lwflee,
Your posts seem strangely out of sync with the rest; like a voice
in the wilderness!! The original post is too broad ranging to
provide focus. I think your points are more focussed on the economy
and about shifting our economy towards the services sector.
IMO, the most important element for success is quality of
expertise, be it in finance, tourism, legal, consultancy, medical,
education, entertainment, etc. (in any case, it is probably true
for most enterprises). To be frank, I don't believe our domestic
pool of talent is sufficient in quality and numbers to compete with
players in North America and Europe. We would need to attract top
talents to come and set up shop and to strengthen local service
enterprises. We should also leverage upon our knowledge of the
region and build niche markets.
The authorities are probably doing the right things with various
incentives, regulatory framework, promotions and foreign
partnerships. However, as with earlier phase of industrialisation,
I expect the GLCs will eventually dominate the scene. One could
also expect more government service establishments to be eventually
privatised and seize the opportunities. Pearlie has suggested the
authorities should leave the businesses entirely to the private
sector. I rather suspect we do not have sufficient pool of talent
in the private sector to make it happen.
I sympathise with the complaints of some of the other posters about
coping with rising costs. Unfortunately, this is an inevitable
consequence of economic growth. The government has to deal with the
social issue of growing disparity in income and dissatisfaction.
More has to be done to ensure the fruits of economic success are
also shared by the vast majority of middle and lower income
Sporeans.