PM told youth FT is good for Sg

last SG · 2006-09-25T10:06:06+00:00

FTs, where do you put them? how much do you pay them? isnt that the decision that your boss decide? if your boss thinks he is getting good returns for the s...

seancannot SG

TOday Paper PM told a job worried youth that FT can help to bring down HDB flat cost and better service, lower wage... but never address on the damages FT can do to us poor working Singaporean

Dunno quite understand... does it mean we should just accept lower wage and more competition while the cost of living escalate ... bus fare MRT increase leh

mhcampboy SG

On another note~~~

PM Lee renews call to young Singaporeans to play their part in country's future

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has renewed his call to Singapore's younger generation to play their part in making the country different.

But he also stressed that the process of opening up Singapore has to be done step by step.

Mr Lee was having a dialogue with some 200 young Singaporeans at a session organised by the National Youth Council.

They came armed with questions on the challenges facing Singapore on the economic front, giving greater value to an education in the polytechnics and the ITEs and if the day will come when Singaporean cultures are all merged into one.

Mr Lee explained that in a multi racial society like Singapore, the government will create the space to meet the specific needs of each racial and religious group.

But could the government consider setting aside a prayer room in schools for Muslim teachers?

PM Lee said: "At the same time we want to have a common space where all communities can fit in and everybody feels at home. The school, particularly government school, is one such area and we want to keep that open and shared as much as possible.

"We would rather not go to a system where every school will have to make separate little provision for each of the religious groups.

"It's not a practical problem. I can make a room, but I think it's an important philosophical point and an important reflection of our approach as a community, that in schools we are all the same, this is a secular place. After you leave school, you go to our religious institutions; that's what we are trying to do."

Mr Lee also assured the disabled that their needs would be looked into.

He said one recent step was to have English subtitles during his National Day Message telecast on TV for the hearing impaired.

And he believes such subtitling could be extended to news bulletins as well.

He said: "If you watch the Taiwanese or Chinese news bulletins, for Chinese, they will have Chinese subtitles because all over China, people speak the same words in different ways. So you need to read the subtitle to know what he is saying.

"We ought to be able to do that for our news bulletin too, at least the English one which is technically less difficult to do.

"I think we have asked MediaCorp to look at it and I am hopeful they will be able to work something out and that would be helpful. For the movies, it may be harder, probably the DVD is the best solution."

Subtitling for the news is in the works and details will be announced at a later date.

Whether it is about opening up the space more for discussion or growing Singapore's economic pie both at home and abroad, Prime Minister Lee emphasised that younger Singaporeans will have a greater role to play in the years to come, in shaping the future of Singapore.

He said: "We have to persuade young people eventually to conclude that: In Singapore, I can do something, I don't like this, let me get in and change this.

"If you say 'I don't like this', and say 'I am fed up, let's go', that's a great pity. We would have lost somebody in whom we put a lot of hopes and I think Singapore is worse off.

"What is it you are unhappy with, let's get that changed, that's how we got here today. If we were happy with what Singapore was 50 years ago, we would not have created Singapore today.

"And, if you are just happy with what Singapore is today, we are not going to change either. You must have the optimum degree of unhappiness, just right and the conviction to make it change."

Mr Lee also said that Singaporeans can expect more and more young people to be brought into politics to lead the country in the years ahead. - CNA/ir

UandMe SG

wat the hell, can we have FT to take over the PM's job?

Atobe SG

If FT can bring down HDB flat costs, then we should sack the Singapore Minister for National Development - Ma Blur Tan - who had always insisted that the HDB prices are the lowest possible, despite many years of complains from all Singaporeans, including MPs from both the Ruling and Alternative Parties.

FT can better service, LOWER WAGE - we can certainly appreciate better services, but do we want to lower our wages ?

Was this misquoted, or did PM LHL make another mistake in his speech - similar to fixing the Opposition Members of Parliament ?

4getmenot SG

"We have to persuade young people eventually to conclude that: In Singapore, I can do something, I don't like this, let me get in and change this."

this sentence make me laugh!!

BrUtUs SG

is lower wage even a gd thing....? Laughing

NewAge SG

yah its good thing for ppl who pay u isn't it. The PM is paid by us but we have no say in it!!!! So do u think a lower wage is a problem for hm since PAP decide on a high wage.

oxford mushroom SG

Lower wages mean lower costs for consumers. What's bad for the worker is good for the consumer. The prices of clothing and shoes in Europe and US have been kept down because of cheap Chinese imports. Similarly, restaurants can keep prices down and compete if their FT waiters are willing to accept a lower salary than what Singaporeans will take. Singaporean consumers benefit from their lower wages.

We want cheaper healthcare in polyclinics but manpower costs constitute one big component of it. By bringing in doctors from Myanmar and India, nurses from China and the Philippines, all of whom are willing to work for lower wages, they depress the salaries of local junior doctors and nurses. Lower wages for them means cheaper healthcare for sick Singaporeans.

We want to keep taxes low and yet our roads must be well maintained. Without workers from India and Bangladesh, we would have to raise our salaries for Singaporean laborers to be interested in doing roadworks under the hot sun. That will increase costs for the government, which will eventually be passed down to tax payers. Lowering the wages for Singaporean laborers translates into lower taxes and conservancy fees for Singaporeans.

We want the economy to grow but we lack sufficient skilled professionals in certain fields, eg. engineers in precision engineering, scientists in biomedical industry and software designers in our IT industry. Market forces dictate that where these professionals are in short supply, their wages will escalate, which in turn lowers our competitiveness. Bringing in FT to fill these positions will increase the available manpower supply for employers and prevent wages of local experts from rising inexorably.

robertteh SG

Why are so many new graduates unemployed ?

Why are so many highly educated work force out of jobs?

With such unemployment, can we afford not to lower costs of doing business and increase attractions to our own people to start their own small businesses?

As far as I can see, the present government's pro-foreign investment and employment policy is just a smokescreen based on its claim that foreigners would come in to create jobs and help lift the local's employment prospect.

There is no independent study to verify that this claim is true, and it will not cause unemployment problems among the locals.

With so many policies and decisions in the past causing so many problems as posted in the "20 major government policy errors", one could see that it is bad for government to push such policy again withut substantiation down the throat of the people.

There should be no judgmental or creative accounting method of presenting what look good and avoiding mention of problems.

Until such government claim is properly presented, citizens could only take it with a pinch of salt that it will be good as claimed.

This type of leadership and government is still the old-style "we know best" approach adopted by the past leaders which might be the cause of our losing out in economic competitiveness, dropping of wages and increasing high cost problems since the 1970s.

I could only see the jobs being taken away as all kinds of foreigners are coming in to occupy all the businesses and positions locals could handle.

Just because government needs to approve foreigners' applications for starting similar businesses here must government be the one to succeed in its invitation game while local are edged out and becoming unemployed by large number.

If the foreign talents we want are categorized and identified, at least the whole policy will become more transparent and we can see it will not cause problems to locals.

Majority of local businesses are not doing well. Give them a chance to succeed by changing the government present pro-big pro-foreign procurement policy and local businesses will become vibrant again.

About the only talents we badly need now is heavy-weight foreign-talent ministers who have better ideas how to transform the economy to value-adding technology-start-up and knowledge-application model and some specialist scientists and engineers.

The government now only generalize its claim that foreigners will do a better job in existing investments and existing jobs locals are doing.

Let the ministers tell us with facts and figures which special categories of foreign talents we need and not generalise and open up all businesses and employment liberally to all foreigners just to save a few dollars.

In the long run, there is a social costs incurred by foreigners which should be factored in as we can see in the great number of study mamas working as moonlighting masseues in AMK and many estates.

Show facts and figures and not presumed all major policies will work by just making top-down announcement with no chance for locals to ask questions.

tripwire SG

for a start.. how about stop depending on govt policies to save our local industries.

what the hell is entrepreneur anyway? if not to overcome obstacle and challenge and climb up the ladder of success?

but you seem to prefer the govt to lay out the red carpet for local industries to succeed... that aint right my friend... like that we will end up with a singapore version of malaysia NEP.

and for god sake... give our local enterprise a chance to proof their own mettle on their own two feet.

we always laugh at our neighbour being put on clutched.. and here we are gonna propose the same thing for our own "towkays"?

and wat is wrong with pro-big? dont you want a higher salary if you have the chance ? or you prefer to stick out your hand under the overhead bridge or outside the temple?

NotFromVenus SG

Lets have FT , who doesn't want to retire in Singapore , take lower wages.

Lets have more FT who sends $$$ home to buy houses and feed their own Children. Get better education in their hometown.

Lets have more FT who doesn't take loans for housing in Singapore.(they get shared company lodging).

Lets have more FT who doesn't know their customer service skills and blame it on Arrogant Singaporeans.

tripwire SG

face it... irreguardless how good for nothing those FT are.. they are important to us...

and face it double time.. that no matter how good we singaporeans are... there aint enough of us around.

with so many metropolis popping up all over asia with populations of 10 million or more....

unless singapore reach a critical population density (through FT import), singapore would be relegated to obscurity in the investors handbook.

and i read up there.. someone laughing at our PM's idea that FT lower our Cost of living... for your information... some FTs brings tons of cash into singapore..

cash that raise the value of sing dollar in the forex market... rising sing dollar allow us to purchase foreign goods at a lower price, buy oil for your car and so on...

so it does reduce our COL by pushing down inflation by raising forex value of singapore dollar.

so... go and read some economic books first, before you laugh at our PM.. at least he was the finance minister... he knows what he is talking.

NotFromVenus SG

The % of poorer FT to Richer FT is almost the same as there are as many real FT who are talented to those who are not-so-talented. So ultimately the income gap still widens.

Yes, more investments in Singapore means more Jobs needs to be filled. But at the high cost of living in Singapore, how many skilled Singaporeans wants to Downgrade their pay packages?

robertteh SG

Yes, it is true no one expects the government to help the private sector entrepreneurs who must be self-reliant and not look to the government for any rescue packages.

I am not suggesting private sector should depend on government for assistance or hand-out. They must do well with their own abilities and entrepreneurship.

But look at our government policies again to see whether it is a case of private sector not trying hard enough or is it a case of government actions at over-charging costs and accumulating taxes into surpluses which result in our loss of economic competitiveness.

Just look at its anti-business policies such as the following:-

(1) Double charging on land costs by HDB, JTC, LTA, Utility companies, government departments and statutory board making off-budget capital gains of S$14 billions over the 10 year period 1990-2000 when the taxpayers already paid for the lands under taxations years back.

In Singapore government uses the Land Acquisition Act to acquire lands at dirt cheap prices for public use including low-cost housing and medical services.

For essential services, like housing, medical and utilities, government has the duty to use such cheap lands to lower the costs of living and doing business in Singapore, but government taxes and accumulate all taxes into surpluses and then claim success from which they pay themselves their milion-dollar salaries.

By using creative accounting as done in NKF, it continues to charge for land and recover all costs to the fullest and even double charge on lands in providing all its services.

(2) Corporatisation of essential government services into all kinds of GLCs and raise the fees to market values - this policy causes the cost of living and doing business in Singapore to go up and up killing the private sector goose that lays the golden egg.

(3) Triple charges on transportation - Excise duty was already charged originally at 175 % many years back of iimport OMV making tons of profits for the government. Upon introducing COE, as the fairer way to price road congestion, minister of transport knew that it would be double charging should he make people pay for COE while keeping to the existing excise duty. So out of his conscience, he promised to do away with Excise duty but he failed to keep his promise after COE was introduced resulting in transportation costs being so high that just to set up a business, an entrepreneur is heavily burdened by double taxations of this type.

(4) Getting NTUC and all the GLCs to go into private sector business to compete against them killing off the domestic sector of the economy. It is morally wrong to "bite the fingers which feed you so to speak".

(5) After accumulating all the taxes into surpluses due to creating accounting, double charging and tax-and-recover-all-cost practices into billion-dollar surpluses, hoard the monies and invest them in overseas ventures like Optus and Shin Corp that cause great losses amounting to billions.

These monies should have been returned to the people through setting of endowment funds to lower costs of living instead of spending them outside to benefit and create employments for foreigners.

This sort of government policy is anti-business and killing off our private sector economy.

That is the reason why Singapore economy has been going down and down since the 1970s. Up to now government has still failed to recognize why the domestic SMEs cannot survive. Most of the shop keepers are facing a crunch even now.

If government stops the past policy of raising fees on every thing and returns the extra double taxations to bring down costs of living, and doing business, there is no reason Singapore economy cannot take off again.

If only government knows that by its high-cost double charging and triple charging on various big expenditure items, people are suffering and businesses simply cannot survive.

It is not a case of businesses asking government for help. It is a case of government not knowing its job how to create a vibrant economy.

Rock^Star SG

Foreign, construction workers, architects and engineers bring down the costs of our HDBs? Somebody pls tell me he's kidding. Is this another "mee siam mai hum" boo-boo? Rolling Eyes

In the 60s it was common to drop out of school and "not a very fantastic figure" actually made it past O'Levels. So today, one may still see aunties and uncles with loew education working in coffeeshops, as delivery drivers, technicians etc. Now let's fast forward 20 years. Then will be the day where the average joe in the street are poly and degree holders, how many low educated people left to work in such low paid job? Locals? Unlikely, most probably foreigners. It is already happening today.

Ever noticed that a lot of salesgirls in our deparment stores and waiters in restaurants are helmed by Malaysians? It's too low paid already, few Singaporeans would want to hold full-time jobs there. So I would be right to say that our retail sector would collapse, should we not have these Malaysians.

Let's look at our certain industries in a healthy and objective manner. Though Oxford Mushroom is a PAP supporter but that does not mean he does not have valid points. He is actually right to say that bringing in Indian and Mayanmar doctors will help to lower healthcare costs for all Singaporeans.

BUT the govt also has to take a careful stand between "bringing in foreigners for profit reasons and the intention to support the economy."

seancannot SG

In a nut shell

On a bigger picture FT is indeed good for Sg to stay competitive in the global enviroment... but the PM should also spare a thought for the poorer citizen who are not doing well and have problem finding a job... we cannot be conveinently marginalised to be Taxi driver , guards or cleaner ...

Just hope the government plan the policies with our welfare in mind as well

dragg SG

why do homeowners want hdb prices to drop?

oops. he doesnt even care about the older people who already have flats???

weiqimun SG

i hv not really read the postings above, especially the lengthy ones but one clear trend is already upon us,

these so-called FT are filling up posts at all levels of the work strata in SG. we are not talking about filling a gap; unlike in the past where no SG wants to get their hands dirty doing menial works, today we see these `FT' all over, from entry level to executives, mid-mgmt level, etc. if u r not in `sensitive' industries, like dealing in arms or in a govt-link job, u will have to compete with these FTs.

the playing field has change and the train left the station alredy. if u are still under the illusion that foreigners comes to take jobs SGeans dun want, the sooner u wake up, the better it is for you.

the question then is does SGeans have an inalieanable right to jobs in SG? of cos not, if one were to talk abt the meritocracy the gahmen preach. but for the same job, is it the same level playing field between the FTs and SGeans? unfortunately, the answer is again no. FTs will most lkly be here on their own and do not have the same level of commitment SGns hv (family, loans, etc). n becos they need to `get tt break', they r willing to compromise on the pay first just to land the job, or a job. Ft's motivations is to find a better life for their family back home. SGns on the other hand, have different motivations to say the least. for mid- to entry level jobs, the competitive pressure then is driving the renumeration down. u have more candidates now for the same finite number of jobs. tis unfortunately affect the bulk of Sgeans. for a S$3k job, if the FT is willing to settle for S$2.5k, the SGeans are in for a rude shock

On the flip side, for the lucky few SGeans who are in the upper echelon of the work force, they are in for a better time. this fenomena is the reverse. FTs will drive up the income level, due to the `skillsets' they bring. Sgeans, with the similar skillsets, will ride the wave.

the only safe hobbits are the ones in government org.

this will drive 2 trends:
1. income disparity amgst Sgeans widens amongst the haves and the have nots.
2. SGeans will be encourage to go to the foreign lands to find work. repeating the exact same thing that is happening here. go to a city/country tt will pay u `better wage', read `below market rate over there'. dubai, hong kong, usa comes to mind.

for the less mobile, they r the unluckiest lot. they just need to depend on the progress package. but to get that, mk sure they cast the right vote....

www SG

how about appoint a FT as our PM, or at least a constitutional MP.

its easy to tell others to be calm and relax when their wallet are being stolen. try having urs being stolen.

ShutterBug SG

JESUS!!!

FTs for every Gawd Damned thing!!!

Evil or Very Mad