SINGAPORE: During a dialogue at the Singapore
Polytechnic's Graduates Guild on Friday evening, one participant
asked Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong about his views on the
perception that young Singaporeans are "soft", compared to their
peers from other countries, such as China.
Mr Goh said the more appropriate description for the
younger generation is perhaps, that they are "not hungry enough"
and that is due, in part, to the fact that Singapore has been
successful, over the years.
The solution - to keep with the right strategies, go
back to increasing productivity and to improve pay.
He said: "It's a matter of market forces. Supply and demand. In
China, that man has no other job to go to. There are 600 million
people competing with him for jobs. In our case, because we have
done so well, every year we are creating 50,000 jobs. We only have
20 to 30 thousand inflow into the workforce, people have choice. So
what is the solution? Well, maybe just a bad dose of government and
you have unemployment for five, six years and Singaporeans will
feel hungry! Do you want that? Answer is no!
"Because it's our job to make sure that we continue to grow and if
we do so, they got a choice. What can we do? We all have a problem
because people have a choice! So you just cannot compare the
problem with China? What is your solution? Then you have to go back
to productivity, to paying them well and so on. It's tough. Moving
forward, rising expectations, better educated Singaporeans and new
leadership, can we lead Singapore forward? If we have the right
strategies, our future remains bright."
-CNA/ac