How Can We Have More and Better Paying Jobs?

dragg SG

you do community work for free?

then you are a great man.

Salman SG

Yes sir, I put in my energy and my money. I know what I am talking about.
I help the people to help themselves. Handouts are a no no.

weijian SG

living in singapore definately is stressful, but depends on how u managed it.

As for the high income paid personnels...if the govt reduce their pay, then who will contribute more tax to the govt and those tax that comes from the rich goes into the poor and needy.....

we as the poor pay little tax, but the rich pays as high as 30% tax...so its basically fair that high income paid ppl get higher taxation from govt...

if we wanna increase our living standards of life, we have to learn to buy the needs and not the wants & also to practice self-delayed gratificiation.

dragg SG

our standard of living is too high already.

diggo SG

IMHO...

We are looking at a better standard of living. Therefore we should be looking at either increasing the salary or reducing the cost of living. Either way should work.

Both got it pros and cons and to reduce the scope of the discussion, let's limit it to domestic issues and leave out the foreign balance of of payment or competitiveness etc.

High paying salary may not be a good thing as it may lead to a high inflation rate. If everyone got higher pay... then all the standard of living will still be the same. The ultimate aim is to have a better standard of living.... ie to put it bluntly, a bigger bang for the buck.

The major items tat SGP are not competitive in are the land cost and the hosuing cost. Both are hold up artificially... however, a gradual reduction is avocate. as reduction will have other impact.

Another area is going into niche markets. It is either u r the lowest cost producer, or u have a niche. no where in between. We are out of the low cost producer arena.... therefore we should go for the niche. We need to built up the knowledge base and the branding in the specific areas that we wanted to develop in. For example, SGP has be known of oil refinery, Swiss are known for their watch making.

This is the view that the govt has put up for the next few yrs and it is from 10,000 ft above. Speed of execution and implementation is the key and we are lagging in this area.

Lowclassman SG

why u help? Why not our money face govt? How much can you help? Are u trying get PBM for our prasidant? Mr. Green

Salman SG

I do what I can do. If everybody does his part, the world will be a better place.
Listen to Mike Jackson, look at the man in the mirror. Nanananananananana.... ooh...

oxford mushroom SG

Where land and housing costs are concerned, the govt is riding the tiger and cannot do much, what with so many Singaporeans having banked all their retirement savings (and in debt) over their HDB flat.

You are absolutely right about niche industries. The problem is that these niches (such as R&D, biomedical technology, nanotechnology etc) do not employ huge numbers of people and require highly skilled workers. So whilst we are going around to employ PhDs from China, India and the West; large numbers of uncles and aunties in their late 40s, early 50s cannot find jobs after retrenchment. Young graduates who do a general Bachelor degree or have qualifications that are not in demand eg. arts and social science, media studies, psychology; will not find it easy to get jobs.

The government has to continue looking for niche industries and the population must also respond by getting training to find jobs in these industries. Otherwise, we will have to bring our skills in traditional industries overseas where costs are lower and more competitive. The only way to maintain our high quality of life is to go somewhere else for retirement then.

BillyBong SG

Is this seriously a thread about the means to improve the job market?

Or is it just another govt-critic bashing session?

archon1234 SG

All investment are only business decision. For a businessman to commit a investment decision, there must be a high degree of confidence that his investment will give the target yield. Sadly, all these confidence in Sg seems to be evaporating off overnight after 2000 the dot.com bubble burst.

It is evident that even Sg gov investment firm are reallocating their investment weightage in Sg. They had even stated that more investment will be going towards Europe, jap and china... the weightage for Sg investment in their portfolio will dropped from 49% in 2005 to 33% in 20xx in their annual report. How can we expect our potential foreign investor to throw in their $$$ when our own Sg gov investement firm is trimming the investment at home?

Just take some examples;

1. Korea had managed to emerage as a come-back kid after the 1997 Asia Crisis. A lot of korean MNCs are investing heavily on their home turf to support the local economy growth. Samsung had committed USD19Biliion to bulid a large wafer / LCD manufacturing park just outside Seoul by 2010.

2. Taiwanese are not far behind. A taiwanese companies lead by Acer, AU and few other giants are committed to spend SGD56billion to open up a high tech industrial park in Taichung just in October 2005. It is projected that the first factory will open its door by late Aug 2006 (barely 10 mths down the road), and expected to ramp up to full production by mid 2007.

3. Jap companies are joining hands to build mega fab projects in mainland Jap despite of the rising manpower cost.

4. Even Intel has been investing back in States for their newly upgraded 65nm Fab.

So what are our action plan??

pearlie27 SG

oh, definitely a govt-critic bashing thread and a very rude one too.

diggo SG

2. Taiwanese are not far behind. A taiwanese companies lead by Acer, AU and few other giants are committed to spend SGD56billion to open up a high tech industrial park in Taichung just in October 2005. It is projected that the first factory will open its door by late Aug 2006 (barely 10 mths down the road), and expected to ramp up to full production by mid 2007.

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I am staying in Taichung. and the place that they are developing is huge. They also have a huge knock-on effect in that the number of resturants/pubs/shops/supermarkets have increase. However the cost of living has gone up (rental increase) plus those ppl working in the old traditional industry suffers as they are obsoleted and got to move out. You can literally see it... the bulding of the high tech industry park on the right hand side of the road and simultaneously the demolition of the "old tech" factory.

These are the co-lateral demage that they have to take to reinvent themselves constantly. The way to avoid this is to move to a peaceful country or trained urself in the art of warfare.

diggo SG

Wat will happened if in20 yrs time the focus is not in Biomed/nano/R&D.. so wat do those PHDs do? Are they mobile/agile enough to look for the next phase in the development of the industry in SGP or move on with the industry to the next place that still uses it. Example, a lot of Mfg guys move on the China to work.

Jobs will never be easy...given a choice no one would want to work. Effort need to be put in by the individual to look for his/her niche...

Even aunties and uncles can worked out their niche. What about starting a home-nanny services or house cleaning services for those expats that is moving in? If u cannot goes into the niche industry, one can always try to get into the supporting area

oxford mushroom SG

They will have to constantly watch the movement of the industry and adapt...that's what the govt has been telling us. I think these industries will still be hot after 20 years but the subject may change. So IT professionals who used to do COBOL will be outdated if they don't keep up with the times. Right now there is alot of competition with cheap IT people from India but there is a great demand for a new niche of IT: that of bioinformatics.

I agree with you totally....individuals have to put in effort to look for a niche but in addition, they will have to keep looking even when they have found one, as technology and needs change with time.

As for aunties, I thought of your idea a long while back. It will not work as long as Singaporeans have access to cheap foreign maids who work 7 days a week without leave or off hours. Who would want to pay an auntie $20 to clean the house each time when you can get a full-time maid to do everything under the sun, 12 hours a day, every day of the week, for only $300 a month?

diggo SG

I would say it is partially true... it is all about niche though
For example: For a family of 3, both working with the child at the nursery. Some may not want a live-in maid with nothing to do. Also singles who share a condo... will not want a maid around.

Overall cost is lower, 3 times a wk @ 20 = 240. Without the risk of the losing ur deposit when the maid run away or get pregnant.

Fact of the matter is that there are niches out there that no one has / too lazy to explore before.

dragg SG

he is an ardent supporter of our govt.

CosmoKing SG

nothing wrong with that, and you see lots of young upstarts doing community service, joining political parties for associations and business network opportunities. you see, if there is an agenda, it is more likely the self gratification kind. but better not be those fumbling 3-legged dog in the entourage out to soak in the fanfare and sniff for praises and public acknwledgements. as when it trips or doesnt walk the talk, these would be the first to go. maybe many don't know, but I heard from their whispers... 'I not stupid you know?'...

Salman SG

Most people do community service out of altruism. PAP actually makes sure of that. In order to climb the political ladder thru grassroots service, you need to serve the people very hard and you can't take breaks. Its a deliberate system put in place by PAP so that grassroots movement isn't corrupt.

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