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Proposals

60 proposals and mechanisms, grouped by part. Each card links to its page: what it does, who pays, what it costs, its model scores and the sections that discuss it.

Part II · Rebuilding the hawker economy

  • §2.2

    Rent bands and ballot

    Vacant public-centre stalls are let at published fixed rents by centre class and allocated by ballot, instead of to the highest bidder.

    • ASK OF GOVERNMENT · NEA PILOT, ADMINISTRATIVE
    • NO NEW LEGISLATION
    • BUILDS ON · 2012 & NOV 2024 TENDER REFORMS
    Cost
    the extra rent the highest bids might have raised at those centres

  • §2.2

    A table-cleaning fee subsidy at the pilot centres

    The Government pays $200 a stall a month against the table-cleaning fee at the pilot centres, tested by re-tendering their cleaning contracts.

    • ASK OF GOVERNMENT · A TABLE-CLEANING FEE SUBSIDY AT THE PILOT CENTRES
    Cost
    $200

  • §2.3

    Extending the Hawkers Succession Scheme (the Succession Assignment Right)

    Upgrade NEA's 2022 succession scheme so retiring hawkers are paid for goodwill, successors' rent glides up, and more stallholders can use it.

    • ASK OF GOVERNMENT · NEA AMENDS THE SCHEME'S TERMS
    • ZERO FISCAL COST
    • BUILDS ON · HAWKERS SUCCESSION SCHEME (2022)
    Cost
    Zero

  • §2.4

    Heritage Anchor Partnership (coffeeshops and food courts)

    Coffeeshops and food courts may voluntarily host a certified heritage stall at a Band-B-equivalent rent in return for programme services and recognition.

    • VOLUNTARY FOR OPERATORS · NO RENT CONTROL
    • ASK OF GOVERNMENT · HDB TENDER SCORING
    • BUILDS ON · HDB'S JAN 2026 COFFEESHOP REVISION

  • §2.4

    HDB coffeeshop tender lever (score stallholder protection)

    HDB's coffeeshop tenders award quality points to operators who commit to fund their stallholders' MediSave or retirement match; HDB's forgone rent is its contribution.

    • VOLUNTARY FOR OPERATORS · NO RENT CONTROL
    • ASK OF GOVERNMENT · HDB TENDER SCORING
    • BUILDS ON · HDB'S JAN 2026 COFFEESHOP REVISION
    Cost
    up to ≈$1.7M/yr

  • §2.5

    The Affordability Compact (price freedom, compensated budget meals)

    Certified heritage and new-entrant stalls price freely; any budget meal kept as public policy is opt-in, and the state pays the gap.

    • ASK OF GOVERNMENT · A PERMANENT ROUND OF CDC VOUCHERS
    • BUILDS ON · CDC VOUCHERS & HDB'S JAN 2026 REVISION
    Cost
    Small; the gap on each meal

  • §2.5

    Makan Vouchers

    A permanent CDC-voucher tranche for lower-income households, seniors and students, ring-fenced for spending at hawker and heartland coffeeshop stalls.

    • ASK OF GOVERNMENT · A PERMANENT ROUND OF CDC VOUCHERS, TAGGED FOR HAWKERS
    • BUILDS ON · CDC VOUCHERS & HDB'S JAN 2026 REVISION
    Cost
    ≈ $66M

  • §2.6

    Learning at the master's side

    Apprentices learn at the master's own stall, each record is proved on his relief day, and tastings book partner kitchens: nothing to build.

    • PROGRAMME-FUNDED · NO PREMISES OF OUR OWN
    • BUILDS ON · HAWKERS SUCCESSION SCHEME
    Cost
    $3,000

  • §2.7

    The Relief-Hawker Corps

    A pool of trained relief cooks a hawker can book for illness, rest or surgery, so the stall stays open.

    • PROGRAMME-SUBSIDISED · CO-PAID BY USERS
    • ASK OF GOVERNMENT · SPEED AND A SHORT-COVER VARIANT, NOT A NEW RULE
    • BUILDS ON · THE JOINT OPERATOR SCHEME & THE NOMINEE ROUTE
    Cost
    $80

  • §2.7

    The named deputy

    A short-cover joint operator: one registered assistant may run the stall for up to an hour a day, without the four-hour minimum.

    • ASK OF GOVERNMENT · SPEED AND A SHORT-COVER VARIANT, NOT A NEW RULE

  • §2.8

    Hawker Apprentice Work Pass (deferred to Ideas for Later)

    Deferred: a pass for one foreign apprentice a stall, moved to Ideas for Later after the Government left its rules unchanged in September 2026.

    • DEFERRED · NOW IN IDEAS FOR LATER (§7.9)

  • §2.9

    The Hawker Security Package

    The programme's first acts are cover: free group critical-illness cover for older stallholders, and the FMAS–NTUC group-cover route widened to stallholders.

    • PHILANTHROPY-FUNDED · GIVEN, NOT TRADED
    • EXTENDS THE FMAS–NTUC GROUP COVER
    Cost
    ≈$750

  • §2.10

    Market transparency

    The independent evaluator publishes quarterly aggregate data on stall revenues, ingredient prices, costs and turnover, never identifying any stall.

    • INDEPENDENTLY PUBLISHED
    Cost
    $25

  • §2.12

    Buying Circles – Hawkers Bargain Together

    Hawkers at each centre form small buying circles through their own association, and suppliers compete for their pooled orders on an open board.

    • RUN BY HAWKERS · NO MEMBER FEE, NO NEW AGENCY
    • BUILDS ON · OPERATORS' BULK BUYING & HAWKERS UNITED – DABAO 2020
    Cost
    $206,580

  • §2.12

    No compulsory designated suppliers at operator-run centres

    Stallholders at operator-run centres buy gas and crockery where they choose, or under a centre-wide contract re-tendered in the open.

Follow the Plate

Part III · The Culinary Seed Bank

  • §3.1

    The Culinary Seed Bank

    A non-profit knowledge institution that documents endangered hawker technique, trains successors and lands graduates, with no regulatory powers at all.

    • PHILANTHROPY-FUNDED
    • NO REGULATORY POWERS

  • §3.2

    The Technique Genome (and the locum test)

    A cookable record of each endangered dish (video, sensor logs, tested recipe, provenance, oral history, sensory benchmark) held as an open commons.

  • §3.3

    Seed Bank apprenticeship

    A paid 18-month apprenticeship at a Master Fellow's own stall, as a registered stall assistant, cooking his dish for his regulars on his relief days.

    • BUILDS ON · HDP TRAINING STAGES
    Cost
    $2,220

  • §3.4

    The Graduate Landing Package

    Every graduate gets a stall, 24 months of discounted rent, financed equipment, an income floor and mentoring, at about $20,000 per graduate.

    • PHILANTHROPY-FUNDED · ≈$20,000 PER GRADUATE
    • BUILDS ON · INCUBATION STALL PROGRAMME
    Cost
    roughly $20,000

  • §3.5

    Success metrics we can't fake

    The programme is graded by an independent evaluator on outcomes: hawker-years sustained, graduate retention, pipeline depth, graduate income and hawkers' trust.

    • INDEPENDENTLY GRADED · PUBLISHED EITHER WAY

  • §3.6

    The Regulars' List

    A list at every government hawker centre of the dishes its regulars want kept, tiered Bronze to Platinum: a compliment from diners, never a diagnosis.

    • PHILANTHROPY-FUNDED · NATIONAL FROM YEAR 1
    • CONSENT FIRST · ONLY AGGREGATES PUBLISHED
    Cost
    $416,570

  • §3.6

    Endangered Dish Registry

    A ranked register of endangered hawker dishes, kept with the National Heritage Board and communities, filling the list Government confirmed it lacks.

  • §3.7

    Innovation Sandbox

    Graduates master the documented tradition first; peer-reviewed innovations then enter a separate layer of the repository, and nothing is mandated.

  • §3.8

    Governance, representation and sunset clause

    A hawker-led Seed Bank: a Hawker Council with internal vetoes, an eight-seat board with a Government casting vote used in public, and a sunset clause.

    • HAWKER-LED · INDEPENDENTLY GOVERNED · SUNSET-CLAUSED
    Cost
    $200/meeting

Part IV · Succession and legacy economics

  • §4.2

    The Master Fellowship

    A flat, identical three-year appointment worth $90,750 with CPF, paying master hawkers to teach, document and steward their dish, chosen by how endangered it is.

    • PHILANTHROPY-FUNDED · $90,750 A FELLOW OVER THREE YEARS, CPF INCLUDED
    Cost
    $90,750

  • §4.3

    The Succession Mortgage

    The incoming cook pays the retiring hawker for the stall's goodwill out of future takings, through escrow, with a first-loss guarantee.

    • SELF-FINANCING · ESCROW-ADMINISTERED, FIRST-LOSS GUARANTEED
    Cost
    ≈ $3,200 / mortgage

  • §4.3

    Family right of first refusal

    Before any successor is nominated, the hawker's children have 90 days to take the stall themselves, with no mortgage and no fees.

    • SELF-FINANCING · ESCROW-ADMINISTERED, FIRST-LOSS GUARANTEED

  • §4.4

    The Family Name Royalty

    The master's family receives 2.5% of gross revenue for up to ten years whenever a stall or product trades under the master's name.

    • SELF-FINANCING · ESCROW-ADMINISTERED
    Cost
    2.5% of gross revenue

  • §4.5

    The grant track

    Philanthropy funds the full Fellowship and documentation for culturally critical dishes with no commercial successor, where no mortgage can work.

    • PHILANTHROPY-FUNDED · WHERE MARKETS CANNOT REACH

  • §4.6

    Succession safeguards

    Opt-in only, with no cold approaches, a 21-day cooling-off period, independent legal counsel, an independent ombudsman and a full annual audit.

Part V · The Taste Council

  • §5.2

    The Taste Council (veteran blind panel)

    Five retired hawker masters taste heritage stalls blind about three times a year and ask one question: is this worthy of the name?

    • OPT-IN ONLY · COMMITMENTS, NOT ASPIRATIONS
    Cost
    $300

  • §5.3

    Opt-in customer benchmarking

    Stalls that want customer feedback can display a Seed Bank QR code; the data belongs to the hawker, and stalls are never compared.

  • §5.4

    Graduation validation

    Apprentices graduate on two keys: a Taste Council verdict of at least 'Yes – worthy of the name' and a four-week public trial rated 4.2/5+.

  • §5.5

    The Heritage Plate mark

    A certification mark that restaurants, hotels and packaged-food makers license to sell one master's documented dish, with a disclosed 50 cents a plate.

    • SELF-FINANCING · LICENCE INCOME
    • BUILDS ON · IPOS CERTIFICATION MARKS
    Cost
    50 cents a certified plate

Part VI · Year Zero, the Lighthouses and the Pilot Centres

  • §6.1

    Year Zero: give, listen, build

    A twelve-month Year Zero that delivers the Security Package first, then listens and co-designs, then freezes the design only if the hawkers vote it forward.

    Cost
    $906,598

  • §6.2

    Co-design with veto

    Launch requires 40% of surveyed pilot-centre hawkers willing to engage, 100 cluster signatures and a majority of the elected Hawker Council voting to proceed.

  • §6.2.1

    Bringing the public in

    Five ways in for diners and the public, from lightest to heaviest: follow, name a dish, give, volunteer, decide.

  • §6.3

    The Lighthouses and the Pilot Centres

    Every mechanism runs at two Lighthouses, Chinatown Complex and Geylang Serai, from Year 1, then at Tekka from Year 2, five centres at most.

    • DESIGN-TO-COST · TWO FIRST, THEN THREE TO FIVE, EACH WITH THE FULL LOOP

  • §6.4

    Independent evaluation

    An IPS- or NUS-calibre institution, contracted before launch, publishes a baseline and annual reports, with unconditional publication rights.

    • UNCONDITIONAL PUBLICATION RIGHTS

  • §6.5

    Gate criteria to scale

    Up to five pilot centres each pass their own veto; going beyond five unlocks only when the evaluator certifies five conditions across all of them.

Part VII · Budget, endowment and the ask

  • §7.6

    The Hawker Endowment

    A $40M national endowment – $15M Government anchor, $10M matching pool, $15M from diners and companies – invested to last and drawn at 3.5%.

    • A PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN · MATCHED DOLLAR-FOR-DOLLAR UNTIL THE $10M POOL IS USED
    Cost
    $40M

  • §7.7

    Operating match (grant towards running costs)

    A small recurring Government grant towards running costs, matching the gifts for spending: $300K to $500K a year in Years 1–3, then $500K if continued.

    Cost
    $300K, $400K, $500K in Years 1–3

  • §7.7

    Tax deduction on gifts (250% for IPC donors)

    The existing 250% deduction for gifts to IPCs, once the Seed Bank has IPC status: no new decision, but about $5.7M of tax forgone.

    Cost
    ≈$5.7M

  • §7.7

    A standing committee for hawker culture

    The 2018–20 UNESCO nomination committee (co-chaired by NEA, NHB and FMAS, itself a standing federation), brought back to own the yearly at-risk count.

  • §7.7

    Joint owners for the next report to UNESCO

    An NHB and an NEA director co-lead the hawker section of Singapore's next report to UNESCO, due 30 June 2027, with one shared Budget indicator.

  • §7.7

    A hawker line in the next Heritage Plan

    NHB's next Heritage Plan, from 2028, carries the yearly at-risk count and a hawker strand in its Heritage Apprenticeship.

  • §7.7

    Distributions, not medians

    NEA publishes rent, fee and income distributions by centre and stall type, with the charges it does not publish today.

  • C.8.1

    The stallholder retirement match (optional ask, costed and left for later)

    Optional ask: Government matches the CPF top-ups of stallholders under 55, up to $1,200 a year; $4.1M (base) or $7.9M (stretch); left for later.

    • OPTIONAL · NOT YET AN ASK
    Cost
    Base up to ≈$4.1M/yr

  • §7.8

    Downside mode and sunset economics

    If fundraising stalls, both Lighthouses keep running and Tekka defers; if the sunset triggers, funds return to donors and the archive vests in NHB.

    Cost
    about $5.6M

Hawkers and Social Protection

This is a working paper for public discussion. Every number in it is an invitation to improve it. Corrections and better data are welcome.