Transcript of doorstop interview by Mr K Shanmugam, Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs, on the Homefront Crisis Ministerial Committee

Question: PM has announced the Homefront Ministerial Committee on Thursday, which you are heading, do you have anything to share with us?

Minister: We will have parliamentary sessions next week, where more details will be discussed. But essentially, you have this crisis in the Middle East, a significant part of the world's oil supply has been affected, gas supply has been affected. It's not clear when that situation will change, and even when the war stops very soon, doesn't mean supply disruptions will go away. So you have supply disruptions, and as a result, you also have price increases. If you look at it, fuel, fuel products, prices will be impacted. And one obvious area related will be food. Because, we import everything. Fertilizer prices have to go up, and the cost of bringing those food products, transportation to Singapore, that will go up. It will have an impact.

So the Homefront Crisis Ministerial Committee, HCMC, has been stood up. It has been stood up for a few weeks. Meetings have been held for some time now. Below the HCMC is the (Homefront Crisis) Executive Group. It's called HCEG, comprising Permanent Secretaries and various agencies heads. They have also been working for a while, reporting to us. We, in turn, report to cabinet. So work has been going on on these different issues, and next week in Parliament, there'll be a more detailed discussion of this.

The HCMC itself comprises various ministers. DPM Gan is the advisor. I chair it and a number of relevant ministries are in there – Ministry of Sustainability and Environment because of food; Ministry of Trade and Industry because of fuel ,power and electricity; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Home Affairs as security issues are also relevant. So a number of ministries.

It's a serious situation all around the world. You've seen in many parts of the world, many countries have taken measures to cut back on use of electricity, use of fuel. We haven't taken those measures yet, and we will explain how we approach it.

Question: Minister, you mentioned that it's been set up for a few weeks. Could you roughly let us know when was it set up?

Minister: The HCMC structure was set up many, many years ago, long before I went to the Ministry of Home Affairs. It's activated during crises. I think it's enough for me to say a few weeks at this point - we have been working, having meetings. HCEG has been working as well, and we have been reporting to cabinet. We've taken some steps. We will continue to take some steps.

Question: Minister, can we also get a sense of why PM is convening this committee now?

Minister: There is a crisis on. It requires coordination across different ministries. There's impact on the ground, and we will need to deal with it. If the lights go off and you haven't thought about fuel, and you haven't thought about how you're going to keep the electricity going, your businesses going. People, take delivery riders, for example, their costs have gone up. Government is there to deal with these issues.

Question: What are some of the broad scopes that the Ministerial Committee is looking at?

Minister: I mentioned, for example, the supply shock. You have cut back on supplies because of the Middle East. The Straits of Hormuz is substantially blocked. I mentioned the inevitable price rises, and it's not just on fuel, but on related products. Food is an obvious example, but there will be other implications too. And then there are diplomatic issues, our relationships with countries, bilateral as well as multilateral, security issues, a number of different issues. That's why you have an inter-ministerial committee.

Question: Is the committee also looking at further worst-case scenarios and the situation evolving from what it currently is?

Minister: That is all part of the work. I don't want to go into details. There will be explanations in Parliament, and you can be rest assured that we will continue to talk to the media, but I think let the Parliamentary session take place first. Thank you.