Did you know that around four out of five Singaporeans have never visited a national museum or heritage institution?

With this in mind, Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Lawrence Wong announced in Parliament that museum entry fees would be scrapped for all Singaporeans and Permanent Residents from May 18 to increase the accessibility of heritage institutions.

The initiative will begin on the 18th of May with the launch of this year's Childrens' Season at the museums, which also happens to be International Museum Day.

The cost of implementing free museum admission is not cheap; a portion of the museums' $2 million annual revenue from entry fees will be lost. That amount though is a fraction of the annual operating expenditure - around $151 million for the last financial year.

To support the free entry initiative, the  Singapore Government will also invest $62 million, over the next 5 years to enhance content for the country's national museums, to better tell the Singapore story, that will resonate with citizens.

"We are a young nation...the fast pace of development and the rapid changes in our society make it difficult to develop strong cultural anchors for our national identity. So it is easy to feel disoriented, especially with the increase in population and new immigrants in recent years. All this means that we must do more now to step up our cultural development."

Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, Lawrence Wong

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