By Clarissa Oon, Political Correspondent

Singapore must spare no effort to preserve its mother tongues and will set up a centre to improve the teaching of Chinese, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last night.

He stressed that Singaporeans must remain bilingual and bicultural, as an English-only environment would put Singapore at an economic disadvantage with the rise of China.

Half of all Chinese Singaporean kids now speak English at home, which means Chinese teachers 'have a more difficult job trying to stimulate their interest' in the subject.

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