This is what I have written back in April 2002
Goh Meng Seng
ñÒFMADCOW ([email protected])
å|FRe: Six moths to come up with....
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Ôã_dFsoc.culture.singapore
úúF2002-04-16 11:58:29 PST
tok_kok wrote in message
news:[email protected]
> On Sun, 14 Apr 2002 04:31:02 +0800, "MADCOW"
> wrote:
>
> >It took the Economic Review committee almost SIX MONTHS to
come up with this
> >tax reform thing but nothing else that is
constructive.
> >
> ~ i thought they were given NINE MONTHS? and so far only the
sub-com
> on taxation, cpf, land and wages have put up a report in SIX
MONTHS in
> order for it to be debated?
>
> ~ i thought there are still the committees for
"promoting
> entrepreneurship, and the growth and internationalisation
of
> Singapore-based companies"; "enhancing human capital";
"service
> industries"; "domestic enterprises"; and "economic
restructuring"
> committee that hasn't produced their findings?
I will be waiting and comparing the nonsense I have said so far
against
theirs! 
> ~ so now you wanna complain, "WHY SO LONG?? WHY SO MANY
COMMITTEE THIS
> COMMITTEE THAT??"
>
> ~ BTW (sori).. btw, any comments on FTAs vis a vis your
comment
> "Nothing was mentioned about our future strategic economic
alliances"?
FTAs. It will not save us from economic woes right now. Such
agreements
might have been very beneficial to us in the past, but the world is
changing
too fast.
Why? Even if we have FTA with US, and US charge hefty taxes on
products from
China, we will still lose in pricing!
Unless, such FTAs could make any transhipment of goods through
Singapore
will be tax free in US.. then that will be another story! However, the
possibilities for such thing to happen is almost Zero!
However, if we could build a Free Trade Zone which includes Asean
and India,
that will be a very different story. India is a pretty "protected"
economy
with hefty tarriffs. And it is almost forgotten as a very important
market
with its population projected to over take China in the decades to
come. IF
we could tie things up neatly and be the pioneers venturing into
such a big
potential, relatively closed market, we may have pretty good chance
of
catching up with Swiss standards of living.
But cultural differences and the lack of understanding of the
Indians will
be a big obstacle to overcome in the first phase.
Contrary to other pessimistic views over Indonesia's economic
future, I
think Indonesia will be a very large country with very huge
economics
potentials. Although political instability will increase its
business risk
factor in the short run, but that could be overcome with political
will. WE
should not discontinue our active engagement in Indonesia. If we
allow it to
be overrun by religious fanatics, we will be in great trouble.. or
in fact,
the whole region will be in great trouble. Thus, I think we should
continue
provide structured aids targeted at specific areas; maybe even help
them to
build public schools to divert the enormous amount of adverse
influences of
the fundamentalists and extremists. It will take alot of political
will and
wisdom to overcome the problem of a potentially destructive bomb
lying just
next door waiting to explode.
Well, that's all I have right now.. gotta to leave something for
the
opposition, right?
MADCOW
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