ES.6The Ask, and 30 June 2027

From Government the plan asks for a short list of decisions. Most are administrative – an agency can make them – and none needs a new law. They are: (1) to host the pilot centres; (2) to run rent bands and the ballot there; (3) to extend the Hawkers Succession Scheme; (4) to accept the relief notice and a named deputy, both under NEA's Joint Operator Scheme; (5) to re-tender cleaning contracts for tray return, with the hawkers' associations that hold them; (6) to score stallholder protection in HDB's coffeeshop tenders; (7) to bar compulsory designated suppliers at operator-run centres; (8) to name one recipient for the yearly at-risk count; and (9) to give hawker culture clear owners in Government, bringing back the 2018–20 UNESCO nomination committee (co-chaired by NEA, NHB and FMAS; FMAS itself is a standing federation) as a permanent body. Every Budget cost is named: the endowment's first gift and matching pool ($15M + $10M, once); a small operating match ($300K, $400K and $500K in Years 1–3); a round of Makan Vouchers (about $66M a year, a rough figure); a table-cleaning fee subsidy of $200 a stall a month at the pilot centres, at most about $0.98M a year at three; and the tax given up on donations, which donors can deduct at 250% of the gift (about $5.7M over the campaign). A retirement match for stallholders under 55 is costed, at up to about $4.1M a year in its basic form, and left for later. The whole ask fits on one page (§7.7).

One date matters more than the rest. Singapore's next periodic report to UNESCO is due on 30 June 2027. UNESCO's form asks each State to describe "the demographics of practitioners" and "the severity and immediacy" of the threats to an element; the first report, in December 2024, named the threats and gave no count, and promised to improve "monitoring ... the communities of bearers and practitioners" (§3.6). So the count of stalls at risk should exist, at least in method, by the time that report is signed. I would ask MCCY (Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth) and MSE to name joint owners for it now. The plan's own count, from the Regulars' List, comes at the end of its Year 1; until then the report can carry the method and the Year 0 count of orders at the pilot centres.

Where to go next (page numbers are the Plan's)