In this year’s Budget, the government sees raising productivity as key to boosting wages for low-income Singaporeans. To counter the painful effects of economic structuring, the government has set aside S$3.6 billion to co-fund wage increases for Singaporean workers. Another S$500 million will be available to help businesses pay for productivity initiatives. Associate Dean of the SMU School of Economics Professor Hoon Hian Teck said: "If you take advantage of the enhancement of PIC, or the Productivity and Innovation Credit scheme, and say you invest in automation that will boost the productivity of your workers, then if your workers become more productive, you will be willing to bid up your wages to hold them. Now the government with the Wage Credit Scheme comes in and says I'm going to bear 40 per cent of the wage increases."