Competitiveness is not measured based on strictly monetary
terms. I think we win hands-down in terms of efficiency and
productivity, in being the least corrupt amongst all our
neighbours, in offering secure investment opportunities, in our low
corporate tax rates, etc. In international surveys done
annually, we always come up tops, not always due to cost.
Not all FT's bring down the wage costs. That's a
fallacy. I worked in a few American firms before donning on
my Nursing cap and there were lots of American expatriates in most
of them, and in one of them, on top of the Americans, there were
Filipinos, Thais, Indonesians, Hong Kongers, Australians,
Canadians, etc etc. I can safely declare that it will be
hard-pressed to replace them with Singaporeans because :
1) Singaporeans will not have the specialised expertise in the
areas the company was dealing with, eg. Mining, Excavating roads in
mountainous regions, etc.
2) Singaporeans may not necessarily know the local situations of
other countries well enough, and that's why we had to bring in FT's
who are knowledgeable about the field conditions back in their
homeland.
3) These FT's ended up training the young Singaporean Engineers
who were keen to pick up specialised knowledge. Thus, they
helped to improve the level of professionalism and expertise of
Singaporeans.
4) Working with these FT's provided me, and countless
others, with invaluable experience, exposure, and insight,
and to them, I shamelessly say that I am much indebted.
I think your view of FT's is extremely narrow. FT's don't
just refer to your blue-collar workers. My Literature tutors
in Secondary School and in JC were also FT's, and I think they did
a fantastic job! I don't think abolishing the presence of
FT's will help raise salary levels.
Competitiveness is not measured
based on strictly monetary terms. I think we win hands-down
in terms of efficiency and productivity, in being the least corrupt
amongst all our neighbours, in offering secure investment
opportunities, in our low corporate tax rates, etc. In
international surveys done annually, we always come up tops, not
always due to cost.
exactly ! ... but that is being used as an excuse to keep wages
low now, especially at the lower end of the spectrum ....
it's getting worse, not better ... I'll give you an example ...
an average unigrad in computer science a few years ago, local or
overseas, could have gotten 2.5k and better as a starting wage ...
people are now accepting 2.3 and below ... cos I knew an indonesian
chap, (actually a classmate of mine) who accepted a job here in
singapore for 2k a month .... I smacked him on the head and told
him he's spoiling the market here ... but he shrugged and said
that's what they offered him, so he took it .... my father's ITE
graduates are barely nudging past the 1k mark now, when they were
taking 1.5 and above a month ... people are dropping down the rungs
on the wage scale ...
i don't deny that foreign talents do Singapore a lot of good,
indeed to economies everywhere, but when there is a whole sale
hollowing out of the local work force, .... something is seriously
wrong ....
