Plans unveiled for Punggol waterfront park

Plans unveiled for Punggol waterfront park

4.9-km promenade, lotus pond, horse riding centre, among amenities in pipeline
By LYNETTE KHOO

THE waterfront promenade coming up at Punggol Point will be a new sea sports and recreation centre with rustic seaside dining venues.
The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) yesterday unveiled the design proposals for the waterfront and park, which will add to the leisure amenities in the north-eastern part of Singapore.

Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean gave residents of Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC a snapshot of the development plans for the Punggol Waterfront Promenade at the constituency’s Family Day festivities yesterday.

A 4.9-kilometre promenade will be built to connect two proposed sports and recreation clusters at Punggol Point and along Sungei Serangoon. It will also be linked to new park connectors planned by the National Parks Board (NParks) along Sungei Punggol and Sungei Serangoon.

Residents will be able to walk the entire stretch of the Punggol coastline from Sengkang Park to Punggol Park. The 4.9-km walk will comprise three thematic zones - Punggol Point Walk, Nature Walk and Riverside Walk.

Construction, estimated to cost $13 million, will begin in the middle of next year and is expected to be completed by 2010. It will be funded by URA and the project will be handed over to NParks for maintenance. URA said that it does not intend to close off the area from public use during construction.

Punggol Point was identified as one of the coastal areas with rustic charm in the URA’s Parks and Waterbodies and Identity Plans that were drawn up in 2002. The Punggol coastline is currently interrupted by several drainage outlets with no continuous pathway for public access to the waterfront.

Punggol Point is currently a popular venue for activities like fishing and camping. Among new amenities coming up will be a lotus pond and a 0.6-hectare park. There will also be a horse-riding centre and food and beverage hub at Punggol Point. The site for the horse-riding centre has been awarded recently while the site for the dining development has been put on the Reserve List in the Government Land Sales Programme, up for bids by interested developers.

‘More attractions will be built when the remaining land parcels are successfully tendered out,’ Mr Teo, who is an MP for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC and adviser to the town council, said yesterday.

URA invites feedback from the public on the Punggol Waterfront Promenade before construction begins.
Source : Business Times - 19 Nov 2007

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Asean integration possible, but needs business commitment: ministers

Asean integration possible, but needs business commitment: ministers
Leaders plan to sign a blueprint to bring it forward to 2015
By MATTHEW PHAN
(SINGAPORE) Asean integration is achievable, but business must play its part, trade and commerce ministers from Singapore, Indonesia and Cambodia said at a panel discussion yesterday.

‘Either Asean integrates, or integration will bypass Asean … we are playing catch-up.’

- S’pore Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang

Leaders plan to sign a blueprint for the Asean Economic Community (AEC) this week, bringing the target date for economic integration of Asean forward by five years to 2015.

Regional markets have been fragmented for 40 years, said Cham Prasidh, Cambodia’s Commerce Minister. It has been a ‘loose arrangement’, but it is now time to firm the relationship via the AEC, ‘our wedding certificate’, he said. The marriage, however, will not prove easy to consummate, said Mari Elka Pangestu, Indonesia’s Minister of Trade.

The big question is ‘how prepared people and governments are to open economies and their ability to adjust’, she said. Certain Indonesian sectors have already lost market share to firms from China, India and others. Integration will fuel resistance from sectors that feel unready for the resulting competition, he said.

Lim Hng Kiang, Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry, said that integration was ‘doable’ and required not only political effort but commitment from the business sector.

For example, firms should make full use of tariff savings, he said. Some 72 per cent of the products in the Common Effective Preferential Tariff inclusion list, a scheme established in 1992, face zero tariffs. Nearly all the rest face tariffs below 5 per cent. IE Singapore will help businesses identify possible savings from tariffs, said Mr Lim, adding that this was one of IES’s key performance indicators.

Asean governments will also try to level the playing field for services, which now contribute an average of 40 to 50 per cent of GDP for member countries, said Mr Lim.

Leaders are working to enhance the existing Framework Agreement on the Asean Investment Area to push for more liberalisation and investor protection, he added. They will look into allowing not only Asean-owned, but also foreign companies based in Asean, to use the improved agreement.

As for non-tariff barriers, such as customs, Mr Lim said that a website will be set up to assess the biggest such barriers, and called on businesses to give feedback.

Integration is ‘already taking place’ in sectors like electronics, where there is already regional division of labour within Asean and greater Asia. ‘Either Asean integrates, or integration will bypass Asean,’ he warned. With countries like China and India already integral parts of global supply chains, ‘we are playing catch-up’, he said.

Cambodia’s Mr Prasidh said that the country has ‘no choice’ but to integrate with Asean. If other countries have zero tariffs, Cambodia would die a ’slow death’, he said.
Source : Business Times - 19 Nov 2007

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New members to woo investors with reforms

New members to woo investors with reforms

Delegates at Asean summit told of sectors with strong investment potential
By OH BOON PING
(SINGAPORE) To attract foreign investment, new Asean members Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam said that they will make existing laws more business-friendly.
Speaking at the Asean Business and Investment Summit yesterday, the prime ministers of those countries said that they are committed to promoting a favourable investment climate and will implement reform programmes to cut red tape and improve administrative efficiency.

In Laos, for instance, the government has created a database ‘for investors to get accurate information on business opportunities in the country’, said its prime minister Bouasone Bouphavanh. The country is also looking to generate greater awareness through investment seminars in Laos.

The drive for investments follows robust economic growth in the three economies in the last few years.

Cambodia’s national income, for instance, grew an average 11.4 per cent in the last three years, while Vietnam’s economy has expanded by at least 7.5 per cent annually over the past decade.

Delegates were also told that several sectors - besides agriculture - should be attracting investor interest.
In Cambodia, for instance, there is strong potential in ‘processing, tourism, mining and some sub-sectors of the manufacturing and service sectors’, said its prime minister Hun Sen.

‘At the same time, the promising future from the commercialisation of oil, gas and other mineral resources has opened up new economic opportunity and hope for Cambodia to become a new development zone in the region,’ he added.

Similarly, the Laotian government singled out hydropower development, minerals resources and agriculture as the ‘top priority’ sectors in the country.

On hydropower development, Mr Bhouphavanh said that his aim ‘is to turn Laos into the ‘battery’ of Asean’.

As Laos is rich in minerals, many business opportunities exist in mineral exploration, he added.

Likewise, Vietnam’s prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung made a case for his country by highlighting its competitive advantages.

These include not only a conducive business climate, but also social and political stability.

Plus, ‘Vietnam has a young population, where over 70 per cent of our people are below the age of 40′, said Mr Tan Dung.

‘Besides, skilled labour is plentiful and the cost is low.’
Source : Business Times - 19 Nov 2007

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Bigger but unequal pay gains seen for ‘08

Bigger but unequal pay gains seen for ‘08
(SINGAPORE) With the economy still hot and workers harder to come by, bigger pay hikes are expected in the coming year. But not everyone will get an equal share of the bounty, according to a recent poll of 126 companies by human resource services firm Hewitt Associates.
The survey showed that salaries will rise by an average 5 per cent in 2008, up from 4.7 per cent this year. But it is the professionals, supervisors and managers who are likely to see their pay rise by 5 per cent or more next year. The wages of manual workers and general employees are projected to increase by less than 5 per cent.

Senior and junior managers as well as supervisors and professionals are expected to get a raise of 5.1 per cent on average in 2008, up from 4.8 and 4.9 per cent in their respective categories this year. By comparison, manual workers’ salaries are tipped to go up 4.2 per cent. They were given a raise of 3.7 per cent this year.

Employees higher up the corporate ladder are also likely to be rewarded with higher merit increases, which are projected to average 4.6 per cent for all workers, against 4 per cent in 2007, according to the Hewitt poll. Top executives are expected to take home merit increases averaging 4.8 per cent, marginally higher than this year’s 4.7 per cent.

Manual workers, again at the bottom of the payout scale, are likely to get a merit raise of 3.7 per cent in 2008, compared to 3 per cent in 2007. Those in the manufacturing sector will be better off again in the pay hikes next year, with most expected to receive a raise of 5 per cent, up slightly from 4.9 per cent in 2007.

According to the poll, employees in the electronic and electrical industries will enjoy the highest pay increase in 2008 - 6.7 per cent, up from 6.2 per cent this year. But those in the consumer products-non durable goods sector are likely to see their pay rise slip a little, from 6.3 per cent in 2007 to 6.2 per cent. But their counterparts in the industrial machinery and equipment sector are likely to see increments of barely 4 per cent.

The telecommunications industry is likely to be among the least generous again. It has budgeted for a pay increase of 4 per cent, still an improvement over 2007, when salaries rose only 3.4 per cent.
Source : Business Times - 19 Nov 2007

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Singapore needs to slow growth: economists

Singapore needs to slow growth: economists

Economy will be fully stretched if it maintains 7-8% growth
By ANNA TEO
(SINGAPORE) While Singapore’s underlying growth potential has risen in recent years, the economy will be fully stretched at the seams if it continues to grow between 7 and 8 per cent, as it has on average between 2004 and 2007, economists say. They now see a need to bring GDP growth down to around 6 per cent.
Against a backdrop of slower global economic growth next year, economists say Singapore’s GDP expansion has to be moderated before overheating pressures - now nascent - build up further. Apart from moves underway to ease the pace - such as the delay of some S$2 billion worth of public building projects - it also means ‘not taking active measures to improve growth if they are going to cause overheating’, says Chetan Ahya, chief economist for South-east Asia and India at Morgan Stanley Asia.

Concerns about overheating risks - in the form of both consumer and asset price inflation - dominated discussions at a recent economic roundtable organised by the Institute of Policy Studies and BT. Speaking about the Singapore property market at the forum, Mr Ahya and his colleague Deyi Tan said they see in the ongoing real estate boom speculative excesses in the private residential segment, but genuine demand - and possibly further upside - in the commercial office market. Beyond the property market, resources are also being stretched. Does the growth trend need to take a breather, they ask.

‘My personal view is that we probably need to slow the overall demand in the system right now… demand is so strong… The supply response function in all pockets of the economy does not catch up to the shift in demand,’ Mr Ahya said.
He pointed out that the average annual growth between 2001 and 2003 was only 1.6 per cent - well below its underlying potential. There was therefore quite some excess capacity. In the four years since, the economy has ramped up sharply, growing almost 7.8 per cent on average, assuming GDP growth this year amounts to 7.7 per cent, which is Morgan Stanley’s forecast. The official forecast is ‘between 7 and 8 per cent’.

Growth of near-8 per cent for four years is ‘clearly above the underlying potential’, Mr Ahya said, even if the trend growth has risen in recent years. The government now estimates the economy’s medium-term trend growth at 4-6 per cent, while most private sector economists put it higher at 5-7 per cent, some going as high as 8 per cent.

In the first few years from 2004, the economy could sustain the robust expansion without signs of strain because there was all that excess capacity from the recent lean years. But now ‘there is stretch in the system’, Mr Ahya says. ‘We now have to go back to 6 per cent.’

He believes that Singapore can easily grow 6-7 per cent a year in the next two years if there were no overheating pressures in the last two years. ‘Everything that can be done to ensure that we moderate growth down should be done,’ he told BT. ‘The Singapore government is actively boosting the economy by measures such as the integrated resorts but it (the economy) does not have the capacity to absorb the necessary labour or provide the infrastructure that allows for that growth without causing overheating.’

At the roundtable, Khor Hoe Ee, assistant managing director (economics) of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said: ‘I would say there has been a tightening of financial conditions this year. We are growing at a pace greater than what the resources are capable of accommodating. That is something that monetary policy can’t deal with very easily, whether through interest rates or exchange rates.

‘We are going to have to manage some of these pressures over the next two years until the supply comes onstream. In the meantime, the appreciation of the exchange rate does help to lower tradable prices and help to keep prices down.’

While there has been concern about the jump in inflation in recent months, Dr Khor pointed out that, apart from the effect of July’s 2-point hike in the Goods and Services Tax, the increase in the underlying inflation here is still within the norm.
Source : Business Times - 19 Nov 2007

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Business confidence takes a dive

Business confidence takes a dive

Sentiment indicators for next 6 months sliding amid signs of nascent slowdown: BT-UniSIM survey
By OH BOON PING

(SINGAPORE) Business confidence here has taken a dive, according to the latest BT-UniSIM quarterly survey of business activity. Companies are much less optimistic about the next six months and there are signs that a slowdown in business activities has started.
The survey of 137 local and foreign companies found that all indicators for Q3 were down from the previous quarter.

In particular, the business prospects net balance - the difference between the percentage of companies that expect better times and those that expect worser - slumped 17 points to 39 per cent from the last quarter.

Similarly, the sales net balance fell 6 points to 35 per cent, while the profits net balance slid 2 points quarter-on-quarter to 25 per cent.

The orders and new business net balance sank 8 points to 32 per cent - its first decline since the fourth quarter of 2006.

Noting that the overall balances on all indicators were down, survey director Chow Kit Boey said: ‘This implies that the strong business performance in the past six quarters has weakened.’

The previous downturn, which started in the second quarter of 2006, lasted four quarters.

But Ms Chow said that a future downturn is not likely to be drawn out, adding that it could result in lower growth rates for two to four quarters.

The BT-UniSIM survey found that foreign companies generally reported improvements from the preceding quarter, unlike their local counterparts which registered lower balances.

Foreign companies had a sales net balance of 36 per cent, up from 28 per cent, and a profit net balance of 21 per cent, up from 15 per cent in the previous quarter.

The respective figures for local companies were 29 per cent, down from 41 per cent, and 22 per cent, down from 32 per cent, quarter-on-quarter.

In terms of orders and new businesses, foreign companies reported a 2-point rise to a net balance of 26 per cent, while local companies reported a 11-point drop to 33 per cent.

In terms of business prospects in the next six months however, local firms were less pessimistic than foreign companies, although the number of optimistic local firms declined from three months earlier.

A net balance of 42 per cent of local companies reported positive sentiments - down from 64 per cent in Q2this year.

Even though the comparative figure for foreign firms is at a lower 35 per cent, this was still an improvement over the 31 per cent seen three months ago.

Smaller companies reported a decrease in all indicators compared with the preceding quarter’s survey, and their sales, profits and orders and new business net balances turned into negative territory.

Small companies reported a 29-point plunge in sales net balance to minus 10, indicating that more companies reported lower rather than higher turnover.

Larger companies reported a 4-point drop in sales net balance to 40 per cent.

Among smaller companies, the orders and new businesses net balance plunged 33 points to minus 12 per cent, and their profits net balance shed 25 points to minus 9 per cent.

The business prospects net balance for small companies lost 29 points to 8 per cent, while larger companies reported a 16-point drop to 42 per cent.

A comparison of overall and overseas sales, orders and business prospects indicated that business activities were stronger in other countries than in Singapore.

In particular, foreign firms were the only group with better sales and orders in Singapore than abroad.

‘The net balances have generally fallen for the second consecutive quarter, suggesting that the business environments in domestic and overseas markets have weakened, particularly for small firms,’ the report added.

In Q3, the financial and business services sector replaced the construction sector narrowly as the star performer, capturing marginally over half of the total top positions.

The construction sector followed closely occupying the remaining slots, suggesting that expansion in Q3 this year was less dispersed than in previous quarters when more than two sectors occupied the top positions.

For the seventh consecutive quarter, the construction sector has been voted as providing the best prospects by all types of firms.

Irrespective of size and ownership, the financial and business services sector was the best performer in profits.

And it was also the best performer in terms of sales, profits and orders/new business for small and foreign firms.

Source : Business Times - 19 Nov 2007

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On integration

On integration

THE CHINESE COMPETITION

‘The Chinese are not waiting for you; they are growing 10 to 12 per cent per year. The Indians are also growing 9, sometimes 10 per cent per year. And if we don’t get our act together and have a significant economic community within (the region) by 2015, I think we’re going to be in trouble.’
PRIME MINISTER LEE HSIEN LOONG
PLAYING CATCH-UP

‘In a way we are setting up the framework, in a way we are also playing catch-up.’
SINGAPORE TRADE AND INDUSTRY MINISTER LIM HNG KIANG
CAN’T STOP THE CLOCK

‘We really have to see this in a very, very positive way. We cannot stop the clock - we need to make ourselves more competitive.’
INDONESIAN TRADE MINISTER MARI PANGESTU
LIKE ONE PROVINCE

‘It’s because goods from one province of China go to another province without paying duty. That’s why the China product is very competitive. Now, if we in Asean, we behave like we are one province…we are going to have, at the end of the road, a very competitive bloc.’
CAMBODIAN COMMERCE MINISTER CHAM PRASIDH
Source : Straits Times - 19 Nov 2007

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Russia wants to draw Singapore investments

Russia wants to draw Singapore investments

RUSSIAN officials were in town to promote investment opportunities for Singapore companies in the vast country’s special economic zones (SEZs).
During a networking session with Singaporean businessmen last Wednesday night, a delegation from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented new plans and incentives that will be offered at its new SEZs.

‘While the six zones are still in the early stages of development, we have already attracted about 25 companies from across the world, such as South Korea, Europe and the United States,’ said Ms Chernysheva Tamara Aleksandrovna, the head of the Russian delegation, in an interview.

‘We are expecting another 25 more to set up operations very soon. All these companies come from sectors such as car manufacturing, chemicals and semiconductors, she added.

The Russian delegation was hosted by Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry and Singapore Cooperation Enterprise as part of a training programme on how to promote the SEZs.

Their trip, which began on Nov 11 and finished yesterday, included visits to Jurong Island and meetings with the Economic Development Board and JTC Corp, as well as Singapore information technology and chemical companies.

This is the fifth visit by Russian officials since August last year, when the Russian and Singapore governments inked an agreement on economic cooperation.

Previous training programmes for Russian delegates covered tourism promotion and IT issues.

Singapore has played an advisory role in two of Russia’s industrial SEZs.

Ms Aleksandrovna said that Russian officials hope to get the expertise of more Singaporean officials and companies in managing these zones.

Source : Straits Times - 19 Nov 2007

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Private banks send families on holiday to plan wealth transfer

Private banks send families on holiday to plan wealth transfer

Some also roll out conferences and other activities on estate and succession planning for family businesses

By Grace Ng, FINANCE REPORTER
FOR many wealthy Asian entrepreneurs, the critical question of how best to transfer their family fortune to the next generation is no picnic.
That is why some of them are taking their private bankers’ advice to go on a luxurious weekend holiday retreat together as a family - just to figure out how.

Credit Suisse recently sponsored a lavish three-day programme tailored specially for its Asian private banking clients, at the Ritz-Carlton Bali Resort & Spa on the Indonesian resort island.

Apart from the airfare, all other expenses from seminars, airport transfers and accommodation to activities such as watch appreciation were borne by the bank.

This Family Legacy Programme, held from Nov 1 to 4, attracted 23 participants from two generations of 12 families.

Indeed, private banks have been splashing out on specially designed wealth-transfer programmes for the baby-boomer generation of ultra- high net worth clients, who have at least $50 million in assets under management.

Currently, 61 per cent of the global high net worth population are aged over 56, according to the Merrill Lynch Cap Gemini World Wealth Report 2006.

About 92 per cent of these wealthy people are expected to move their assets to their immediate family or extended family members.

This has generated booming demand for legacy planning programmes. These are held largely in the United States or Europe.

However, Asian clients can attend these annual conferences, such as Citigroup’s event held in the US last week, which was attended by more than 20 families with an average net worth of US$200 million (S$290.6 million).

But now, private bankers say that they are aggressively expanding their budgets for Asia-focused initiatives.

One executive said the bank has earmarked ‘millions of dollars for each new initiative to attract Asian clients of rival banks to experience its legacy planning and wealthtransfer programmes’.

JPMorgan Private Bank has created individual programmes for its Asian clients, such as a weekend programme at a resort hotel attended by about 30 family members spanning four generations.

With the help of two wealth advisers and a private banker, the family prepared a family employment policy that laid down rules for how members of the next generation could qualify to work in the family business.

But Credit Suisse’s unconventional effort to organise a large-scale group holiday retreat for Asian clients - who are mostly entrepreneurs tackling wealth-transfer challenges for the first time - at a resort destination like Bali, ups the stakes in this battle.

The bank chose ‘a location where the families could spend quality time together… in a relaxed environment’, said Dr Francois Monnet, the managing director and head of private banking for Southeast Asia and Australasia.

The programme, designed jointly with Professor Randel Carlock, the founding director of the Wendel International Centre for Family Enterprises at Insead, the renowned European business school, was not just packed with workshops on estate and succession planning, business and family governance structures.

One highlight was a real-life case study session about the Eu Yan Sang family, which founded the Singapore-based traditional Chinese medicine company of the same name.

Mr Richard Eu, the group chief executive of the Singapore-listed company, fielded questions from the group on the family’s experiences in wealth transfer.

Fun activities like ‘Whodunit’, run by professional actors, had participants working together in teams to solve a murder mystery and ‘have fun learning more about themselves and others in the process’, said Mr Stefan Mueller, the head of sales management for the Asia- Pacific at Credit Suisse.

The evenings were also spent on lighter activities such as the requisite wine tasting and watch appreciation at two of Bali’s finest restaurants.
Source : Straits Times - 19 Nov 2007

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NIE to help teaching of Chinese to go global

NIE to help teaching of Chinese to go global

By Ho Ai Li

SOME 30 million people are learning Chinese as a foreign language worldwide, and Singapore wants to be a player in this lucrative multi-million- dollar market.
The National Institute of Education (NIE), which trains teachers, hopes to offer a course to help China university graduates go global and teach Chinese in places such as the US or Europe.

The proposed graduate diploma course will include English courses and classroom training to prepare teachers who would otherwise be weak in English. Details are still being worked out.

‘The biggest market now is for Chinese teachers in the external markets,’ said Associate Professor Goh Yeng Seng of NIE.

A report in China’s People’s Daily last year said the number of people who want to study Chinese is expected to hit 100 million by 2010. More than four million teachers will be needed by then.

Prof Goh was speaking at the Global Mandarin Forum, a three-day event attended by about 600 teachers, academics and members of the public.

There are simply not enough teachers to go round, especially those trained to teach Chinese as a second language, he said.

According to Professor Wang Tiekun, deputy director of language and communication of China’s Education Ministry, there are about 180 Confucius Institutes which have sprouted up worldwide in the past few years to promote Chinese language and culture.

Singapore can have a share of the pie, the language experts said on the last day of the conference yesterday.

Professor Winnie Au Yeung of the University of Hong Kong said Singapore, with its experience in teaching Chinese as a second language, can be a starting point for foreigners who want to learn it. Its bilingual environment is also an advantage as most of the learners are overseas Chinese whose first language is English, she said.

Besides getting students to come here to study Chinese, she said Singapore can help train teachers to work in non-Chinese speaking areas.

Mr Cheah Chak Mun, vice-chairman of The Chinese Language Society, which does research into Chinese teaching here, said Singapore could supply teachers to nearby countries such as Indonesia.

Singapore teachers have the edge over their China peers as they know the region better and are used to teaching Chinese as a second language, he said.

Besides the commercial opportunities presented by the globalisation of Chinese, participants also discussed the importance of preserving the different varieties of Chinese - similar to the different ways English is used, say, in the United States and Britain.

In Singapore and Malaysia, for example, there are unique Chinese terms such as ba sha to mean market, which is a translation of pasar in Malay. In China, the term is cai shi chang. Prof Wang said: ‘Language is a resource like minerals or water. If we see it as a resource, we will treasure, protect, develop and use it.’
Source : Straits Times - 19 Nov 2007

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