Safeguarding and Promoting our Hawker Culture

Response to parliamentary question on incentivising local chefs to innovate and create unique local dishes to enhance Singapore’s hawker heritage

Question

Mr Christopher de Souza: To ask the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth whether a programme can be introduced to incentivise local chefs to innovate and create unique local dishes to enhance Singapore’s hawker heritage.

Response

Mr Edwin Tong, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth & Second Minister for Law:

1. Like other intangible cultural heritage (ICH), Singapore’s Hawker Culture is a “living heritage” of people, places and food that has and will continue to evolve with time. Hawkers have introduced creative and innovative twists to familiar hawker dishes over time, and continue to do so. Some of these hawkers were featured in support of our successful inscription of Hawker Culture onto the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December 2020, such as Mr Vijaya Ragavan of Zham Zham Muslim Food’s Duck Curry and Mr Noorman Mubarak of Nasi Lemak Ayam Taliwang dish of the same name.
2. MCCY and NHB are committed to ensuring that Singapore’s Hawker Culture remains vibrant and relevant for future generations to enjoy. Our priority is to safeguard and promote Hawker Culture to ensure its sustainability, and to fulfil our UNESCO obligations arising from our Hawker Culture inscription.
3. For example, NHB will continue to partner community organisations, educational institutions and the private sector to feature Singapore’s Hawker Culture in programmes and platforms. NHB will also support documentation and research projects. These efforts help deepen our understanding and appreciation of Hawker Culture. In addition, NEA has introduced several programmes to provide opportunities for aspiring hawkers to pursue the hawker trade. The Incubation Stall Programme provides subsidised rentals to lower the start-up costs for aspiring hawkers to experiment and innovate over a period of 15 months, while the Hawkers’ Development Programme pairs aspiring hawkers with veteran hawker mentors for apprenticeship, creating opportunities for the exchange and even cross-fertilisation of ideas.
4. We are confident that with the support of our communities, our Hawker Culture and hawker fare will continue to develop, and we will enjoy new and innovative dishes from our hawkers which will add to our vibrant hawker culture.