TR EMERITUS

According to a new study of corporate priorities from the Boston Consulting Group, 92 percentage of Chinese firms say innovation is a top priority, up from 70 percent in 2008. The figure is 79 percent for Indian firms, up from 73 percent in 2008. China is fast transforming itself from a manufacturing center of low-cost goods to a technology hub where it has overtaken the United States in the field of green/clean energy. While Chinese and Indian companies are investing more resources into innovation to increase their competitiveness, Singapore firms continue to rely heavily on cheap foreign labor to spear-head their growth. During his May Day Rally recently, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong called on the understanding of Singaporeans to accept a greater inflow of foreign workers as the economy improves. With the easy availability of cheap foreign workers, Singapore companies have few incentives to spend more on innovation to boost their productivity. It is hardly a surprise that Singapore has the lowest labor productivity among developed economies below the likes of South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Singapore's "top-down" approach and economy driven largely by the government is finding itself increasingly being outpaced by smaller innovative outfits from China and India. For example, China has produced major technology firms like Lenovo and Hua Wei in less a decade while Singapore's only brand name Creative Technologies is currently struggling. Many government-driven initiatives such as Micropolis have turned out to be flops while the nation's two sovereign wealth funds have yet to recoup the billions of dollars lost during the last global financial crisis. As China and India continue their meteoric rise, puny Singapore looks set to be overshadowed by them in due course so long its economy remains dominated by the state.  Read More →

Less than two days after telling the media that the Reform Party is currently in negotiations with the Singapore Democratic Alliance to forge a common alliance, Kenneth Jeyaretnam now dropped a bombshell by saying that the alliance will not materialized after all. The Reform Party's members had given their in-principle approval to go ahead with the negotiations based on a list of 11 conditions it laid down before it joined the alliance with SDA. However the talks are not put on hold after SDA said it was abandoning the 11 conditions. They reportedly discussed what's said to be 11 conditions laid down by the Reform Party before it joined the alliance with SDA. An obviously peeved Mr Jeyaretnam told Channel News Asia: "I can only conclude that Mr Chiam did not have the agreement of the SDA when he entered into negotiations with me. We won't be conducting any further negotiations with the SDA because we're not entering into negotiations with an organisation that leaks confidential documents to the press." He did not elaborate more on how the "confidential" documents were leaked to the press with SDA, but conceded that such an alliance is "not very likely" at this point in time. The proposed alliance between the two parties was initially greeted with delight by many netizens who welcomed greater collaboration between various opposition parties in Singapore. The latest breakdown in negotiations is symptomatic of the entire Singapore opposition which seem unable to get its act together for the common good. A broad-based coalition represents the opposition's best chance of challenging the PAP in the next general election. Based on the latest fracas between RP and SDA, it is just not going to happen anytime soon.   Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so to create awareness of the current affairs affecting Singaporeans. Please use our online web form to contact us  Read More →

OPINION Shortly after becoming Singapore's third Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong announced his ambitious plan to increase Singapore's population to 6.5 million people via immigration. Without warning, the floodgates are flung open to foreigners from all over the world, thereby changing the demographics of the island state radically in the span of a few years. Due to the PAP's liberal immigration and pro-foreigner policies, foreigners now make up 36 percent of Singapore's population, up from 14 percent in 1990. Of the remaining 64 percent who are citizens, an increasing number are born overseas. Despite rising unhappiness and disgruntlement among Singaporeans, PAP leaders are adamant that foreigners are essential to Singapore and continue to splurge taxpayers' monies to make them feel welcomed and accepted in Singapore.   TR Policy Forum, 5 May 2010 During the May Day Rally, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong called for the understanding of Singaporeans to accept a higher inflow of foreigners in the near future as the economy improves. Do you agree with him? Should Singapore allow more foreigners into the country? Should foreigners be allowed to compete with Singapore for jobs which can otherwise be taken up by them? Please share your views.   Russell Teo: Totally disagree...we don't have any new FDI, industry and worst any new growth sector to support our own population let alone FT. Pls STOP.   Alice Chang: Sure! Provided I see more dorms and workers' squatters in Bukit Timah and Tanglin! What would our minister say to that? By right, there has to be strict policies concerning the hiring process to ensure the citizens get first priority. Usually companies in S'pore are more concerned with bottom line and costs.  Hiring more foreign workers will not solve the productivity issue. At the end of the day, foreign workers/talents are supposed to complement the local workforce rather than compete against. They cannot exist at the expense of the local citizens.   Stephen Lim: Govt calls for companies to be more productive, produce more products/services without increasing costs etc etc....but where is the motivation for them, if the easy route of hiring cheaper labour is so easily avaiable. the returns is much earlier seen than investment in other areas of improvment. Thus I do not see how companies would favour hiring locals over cheaper foreign "workers/talent" so NO lhl, I WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND how accepting "a higher inflow of foreigners in the near future as the economy improves" would benefit for the greater good of the nation   Mark Chee: In the first place, does LHL have a REAL understanding of the situation faced by the average Singaporeans? Many are either under-employed or end up as security guards as this is one category of jobs still closed to FTs. We should not allow FTs unless they have secured a job here, just like in USA. MNCs, GICs, GLCs and large local companies shall submit their job vacancies to MOM which will list them on its website. It these jobs are not taken after three months, FTs can then apply. Indiscriminately opening the floodgate to allow large number of FTs just because his FATHER said so, is simply daft and irresponsible. If his multi-million salary can't help him focus on his job, as he claimed it would, perhaps the next best candidate should step forward. Anyone of us here will do it for far less as we are "CHEAPER, BETTER and FASTER"!   Dave Munisamy: My understanding is that we need a government that will take care of True Blue Singapore first. The solution for growth is not Cheap Labor. What happens when we reach 6.5 million? The PAP will be telling us to understand why we need 10 million. The PAP needs to stop employing 3rd world solutions to a 1st world problem. Of course that's if they are still in power after the next GE. If u want better, faster and cheaper, then take an 80% pay cut and lead by example. Pass in Paliment that all future pay increases for MPs will be put to a national referendum. If the people feel u deserve it, we will vote to give u a raise in pay. On the same ballot, the people should be able to vote for a reduction in MPs salaries if we feel that u are doing a lousy job.   Khalil Adis: Seriously, I feel like a stranger in my neighbourhood. I no longer feel safe in my area. I was walking home the other night and I saw police patrol cars. On the other void deck was a Burmese gathering and beside it was a group of workers from China and India. So much for integration huh? What a joke!     Richard Teh: I once spoke to some FTs, who have taken up PRs, if they will stay to defend Singapore if there is a war outbreak with our neighbouring countries. They just laughed about it and said I must be crazy to think along this line. Then they told me honestly that they will be the first to pack up and return home with their families on the first available flight. So much about loyalty from our FTs. This just makes me ponder if it is fair for citizens to serve NS to defend these ungrateful lot of FTs. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is losing his popularity and is likely to be kicked out in the upcoming GE due partly to his pro immigration policy. I hope the same happen to LHL in the next GE in Singapore.     Clement Tan: This should not be about competition per se. It should the ratio of foreigners to Singaporeans in Singapore. Could local born Singaporeans actually be outnumbered by foreigners one day if the current growth rate of immigration persists? Since the government (at least to the best of my knowledge) does not release transparent and detailed statistics regarding immigration, nor its selection process in order to attract genuine foreign talent, how can Singaporeans be convinced that immigration is tightly controlled and monitored?     Read the entire discussion on our Facebook here.  Read More →