Daily Briefing: Minister Teo talks review of CPF requirements; VC KK Fund taps Japan's IGPI to create new MNC businesses

And Robinsons Singapore holds a closing down sale.

From HumanResourcesOnline:

Earlier this week, Singapore's Manpower Minister Josephine Teo was asked if there would be a review of the CPF Basic Retirement Sum requirements, in light of the economic crisis' impact on CPF contributions.

In a written response, she noted that the government is undertaking a series of initiatives to help Singapore residents through this time, noting that the priority now is to "help Singaporeans stay employed to continue receiving CPF contributions."

This, she added, is in line with the National Wages Council's guidelines, which strongly encourage employers to retain employees through cost-saving measures, retraining and redeployment to new jobs within the company."

"The Government has also provided targeted assistance to save jobs and livelihoods such as through the Jobs Support Scheme, which provided salary support to help companies to retain employees.

"We have also ramped up job redesign reskilling and redeployment programmes as part of the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package."

Read more here. 

From e27:

Singapore’s leading seed-stage VC firm KK Fund has announced a partnership with the Singapore arm of Industrial Growth Platform (IGPI), one of Japan’s largest management consultancy firms.

The partnership is aimed at facilitating the creation of new businesses by large corporations in Southeast Asia by combining the consultancy firm’s expertise in corporate transformation with the VC firm’s knowledge in growing startups.

As part of this, KK Fund and IGPI will co-launch an accelerator programme, SEA Point, for multinational companies to collaborate with regional startups and conglomerates on creating businesses.

“There are many accelerator programmes for startups in Southeast Asia, but there are none for bigger companies who want to invest in new businesses or create their own startups for vertical integration purposes, especially in new markets,” said Koichi Saito, general partner of KK Fund.

“With SEA Point, we are able to reinvent the idea of the startup ecosystem from being top-down to being more collaborative on multiple levels,” he added.

Read more here.

From ChannelNewsAsia:

Robinsons Singapore has launched an “everything must go” closing down sale that started on 6 November.

In a press release sent on the same day, the retailer said there will be reductions across all product ranges at its two remaining stores at The Heeren and Raffles City Shopping Centre.

These include fashion, beauty, homeware, accessories, and travel items.

Even brand-new stock will be discounted as their warehouses are being emptied.

The retailer announced on 30 October that it would be closing its stores due to weak demand stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift from offline to online shopping.

Read more here.