BOOST, BUILD, PREP-UP, SPUR, YES! ... and more acronyms to confuse you

EXT.CARPARK - BACK OF WHITE VAN - AFTERNOON

Man dressed in white overall wiped away the beads of perspiration forming on his forehead as he fumbled for the red wire among a pile of red wires. Having found the correct red wire, he then connected it to the electronics equipment in front of him. As he turned a knob on the equipment face clockwise, faint voices are heard from the speaker. Thrilled, he made a call using his handphone.

MAN IN OVERALL: Hello? Boss, this is agent Sharif. I got in already. Ah, no problem man. I told those bodoh I'm from that phone company that gives free fixed lines lah. Yah, I'm going to listen to their meeting now. Boss you nanti ah, I put on bluetooth headset first.

After agent Sharif had put the bluetooth headset onto his left ear, he continued to turn a couple of knobs on the audio equipment till clear audible voices were heard from the speaker.

AGENT SHARIF: Boss, boleh? You can hear loud and clear? Okay, okay...

INT.OFFICE - MEETING ROOM PRODUCTIVITY - CONTINUOUS

At the meeting table, Mr Teo was busy scribbling on the whiteboard while Ah Tan, Ah Lim and several other senior managers were seated. A couple of the senior managers were still attentively taking notes as Mr Teo turned around to speak.

MR TEO: So beside the $13.7 billion financial stimulus package, Boss has unveiled a raft of economic recovery schemes.

MR TEO paused as he waited for the senior managers to finish taking down notes.

MR TEO: Let us go through the schemes one by one. BOOST. We're going to spend $60 million in this plan to secure market demand in the tourism industry. Without doubt, this will be handled by STB.
SENIOR MANAGER #1: Yes Sir, we're already WIP on BOOST. In fact, just last week, we had a meeting with HLB to discuss about what kind of promotions we can come up with, especially during the F1 period. Besides our usual collaboration with SDC, we'll also be working with PMB and NHB on some Singapore history theme projects, particularly to promote SHM, ACM and SAM. Next on the list, we'll be talking to NAC, SSC and even NParks to explore on some interesting activities.

EXT.CARPARK - BACK OF WHITE VAN - CONTINUOUS

AGENT SHARIF (puzzled): Apa ini? STB? SDC? NHB?

INT.OFFICE - MEETING ROOM PRODUCTIVITY - CONTINUOUS

MR TEO: Great! good work! Next, let us look at BUILD. In fact I think we can work on both BUILD and SPUR concurrently, since the main objective for both are to train the workers. We're going to spend $134 million to help SMEs become more competitive through capability development, and another $400 million to help companies retrain workers, save jobs, and cut companies' retraining costs. MOM and WDA will have to work hand-in-hand for these two schemes.
SENIOR MANAGER #2: Yes Sir, besides WDA, we're also in talks with Spring Singapore and EDB to work on the new courses and syllabuses. Besides that we'll also be revisiting the scope for ACTA, BEST, CET, CREST, SRP and WISE. We could give you a brief presentation of our plan EOB.

EXT.CARPARK - BACK OF WHITE VAN - CONTINUOUS

AGENT SHARIF (scratching his head hard): Apa ACTA, BEST, CET? Aku tak faham lah!

INT.OFFICE - MEETING ROOM PRODUCTIVITY - CONTINUOUS

MR TEO: Okay. Check with Susan on my vacant time slot for the day. For PREP-UP, we're going to spend $67 million on training schemes to help companies develop personnel in science and technology through funding programmes such as on-the-job training for new graduates. IDA, I guess the ball is in your court.
SENIOR MANAGER #3: Yes Sir, we're working with A*Star and PEB on this. However I do want to bring up that we've got a resource challenge here. Most of my men are already tied up in the YOG project, so we'll need to hire more to work on PREP-UP.
MR TEO: Hmm... that shouldn't be a problem.

EXT.CARPARK - BACK OF WHITE VAN - CONTINUOUS

AGENT SHARIF (shouting in excitment): Ah! This one I know! YOG is "Youth Olympic Games"!

INT.OFFICE - MEETING ROOM PRODUCTIVITY - CONTINUOUS

MR TEO: Lastly, for YES!, we're going to put $16 million into the Entrepreneurial Talent Development Fund to help young Singaporeans nurture innovative startups...

EXT.CARPARK - BACK OF WHITE VAN - CONTINUOUS

AGENT SHARIF: Alamak, Boss, tak boleh lah! The way these people talk, macam secret codes, cannot understand them at all lah! Like that how to copy their plans and use it for our country?


Glossary of acronyms
Building on Opportunities to Strengthen Tourism (BOOST)
Business Upgrading Initiatives for Long-term Development (BUILD)
Preparing for the Upturn (PREP-UP)
Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR)
Young Entrepreneur Scheme (YES!)
Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM)
Hotels Licensing Board (HLB)
National Arts Council (NAC)
National Heritage Board (NHB)
National Parks Board (NParks)
Singapore Art Museum (SAM)
Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC)
Singapore History Museum (SHM)
Preservation of Monuments Board (PMB)
Singapore Sports Council (SSC)
Singapore Tourism Board (STB)
Economic Development Board (EDB)
Standards, Productivity And Innovation Board (Spring Singapore)
Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star)
Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA)
Professional Engineers Board, Singapore (PEB)
Manpower, Ministry of (MOM)
Singapore Labour Foundation (SLF)
Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA)
International Enterprise Singapore (IE Singapore)
Advanced Certificate in Training and Assessment (ACTA)
Basic Education for Skills Training (BEST)
Continuing Education & Training (CET)
Critical Enabling Skills Training (CREST)
Skills Redevelopment Programme (SPR)
Workers Improvement through Secondary Education (WISE)