Singapore's land is a finite resource. As Finance Minister Lawrence Wong puts it, land sales do not create new wealth, they only transform the physical land into a financial asset (S'pore will not change approach to reserves: Minister, March 3).

Thus, I agree with the Government's approach, which is to put the proceeds from land sales into Singapore's reserves. Investment returns from the reserves can then be spent through the Net Investment Returns Contribution framework.

Should proceeds from land sales be put into recurrent revenue from day one, it would remove the possibility of generating future income.

Ong Kim Bock