong Governance The late Dr Goh Keng Swee, former Deputy Prime Minister, Singapore

Success of Singapore co-operatives Earned the trust of the people Business and operational excellence Enabling policy framework

Co-operatives: Doing Good

Our co-operatives are market leaders Co-operatives Competitors 55% 20% – 40% 12%

Co-ops: creating our playing field Private enterprise Govt. VWOs Co-ops

Example: supermarket services Basket of 400 essential items Ensure availability of essential items in times of crisis (e.g. rice) Competes on an equal footing with global competitors

Example: insurance services First co-operative started by the trade unions Market leader in Life, Health, and Motor Insurance Competes on equal footing with top international players Increased market share during global financial crisis

Example: child care services Took over 10 crèches from the Government in 1977 Accessibility, Affordability, Quality One of two “anchor operators” in Singapore to help ambitious plans to increase child care services

Example: manpower services Founded by the Singapore Police Credit Co-op and Singapore Government Staff Credit Co-op Competes with large players like Cisco, Aetos. More than 500 guards

Conclusions Enabling policy framework – no overt policy discriminations Business and operational excellence – wean off initial Government subsidies. Maintain the trust of people in maintaining better price and quality Co-ops can position themselves as alternative delivery models for public or semi public services. Co-ops can create niches to compete with the private sector to deliver better value

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