Mr Speaker, Sir, I agree with the sentiments expressed by the Member for Boon Lay on how wage restraint ought to be implemented and carried out over the next couple of years. Wage restraint is, in fact, one of the most important measures in the entire package of measures taken to restore our competitiveness. It is also the most difficult to carry out. It is the most important one because if we do not get it right, then everything else which we have done can be eroded away and undone. We have cut back on CPF contribution on the employer's side; we have cut back corporate taxes; we have reduced costs all round. If we are not careful about wage costs in these couple of years, then wage costs may continue to increase, and very soon we will be back into a position where we are uncompetitive again. And then we will no longer be able to cut our CPF further, and we will no longer be able to bring our corporate tax rates down very much more. Therefore, it is absolutely crucial for us to hold our wage levels at a reasonable standstill in order that all our other measures are not nullified. It is the most difficult measure to implement. As the Member for Boon Lay has pointed out, other measures can be imposed by fiat, at a stroke of the pen. Wage restraint requires cooperation, good sense, understanding, comprehension, all round amongst a large number of workers, a large number of employers, union leaders, political leaders. So it is much harder to develop this consensus, this understanding, and make it work. So far, our progress has been good. We have come quite a long way since the Economic Committee published its report. The Government has accepted the Economic Committee's recommendations, and now the NWC, having debated the issue, has endorsed the recommendations substantially. It has come up with a statement this year explaining in practical, concrete, unambiguous terms, what wage restraint means for different types of companies and for different groups of people. But it is not just the NWC which has been hard at work; so have the unions been, so have the employers been. I have spoken to employer groups organized by SNEF; I have spoken to union groups organized by NTUC - closed-door, frank sessions. They understand the problem, and I think they also support the policies. So we have made substantial progress, but we are not through yet. We are not through yet because wage restraint is not just a one-time action but it is a continuing matter, continuing for the rest of this year and if the recession is not over by next year, which is likely, into next year as well. The Member for Boon Lay very systematically identified 10 Do's and Don'ts for employers. I have not taken them down, but I have taken note of them. And those which make sense, I have conveyed to the employers. Most of them do. Therefore, to balance the picture, I should point out that it is not just employers who have an important role to play but also union leaders, because the union leaders are the grassroots activists, the grassroots opinion formers, whose views, whose persuasive powers, will set the responses of the unionists, of the members, and indeed of the non-unionized workforce in the population. They look to these grassroots leaders for support, for guidance, for an indication of what is good for the population. The leaders have trust. They have established themselves. They have now got to use whatever authority they have to lead their flock in a direction which they know is good for their own people. So union leaders must convince themselves, first, that the policy is a wise one, that it is good for the population and, secondly, that there is no other choice, that this is the way for us to create jobs, to develop opportunities, to bring in new investments, in new growth areas. And then, having convinced themselves, they can bring their ground along with them. I had some visitors recently from Britain, visitors from a country which has spent many years grappling, not very successfully, with precisely the same problem - how to moderate expectations of a population in an economy which is not growing very rapidly, how to persuade people that wages have to be held down because out- put is not going up. And they asked me, "How did you manage it - ask people to accept a standstill in wages and a cut in their savings, instead of improving your competitiveness in other ways by manipulating the value of your currency?" In other words, "Why did you ask for a wage standstill, instead of a currency devaluation?" My answer to them was, "That is not the choice before us." Whatever we do, our standard of living is not going up. In fact, it may even come down. The question is: do we do it in an orderly, well-conceived fashion, by trimming our costs and holding our wages down? Or do we allow it to be imposed upon us by unemployment, leading to balance of payment problems, leading to a devaluation of the Singapore dollar, leading to inflation which will erode the value of workers' take-home pay? If there is no output, then there can be no higher pay. Whether the pay becomes lower because we save less in the CPF, or whether the pay becomes lower because every dollar we have is worth less (and the Singapore dollar has gone into a tailspin), the final result will be the same, namely, we are not as well off. And yet it is not the same, because in the first case we have determined our destiny, and we have got it right. In the second case, it will be done to us, and we will have to suffer many other grievous consequences. That is the choice, and that is the choice which we must understand and which we must get our workers to understand that this is the only way. The measures are now in place. Let us implement them with good sense. We are looking for a wage standstill; we have not set a wage freeze. Adjustments will be necessary - corrections where there are difficulties in particular sectors of the labour market, corrections where there are particular individual professions which are in very short supply. These have to be accommodated with good sense and goodwill, and without damage to our overall objective of keeping our wages at a standstill. Let us have this good sense, let us have this determination - make our wage restraint policy work, and let us all work for recovery of the economy together. Thank you, Mr Speaker, Sir.