Singapore — There’s no doubt that Workers’ Party Member of Parliament Jamus Lim is a food lover, and he’s also someone who proudly features some of the best food Singapore has to offer.
On Monday (Jan 24), Prof Lim highlighted the meepok tah (fishball noodles) from 266 Coffeeshop, writing in a Facebook post that it’s where he gets his “weekly fix” of the dish when they have Town Council meetings.
But he also used the success of the coffee shop to underline how businesses in Singapore need to be weaned off a “low-wage, imported-worker model.”
Aside from meepok tah, the MP wrote that he also enjoys the eatery’s chai tau kueh, (fried radish cake), prawn noodles, and laksa.
He added that the coffee shop’s proprietress “runs the place mostly on her own,” with her husband running “a sister operation in Hougang,” and on occasional weekends “she may rope in her somewhat reluctant-looking kids to help.”
And while, like most food and beverage establishments, 266 Coffeeshop has been affected by the pandemic, the woman running it has managed to keep it afloat and was recently even able to do some “modest” upgrades, the MP wrote.
He warmly praised how the woman manages the eatery.
“The business always strikes me as reflecting the best of our hardworking, owner-operated small enterprises.
It diversifies into as many areas that it can comfortably succeed in, to keep the offerings attractive.
It keeps running, day after day, with early starts (I used to see her setting up when I would run by at 6 am, in the pre-kid days when I could enjoy that luxury).
And it continuously seeks to upgrade and improve.”
Moreover, he called it not only “a celebration of hawker culture” but also “a prime example of our many local small and medium enterprises (SMEs).”
The MP, who teaches economics at ESSEC Business School, added, “That’s why I believe that our SMEs are entirely capable of upgrading and improving productivity; it was never about our people being incapable or unwilling.
Rather, I believe that the national business environment has to wean our firms off a low-wage, imported-worker model, toward one focused on increasing capital reinvestment and technology deployment, encouraging them to expand, and elevating them into regional and possibly global players.”
/TISG
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