Calls grow for youth entrepreneurship zones and part-time work protections

Legislators Lee Koi Ian and Song Pek Kei addressed the Legislative Assembly (AL) yesterday, raising proposals on youth entrepreneurship support and flexible employment protection, urging the government to leverage community resources for business incubation and address the legislative gap in part-time work arrangements.

Lee noted that while the government has introduced various youth entrepreneurship support measures, most community markets remain short-term events. Young entrepreneurs still face significant barriers when transitioning from temporary stalls to brick-and-mortar shops, including high rental costs and complex licensing procedures.

Community economies are closest to real market demand, she argued, and turning neighborhood’s into “incubation testbeds” would help young entrepreneurs test business models at lower cost and scale up over time.

She called for three key actions: converting popular community markets into regular “entrepreneurship trial zones,” making use of idle spaces with tiered rents, and launching a “cross-generational collaboration” programme to connect young entrepreneurs with traditional local businesses.

Song noted that while local unemployment rate has fallen to a record low of 2.1% and the overall job market remains stable, the growing demand for part-time and non-full-time work is reshaping employment patterns.

Citing first-quarter employment survey data, she pointed out that the highest rates of unemployment and underemployment are concentrated in the 25–34 age group, with about 70% of underemployed workers citing an “inability to find other work,” describing it as a sign that many young people are passively accepting flexible employment and that structural mismatches persist in the labor market.

She argued that young workers in flexible jobs enjoy greater freedom but also face income volatility and weak protections in areas such as injury insurance, rest leave, and basic labor rights, leaving them without adequate institutional safeguards.

This uncertainty, she said, is also making young people more cautious about future planning and spending, and in some cases fostering a sense of resignation.

Song called on the government to revive legislative work on part-time employment, prioritizing basic protections such as injury coverage and proportional remuneration. She also urged improvements to existing “employment-plus-training” programmes with targeted skills training and micro-certification options for flexible workers, and recommended early identification of job categories under the “1+4” industrial diversification strategy to ensure local youth are prioritized for new positions.