The main issue right now is the COST. It is true that Sg has one
of the best infrastructures and political stability in the Asia Pac
region. In the past, we have managed to attracted many big guys to
setup offices and distribution centres or even regional centres in
Sg. But with our SGD gets stronger and stronger, all our neighbour
dollar value shrinks. It makes Sg an expensive place to
invest.
It is a very real threat that if the trend for MNC relocation
continued, Sg will face a BIG BIG problem to maintain her status as
a hub. Take Matrox and Seagate for example, they used to have the
most advanced facilities outside US, to be located here. Thus, Sg
will be attractive for them to become their Distribution Centre
(logistic), Regional HQ. But when the manufacturing facilities
moving out, going closer to their targeted market, it is quite
clear that the Regional HQ or even Distribition Centre may go
along. What might be left is some R&D lab for some tax rebate.
We are losing the entire supply value chain rapidly, such faster
than our EDB high paid officials had anticipated.
Our EDB guys find it hard to believe that their good pro-industrial
policies are losing their attraction. They refused to admit that
costing is a critical factor for any business decision. Why? very
simple, these EDB guys with their golden rice bowl are not really
graded by their performance (how much investment that they bring
in), they still sit on their comfortable zone even the FDI in Sg
goes south. But this is entirely different in business world. The
CEO will need to justify the cost to setup a business, cost is the
ultimate factor that decide if the CEO will stay or get kicked in
the butt!
The past 2 years, I have been able to get in touch with the EDB /
IMRE / SIMtech guys. Their qualification are very high, most of
them PhDs. But with little or no industrial experiences neither do
they really understand how a business actually operate in real
life. In one of the meeting, I even saw a young business manager
from a reputable organization busing playing around and SMSing with
his phone! What a attitude!
In one of the most advanced wafer fab in Sg, it is a common sight
that majority of the engineers are PRC Chinese and Taiwainese
nationalities. The technicians are mostly from Indian, malaysian
and philipines. Most of the operators are malaysian or PRC chinese.
While only a handful of singaporean are working there. Thus, it is
not hard for the business leaders in this adavanced wafer fabs to
shift the manufacturing facilities out of Sg later.
Already Infineon has selected Malaysia site for their 200mm wafer
fabs. The Infineon has reasoned that Malaysia should offer better
COST advantages and similar quality of skilled manpower. Currently,
our electronic sector is still struggling to find growth in Q3,
when Taiwan, Korea and China micorelectronic sectors are already
recovering and expected to excel in 2006.
It is good that PM Lee has highlighted that importance of R&D
for our manufacturing pillar. We hope to see people who are
familiar with the industries to help Sg to chart our way towards
another great leap of growth!
