Hawker areas are not just professional spaces, but also society dining spaces with a social responsibility. NEA has invested in stalls centres to provide cheap cooked foods for Singaporeans, while enabling little food companies to make a fair life, said Dr Koh.  ,
” We have intentionally kept the barrier to entry low to allow some hawkers, including like Mr Mubarak himself, to create a successful business and expand to different food and beverage organizations.  ,
” So we have to keep justice, because this is the important role that our stalls facilities play. We’re delighted to see our peddlers succeed, but we must even prevent people from game the system by profiteering from subletting.”
If NEA did not maintain this guideline and stores are run entirely by appointed workers, hawker centres may be” identical “from coffee shops and food courts” eroding the authenticity”, said Dr Koh.
” Over time, our hawker culture does get diluted, shifting from enthusiastic hawkers serving their individual dishes to our customers to businesses only prioritising efficiency and scale over heritage and quality.”
While NEA supports the use of technology to improve efficiency at stalls, it should not be at the expense of hawkers stepping away from running the store themselves and leaving its manning to workers.  ,
” If hawker ( s ) wish to extend to a chain model and become bigger, they have the option to move out of the hawker centres and do it at other F&, B establishments where we do not impose restrictions,” Dr Koh said.  ,
The balance between protecting the hawker heritage, and keeping food affordable and ensuring fair opportunities for new hawkers would be” quite difficult” to maintain if there are no rules to manage this.  ,
It would have been” far easier” for NEA to let the hawker centres operate just as any other commercial outfits without any restrictions on subletting or any business models that the operator wants to do.  ,
” But that will mean losing what makes them really special today. So if Singaporeans are prepared to accept hawker food at price points, quality and the business model, just like any other coffee shop or food courts, then we could remove these restrictions and let the free market take this cost,” said Dr Koh.  ,