Many manufacturing MNCs are here because we have an English
speaking workforce and the salaries are low. Ten
years ago, a production operator's pay is $1200. Today it hasn't
changed much. The same can be said of the engineer's salary. Would
it be any different for your children 20 years later when industry
wide salaries around south east asia hasn't changed much? What
would stop these MNCs moving to vietnam and indonesia when their
govts are aggressively pursuing foreign investments?
Answer: Singapore's continued focus on the manufacturing sector
means that we would have to keep our salaries depressed and the
import of foreigners from developing countries would do just
that.
Service industries are different. The labour required is more
capital intensive rather than labour intensive. Wages are not as
severe a factor as those in manufacturing. And in developed
economies, services and luxuries are in more demand than in a less
developed economy, hence the higher spending power in these sectors
such as banking, tourism, entertainment, conventions, restaurants,
retail etc etc etc. Salaries will gradually rise as result of this
pull up factor. That's what happened in the UK in the 70s and 80s,
when they ditched their focus on manufacturing and shifted instead
to services. That's not to say that they dumped the manufacturing
industry completely, it's about finding the right balance. If you
look at developed economies around the world, they have moved from
the era of industrial revolutions to service economies today.
Even Taiwan, with giants like Acer, Asus.....S. Korea with
Samsung, Hyundai etc have 60-70% of their economy steeped in the
service sectors. So if Singapore we continue down this path, what
kind of future do we want for our children? If we have children,
that is...lol....given our low fertility rate.
with service industries goin up to 60-70% for korea n
taiwan....thats why u end up seeing south koreans pushing trolleys
and doing labourers job in australia everywhere on 1 year
work /holiday visa.u must think folks like these are losers....but
they look more like degree holders,chiobus....and i actually
fainted when i saw these chiobu university grads from korea and
taiwan on TV cutting and piling iceberg lettuce from the
soil!!!!thats service industries i tell u!
i didnt see any japanese though as the japs want manufacturing
as they are more practical!!!they are the only ones who really
design n build new stuff.from PS3 to far out stuff thats prototyped
and mass produced in japan.
