S’pore will continue to grow even if recession hits: MM Lee

S’pore will continue to grow even if recession hits: MM Lee

SINGAPORE: Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said Singapore would continue to grow even if the world economy slows down in the coming years.

Speaking at a community event at Tanjong Pagar GRC on Sunday, he said there are enough foreign investments in Singapore, such as the two upcoming integrated resorts and next year’s Formula One race, to make sure that Singaporeans have jobs.

For many Singaporeans, older generation leaders like MM Lee have laid a strong foundation for the country.

But Mr Lee said it may not be all plain sailing ahead for Singapore in the years to come.

He said: “There’s a real possibility that next year or a year down, the road prices will go out of control. America goes into recession and stops buying so much. China stops exporting so much. India stops exporting, and we will also stop exporting.

“Don’t just believe everything will go up. Those who have lived long enough know that this is not true. So please remember to diversify your assets.”

That is why, Mr Lee said, the government has a careful spread of investments across several items like real estate, bonds and shares, to adapt to how the market shifts from time to time.

He is also confident that Singapore is able to weather a global economic slowdown with several recent million—dollar foreign investments already in the bag.

Mr Lee said: “The construction work that goes on with these investments, the two integrated resorts, the Formula One and the hotels, you will not starve.”

He said that the current economic boom in Singapore did not happen by chance.

It was achieved through careful planning and he promised that the government will continue to improve the assets of Singaporeans by improving public housing and the environment around it.

This includes the upgrading of older estates like Queenstown, which has a new feature called the Alexandra Canal Linear Park.

Mr Lee believes such enhancements will increase property prices of public housing and improve the value of assets owned by 85 percent of Singaporeans.

The minister mentor also launched a heritage book documenting the history of Queenstown.
Source : Channel NewsAsia - 12 Nov 2007

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Singapore workers tipped to top region in variable pay

Singapore workers tipped to top region in variable pay

Poll projects 2.32 mths’ salary in 2008; bosses also seen hiking pay by 5.1%
By CHUANG PECK MING

(SINGAPORE) A bonus of 2.32 months’ salary may not look impressive, but that’s likely to be the largest variable payout for Asian workers in 2008 - and Singapore employees are the ones tipped to take home that big reward next year, according to a poll by HR Business Solutions.
At the same time, employers here are expected to hand out an average of 5.1 per cent increase in pay in the coming year, the highest in five years, says the regional human resource service firm.

The average pay hike was 3.3 per cent in 2004, 3.8 per cent in 2005, 4.1 per cent in 2006 and 4.8 per cent this year.

‘Again, the financial services industry can expect the highest pay increase (next year) averaging 6.5 per cent,’ says Elaine Ng, managing principal and director of HRBS.

‘Employers are under tremendous pressure to adjust salary upwards in view of current full employment and strong demand for talent,’ she says.

Inevitably, salary hikes will spill over into bonuses.

‘While the average bonus is 2.32 months across industries, those in the (hot) financial sector can look forward to the highest bonus payout averaging 4.34 months,’ Ms Ng says.

Employees at the management level are likely to be handed the largest bonus - 3.12 months, according to the poll. Production workers are expected to take home the smallest bonus of 1.4 months.

The average 2.32 months’ bonus projected for Singapore employees in 2008, based on a poll of 23,491 employers in 18 locations in the region, works out to be 17.9 per cent of their annual fixed pay, including the annual wage supplement, or 13th month bonus.

Singapore employees already enjoyed the biggest variable bonus in 2007, but the 2008 bonus is expected to be bigger than the average 2.26 months they received this year.

‘This is the highest across the Asia-Pacific region, including China and India,’ Ms Ng says. ‘Singapore’s expected GDP growth for 2007 is the highest after China, India and Vietnam - and this is a good year for most companies with better return on profitability.’

An upbeat Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong last month told the labour movement that Singapore is likely to wrap up the year with an economic growth at the higher end of the official forecast of 7-8 per cent.

‘The Singapore economy has performed very well and the labour market is tight with domestic and regional demand pressures,’ Ms Ng says.

Preliminary figures by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) released late last month showed job creation continued to be strong in the July-September months, knocking the unemployment rate down to 1.7 per cent - the lowest in a decade.

After Singapore, Chinese workers are tipped to enjoy the biggest variable bonus payout (16.8 per cent of annual fixed pay) in the region in 2008, followed by Malaysian workers (16.6 per cent). Workers in India - which, together with China, is one of the two hottest Asian economies - are likely to enjoy bonuses averaging 14.8 per cent of fixed annual pay.

Workers in Sri Lanka are expected to be given the smallest bonus (10.3 per cent of annual fixed pay) in the region.

Source : Business Times - 12 Nov 2007

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S’pore won’t fight inflation with price controls: PM Lee

S’pore won’t fight inflation with price controls: PM Lee
Rising cost of living for lower-income, elderly to be met in other ways
By CONRAD TAN

(SINGAPORE) The government is unlikely to impose controls on food or utility prices in response to rising inflation, but will continue to use other ways to help Singaporeans cope with the cost of living, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday.
‘We help - we do a lot - but we don’t help by keeping the prices individually controlled. We help by making sure that the low-income are able to pay for their necessities, able to earn a living, able to have a house over their heads.’
- PM Lee

Although many other countries control oil prices, electricity prices and even bus fares to help poor people, ‘our approach in Singapore is different’, he said.

‘We help - we do a lot - but we don’t help by keeping the prices individually controlled. We help by making sure that the low-income are able to pay for their necessities, able to earn a living, able to have a house over their heads.

‘We help you through Workfare, so if you work, you get more. And then we have packages like the Progress Package.

‘This is the way we help Singaporeans and low-income Singaporeans to cope with the cost of living.’

He made the remarks at the People’s Action Party (PAP) annual convention at the National University of Singapore’s University Cultural Centre yesterday.

More than one party member had asked how the PAP-controlled government could help lower income Singaporeans cope with rising price inflation.

The difficulties faced by lower-income Singaporeans and the elderly were also raised by several Members of Parliament who spoke during the three-hour convention.

Mr Lee said: ‘We’ve had a period now where the cost of living actually has been very stable. Inflation has been very low, bus fares have not gone up very much, food prices have not gone up very much, housing prices have been stable.

‘Going forward, we’re not sure that we can keep the cost of living as stable and as low as it has been. Oil prices are high and may rise further. Food prices have gone up.

‘And bus fares will have to adjust when energy prices go up. Electricity prices have to go up. So I think this is something which people are going to be worried about.’

Although some expect the government to step in to keep prices low through controls, he said that it would be unwise to do so.

‘If you look at bus fares in many countries, these are controlled so the bus companies lose money, the government just coughs up. Electricity prices similarly in many countries are controlled. And that is one way those governments try to help the poor people.’

‘We do care,’ he said. ‘The principle is, you help yourself, you work, the government will help you. But you must make the effort. And that is how Singapore will succeed, that’s how you will succeed. And I think that’s an approach that’s worked for the economy, for the country, and we must keep that.’

Source : Business Times - 12 Nov 2007

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Singapore way to fight rising cost of living works: PM

Singapore way to fight rising cost of living works: PM

By Peh Shing Huei

THE cost of living is rising, and the Government is helping Singaporeans cope with it, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said yesterday.
While many people elsewhere would look to their governments to keep prices low, Singapore’s approach is different, and Mr Lee believes it is one that works.

Its aim is to get the basics right - housing, jobs and affordable necessities.

‘We help, we do a lot, but we don’t help by keeping the prices individually controlled,’ he said at a dialogue at the People’s Action Party (PAP) annual convention. ‘We help by making sure that the low income are able to pay for their necessities, able to earn a living, able to have a roof over their heads.’

While Singapore has gone through years with a stable cost of living and very low inflation, he acknowledged it might be tough to maintain such stability going forward.

Prices of flour, food, energy and even chicken are going up, and people are understandably worried, he said.

Following a jump in flour prices, bread prices here went up by up to 20 per cent, and noodles increased by 20 cents to 30 cents per kilogramme.

While there are calls on the Government to control prices, he said, Singapore will not head the way of countries such as Malaysia, China and India by keeping fuel and electricity prices down.

Instead, the Government helps the people with subsidies in education and HDB flats, through the Workfare Income Supplement scheme and periodic CPF top-ups when there are Budget surpluses.

‘So, with the house, the HDB flat which we help you to buy… nearly everybody has a home, which is a big relief. So when rentals go up, you are not affected because you have your house, and you have something for your old age to retire by,’ he said in response to concerns raised by a cadre on the rising cost of living.

There is also Workfare, he added, which sees the Government topping up the wages of low-income workers.

For example, those who earn $1,000 a month would get $1,000 plus of ‘hongbao’ from the Government a year in cash, CPF and Medisave, and this goes on continually.

But while these policies are important and helpful to the people, he believed the Government can do a better job in explaining them to Singaporeans.

He said that while the fine print of policies can be complicated, the principle behind them is not.

‘The principle is to help yourself - you work, the Government will help you. But you must make the effort, and that is how Singapore will succeed. That is how you will succeed,’ he said.

‘And I think that is an approach that has worked for the economy, for the country, and we must keep that.’

Mr Lee was on a nine-member panel in the 90-minute dialogue at the meeting for cadres to speak on issues and challenges the party has to tackle.

Flanked by PAP chairman Lim Boon Heng, five MPs and a pair of activists, the PM tackled concerns that centred on the convention’s catchy theme, ‘Young and old, high and low’, which refers to Singapore’s ageing society and the growing income gap.

Mr Lee noted that Singapore’s approach to battle the wealth divide has attracted the attention of other countries.

Referring to his recent interview with Chosun Ilbo, he said the South Korean top daily printed almost everything he said and displayed it over two pages.

Major newspapers and magazines in the West such as the Economist have also written about Singapore’s changes, he said.

Urging the party to continue to serve Singaporeans so that it can win their support, he said: ‘You are wearing white because it is a symbol that you care…and you are not just sitting there and letting somebody else take charge of the train

Source : Straits Times - 12 Nov 2007

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