TR EMERITUS

Published in China Daily, 16 September 2009 A cacophony of Mandarin and English echo through the streets of Singapore's Chinatown as crowds of shoppers buy joss sticks and fruit as offerings to the spirits during the Seventh Month Ghost Festival. English has long united the ethnically diverse island-state but Singapore's leaders now foresee a time when Mandarin will be the country's dominant language and they are aggressively encouraging their people to become fluent in Chinese. "Both English and Mandarin are important because in different situations you use either language. But Mandarin has become more important," said Chinatown shopkeeper Eng Yee Lay. Hit hard by the global slowdown, strengthening ties with China has taken on a strategic imperative in Singapore which seeks to leverage the bilingual skills of its ethnic Chinese majority to get a larger slice of China's fast expanding economic pie. "With the growing importance of China on the world stage, Chinese Singaporeans who are competent in the language and familiar with the culture would have a distinct advantage when working and interacting with Chinese nationals," Lim Sau Hoong, chairwoman of the Promote Mandarin Council, told Reuters.   The government-sponsored campaign to promote Mandarin began in 1979 to unite under one language Singapore's disparate Chinese communities that spoke a multitude of dialects passed on by their ancestors who came from China in the 19th and early 20th century. Unifying the Chinese majority in a country with sizeable Malay and Indian minorities was a priority and in the early days the Speak Mandarin Campaign discouraged ethnic Chinese from speaking the dialects that prevailed such as Hokkien. Now, with a majority of Singaporeans speaking Mandarin in their homes, according to government figures, the focus is on improving fluency in spoken and written Mandarin. "In two generations, Mandarin will become our mother tongue," said Singapore's first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew at the launch of the 2009 Speak Mandarin Campaign earlier this year. His vision is for Singapore to become China's Southeast Asia hub as it expands its commercial interests in the region, while Singapore firms would entrench their positions in China, giving them a first-mover advantage over foreign firms. Already, despite its small demographic size, Singapore was China's third largest foreign investor with total foreign direct investment of S$6.5 billion in 2008, a 40 percent rise from 2007, according to the Chinese government. Trade between the countries has risen 17-fold since 1991 to S$91.4 billion ($63.34 billion) in 2008. TRADE AND CULTURAL TIES As Singapore prepares to mark two decades of ties with China next year, 20,000 Singaporeans are working in China and scores of joint ventures are underway. Among them is the construction of an "eco-city" in Tianjin, near Beijing, which is being designed to use renewable energy, recycled water and has an extensive public transport system. Singapore's senior cabinet minister and head of its Monetary Authority, Goh Chok Tong, discussed the project with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during a visit to China last week. Among Singapore investors in China are offshore oil rig builder Keppel Corp, bank DBS, water treatment firm Hyflux, energy services provider Rotary Engineering and Raffles Education. Singapore developer CapitaLand, which aims to build 58 malls across 40 Chinese cities, said this month it planned to nearly double the value of its assets in China to $8 billion, or 45 percent of its overall assets. Singapore is proving to be a fertile recruiting ground for Mandarin-speaking middle and senior managers to run multinationals' operations in China where a lack of qualified managers has held back expansion plans by many foreign firms. MITIGATING RISK The financial crisis took a toll on Singapore's export dependent economy, reducing annual economic growth to just 1.1 percent in 2008, compared to around 8.2 percent between 2004-2007, and creating the highest unemployment rate in five years. Strengthening ties with China is seen as mitigating Singapore's risk. China is expected to become Singapore's largest single market for non-oil exports this year, overtaking the United States, says economist Irvin Seah at Singapore's top bank DBS Group.   "We use the term 'China-ready,' meaning we will just have to grow with them," IE Singapore CEO Chong Lit Cheong, whose state agency promotes Singapore firms' investment abroad, told Reuters. "As far as China grows 7 to 8 percent a year in a foreseeable future, we will continue to have a bigger presence there." Singaporeans were among the first foreign investors in China after Deng Xiaoping adopted a market economy in 1978. Singapore's then prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, still in the cabinet, has visited China almost every year. After Deng's 1992 remarks to officials to "learn from the world and, especially Singapore, and do better than Singapore", thousands of Chinese officials started flooding the city-state for trips and university degree programmes in administration. Around three-quarters of Singapore's population are ethnic Chinese, giving many of its businessmen a cultural advantage versus the West, but the government is also trying to strengthen understanding of the Chinese culture and mindset. "Although we speak the same language, when we look at issues we are different," said IE Singapore's Chong. "The next step is how we see China in a Chinese perspective." Business China, an agency under Lee's patronage, is tasked to "groom 20,000 to 30,000 bilingual and bi-cultural Singaporeans with the ability to communicate effectively in the China market". Eugene Aw, a 22-year-old Singaporean, sees his professional future in China after studying for his degree in the UK and turning down a job with an American multinational firm. "I realised that Asia wouldn't wait for me. For now I intend to stay local (in Singapore) to gain exposure, contacts, and especially capital. And then if I can, I will spring into China." - China Daily  Read More →

By James Oh, Lifestyle Correspondent It is everyone's dream to retire gracefully. The question is should we do so as to achieve it. Why so many people fail to achieve it? Is it very difficult to achieve it? In this article, I am going to give you some insight as how to work towards it. Which are the core areas you should address before you decide to retire. Here, I am going to discuss these issues in detail so as you can begin to prepare them in advance before your golden age. 1. Your children must be financially independent. Unless you are financially sound, you can not retire gracefully should your children be still dependent on you. Alternatively, you must be able to generate sufficient and adequate passive income to be able to support your lifestyle and your dependents. 2. You have zero debts Debts can kill unless you can manage them well. If you are a financial wizard and are able to use the debts to generate income which exceeds the cost of borrowing and at the same time be able to generate cash inflow more than sufficient to settle its due installment. Otherwise, the penalty and the late interest payment will add to your outstanding debts. Should you be unable to pay the installment and interest, the loan may be recalled. Thus, you have to settle the whole sum. To avoid putting yourself in this predicament, be sure to settle all your debts before you retire. 3. You have enough savings to support your lifestyle for the rest of your life In most cases, you may not have much income after you retire, unless you have passive income. As such, you must have adequate amount of savings that can support your lifestyle for the rest of your life. Here, you must also ensure that your savings take into account of rate of inflation. You are encouraged to have a few safety plans to cater for other contingencies. 4.  Know exactly what you can do during your retirement. Some people are not able to cope well with the sudden change in their life patterns.  Retirement is not as simple as you think. Some may think that they will have the time to travel and see the world. However, most of them can do it initially, but later they may run out of ideas. For those who enjoy sport, they might think that it is a golden opportunity for them to play their favorite game. However, most of them may no longer be fit enough or they may have difficulty to find their buddies to play with. Buddies are also needed for other games such as mahjong, badminton, trekking and karaoke.Most of them have difficulty finding those they can click to and share their favorite games. Playing/singing alone is not fun. Thus you must form your own sports/games groups BEFORE you retire. You need to identify your buddies, play with them and discover whether they can click with you. For the less sporty, reading may sound like a great idea, but you must truly enjoy it.. Otherwise, you may find it boring after a few pages and end up napping most of the time! Even if you have the hobby right now, you may not find it enjoyable later on. You still need to stay active during your retirement period. Bear in mind the fact that most of our routine work activities are either planned or dictated by others. It will be entirely a different ball game. When you retire, you need to establish your own routine activities. A good routine that can keep your body, mind and spirit sharpen are as follows: a) Physical sport - you need to stay healthy to enjoy your retirement. If you are the non-sporty type, you should at least try to clean your home yourself without mechanical aids. Dancing and baby sitting are other good alternatives. b) Mind stimulating activity - you need to stimulate your mind to stay active. However, mind stimulating activities are hard to identify. To acquire them successfully, you will not only need the will of doing something useful with the rest of your life, but also a mindset change and the discipline to carry it through. c) Social activity - try you best to choose activities involving lots of friends/neighbours. Unless you prefer to be alone, you need friends more than ever as you get older. They may give you moral and spiritual support, if you are in need. d) Community services activities - it is noble for you to give back to the society to show your appreciation of  what you have been benefiting from throughout your life, so as to leave some kind of legacy. After retiring, you still need to maintain a balance between amusing yourself and your family members. Do capitalize your spare time with opportunities that will come your way like responding to an unexpected request to do a job or to take advantage of cheap fares to visit an exhibitions/places.. You may turn to your one-off activities list when you are bored at times, despite having a busy routine.  These include anniversaries, trips, visits friends and relatives abroad, re-doing your home, attending conferences (related to your hobbies), acquiring a new set of expertise. Retirement is a serious business. Never take it lightly. If you can afford to retire and want to, prepare to live life to the fullest. You need to be fit to enjoy it - therefore get into shape now. You do not want to get up daily and wonder what to do, therefore identify your set of routine activities now and try them out to confirm that they are the activities that you will be looking forward to doing. Your one-off activities list of "rewards" or "projects" or "challenges" is needed to help you break away from the routine, thereby make life worth living. Start listing what you fancy and refine it as you chug along in your retirement. You will have so much fun; that you wish you have retired since you turned 21! Wishing you health and happiness, James Oh   About the Author: James Oh is an accountant by profession and he works as a Financial Controller for more than 10 years with several companies in Singapore and Malaysia. He is a full member of the Singapore Institute of Director and he also obtained a LLB (Law degree) from the University of London in 2003. He is happily married with 3 loving kids. James blogs at http://liftyouup.blogspot.com  Read More →

From our Correspondent PAP's losing candidate in Hougang during the last two elections has unshamedly claimed credit for bringing the Lift Upgrading Programme (LUP) to the residents living in the constituency! Speaking to the state media yesterday, Eric "Chiku" Low who claimed during the 2006 elections that the Hougang "chiku" was ripe for picking before losing to Workers' Party strongman Low Thia Kiang, he attributed Hougang being selected for the LUP to his relentless and unyielding efforts: "Though I was not elected, I have been trying hard to lobby the authorities including National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan to upgrade the lifts in Hougang. Now that the lifts will finally be ugraded, I am extremely satisfied about it." Mr Eric Low also said he is willing to stand in Hougang as a PAP candidate in the next election if the party decides to keep him. He revealed that he will be setting up a PAP kindergarten in Hougang next year which will charge 20 to 30 per cent less than private operators. As usual, Hougang's rightful and legitimate MP Mr Low Thia Kiang cannot be reached for comments. Though Mr Eric Low is only a representative of the PAP in Hougang constituency, he behaved as if he is the MP there. Instead of leaving Mr Low Thia Kiang to make the annoucement of the LUP, he jumped the gun and leaked the news to the media. Banners of Mr Eric Low are ubiquitous throughout Hougang estate while those of Mr Low Thia Kiang is conspicious by their absence. An unaware resident not living in Hougang may even mistake Mr Eric Low as Hougang's MP! While the PAP is not in charge of Hougang ward, it still conducts grassroots activities there to undermine the Workers' Party. A year ago, a despondent Mr Eric Low fresh from a second straight morale-sapping electoral defeat at the hands of Workers’ Party (WP) chief Low Thia Khiang — decided that he would stop being taken for granted by Hougang residents. So, he slapped a fee on his previously free health-screening programme and stopped his Meet-The-People sessions and popular free breakfast service for the needy. Nevertheless, given Mr Low Thia Kiang's tremendous popularity in Hougang where he is the MP since 1991, it is an uphill task for Mr Eric Low to unseat him in the next elections, even with the massive carrots of estate upgrading dangled in front of the residents.  Read More →