SINGAPORE, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's Keppel Corporation Limited (Keppel) announced here Thursday to roll out a comprehensive package worth more than 4.2 million SG dollars (around 3 million U.S. dollars) to help the Singapore community weather COVID-19.
The package will be funded by voluntary contributions from the Keppel Group's directors, senior management and staff, with dollar-for-dollar matching contributions from Keppel Corporation. This comes after the Company's earlier donation of over 900,000 SG dollars (around 640 thousand U.S. dollars) to support Singapore and international efforts to mitigate the impact of COVID-19, Keppel said in a press release.
Lee Boon Yang, Chairman of Keppel Corporation, said "Through this package, we will provide support to the communities most affected by the pandemic, including healthcare workers and patients, lower income families, as well as Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs)."
A total of more than 4.2 million SG dollars is expected to be raised. Of the total, about 3.5 million will be used to support lower income households through rebates given by Keppel's subsidiary companies Keppel Electric, mobile service provider M1 and City Gas. More than 40,000 households are expected to benefit.
A further 300,000 SG dollars will be donated to The Courage Fund to support communities affected by COVID-19, bringing Keppel's total contribution to the fund to 600,000 SG dollars. The rest 400,000 SG dollars will be earmarked to support Keppel's frontline contract staff, such as cleaners and security personnel, and to help the company's SME suppliers by improving payment terms to ease their cash flow pressure.
