Punitive Singapore ERP may be way to avoid gridlock

Punitive Singapore ERP may be way to avoid gridlock

By Zakir Hussain

THE possibility of punitive electronic road pricing (ERP) charges to avert peak-hour gridlock was highlighted by Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew yesterday.

He said that was why the Government is investing billions of dollars on new MRT lines and expressways to make sure Singaporeans have alternative travel options.

Speaking at an Institute of Policy Studies seminar on Singapore’s future, he revealed that the Government had even considered cutting car growth from the current 3 per cent to zero per cent.

On the behind-the-scenes discussions leading up to the recent transport policy changes, he said: ‘Shall we reduce it, next lot from 3 per cent to 2 per cent or 2.5 or 1 per cent or zero and cap the thing? Oh, there’ll be a public uproar.

‘So ding dong, ding dong, feedback from all quarters, says all right, 1.5 per cent growth. But 1.5 per cent growth, if it goes on six, seven years, when your expansion of roads is less than 1 per cent, you are into another gridlock.

‘So your ERP will have to become punitive to clear the roads at peak hours.’

Mr Lee was referring to the Government’s announcement on Wednesday that it would halve the annual rate of car growth from 3 per cent now to 1.5 per cent next year, as part of an overhaul of land transport here.

‘So finally we decided, never mind, build this tunnel, North-South (expressway), build more MRT stations…so that there are alternatives for everybody, which means massive investments.’

Mr Lee acknowledged that transport planners did not get their sums right when they introduced ERP 10 years ago. ‘Our prediction of consumer behaviour was not quite right,’ he said.

‘We now know that the person having bought a car will use it, whatever the cost of the ERP. So now we have a problem.’

He cited transport policy to explain why Singapore needed an ‘A team’ of political leaders who could think ahead and sell the best options to people, to ensure Singapore retained its competitive edge.

Some drivers questioned why the authorities set the optimal traffic speed on highways here at 45 kmh, when Bangkok got by at 15kmh.

Mr Lee made clear Singapore had to be different: ‘If you do not have free-flowing traffic, you’ll lose your competitive edge. All the multinationals can have a conference in Singapore, bring their managers here, they can either meet in any of the hotels or in the head office and you are at the airport and in town within 20 minutes.

‘You make that two hours and you’ve changed the equation.’

He also predicted that the expanding web of transport links would result in higher property prices. ‘If you own a property in Singapore, it cannot go down. It’s a matter of time. And therefore, we say land can only be bought by Singapore citizens.’
Source : Straits Times  - 02 Feb 2008

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Singapore MM ‘not quite sold’ on idea of 6.5m population

Singapore MM ‘not quite sold’ on idea of 6.5m population

He projects optimum size of 5.5m to preserve open spaces and sense of comfort

By Li Xueying
LOOKING AHEAD: Mr Lee speaking at the Institute of Policy Studies’ conference ‘Scenarios for the Next Generation’ yesterday.

MINISTER Mentor Lee Kuan Yew ‘has not quite been sold’ on the idea of a 6.5 million population size in Singapore.
Instead, he projects for Singapore an optimum population size of five to 5.5 million for Singapore.

He said yesterday: ‘I have not quite been sold on the idea that we should have 6.5 million.

‘I think there’s an optimum size for the land that we have, to preserve the open spaces and the sense of comfort.’

Mr Lee was speaking at think-tank Institute of Policy Studies’ conference ‘Scenarios for the Next Generation’ which seeks to gaze into the crystal ball and discuss what Singapore will look like come 2030.

Speakers, including Cabinet ministers, academics and journalists, held forth on subjects such as how the economy should evolve, cultural trends, and the Singapore identity.

Over an hour-long dialogue with some 900 participants, MM Lee touched on issues ranging from whether Singapore has the talent pool to sustain a two-party political system to the widening income divide.

One question, posed by the moderator, diplomat Tommy Koh, was whether Singapore is guilty of overbuilding.

A year ago, the Government had announced that it is making plans to accommodate a population of 6.5 million people - up from the current 4.5 million - in the next 40 to 50 years.

This sparked off worries about overcrowding.

Speaking yesterday, Mr Lee said he does not believe that Singapore should go the way of Hong Kong - ‘just solid buildings, one blocking the sunlight of the other’.

The Chinese territory has a population of about seven million.

But while Hong Kong had no choice because it is ‘as they put it so aptly, a borrowed place on borrowed time’, Singapore does, Mr Lee said.

‘We are building on freehold and we are owners, we are sovereign. Therefore, my projection would be for somewhere around five to 5.5 million.’

Coupled with further reclamation, Singapore can then retain its space, the greenery, and ‘the sense of not being crammed, our parks, our connectors, our park connectors, birds, trees, water, canals into streams and so on’.

This is key to how Singapore can be unique, he stressed.

‘What we have done with the Singapore River and the Kallang River from two sewers into recreational areas, we must do with every canal in Singapore. And it will be done within the next 10 years,’ he promised.

This, he added, does not go with ‘a terrific density of population’.
Source : Straits Times  - 02 Feb 2008

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10-year plan to give workers high-quality training - Singapore

10-year plan to give workers high-quality training  - Singapore

Courses will cater to rank and file as well as executives; up to 80,000 places a year will be available

By Goh Chin Lian

SINGAPORE has drawn up a masterplan to train workers for the next 10 years so that they will keep pace with economic change.
More immediately, it will ramp up training places from the current 20,000 a year to 80,000.

The Government will pump in a significant sum for this purpose, with the exact amount to be announced in the Budget statement on Feb 15, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong revealed yesterday when he opened a one-stop centre for jobs placement and training.

The Continuing Education and Training Masterplan aims to provide workers with first-class training institutions that offer high-quality, industry-relevant courses leading to national qualifications.

Whether they are from the rank-and-file or white-collar professionals and executives, they can choose from a buffet of courses spanning various industries.

‘If we do this well, we will deepen the skills base of our workforce, help workers to respond quickly to changes in the job market, and sharpen the competitiveness of our economy,’ Mr Lee said.

The Manpower Minister will announce more details of the masterplan during the Budget debate.

It was in the wake of the Asian financial crisis 10 years ago that the Government stepped up efforts in worker training.

The priority then was to retrain retrenched workers and help them find new jobs.

Yesterday, Mr Lee stressed that training should not be seen as a priority only in an economic downturn.

‘Instead, continuing education and training should be a core part of the lifelong development of every worker. If we want Singapore to keep growing, then our workers too must be constantly upgrading,’ he said.

He noted that Australia, Canada and European countries spend around 0.3 per cent or more of their GDP on worker training.

Singapore, in comparison, spends about 0.1 per cent or $200 million a year.

But it will top up its Lifelong Learning Endowment Fund, set up in 2001 to fund such programmes.

The fund has accumulated $2.2 billion so far, almost half its $5 billion target, and generated $88 million in interest income in the financial year up to next month.

Mr Lee said: ‘We’ve had a good year. I expect the Minister for Finance to be able to make a significant contribution to the Lifelong Learning Endowment Fund in the Budget.’

Turning to two broad principles of the Government’s approach, Mr Lee said the training must cater to the needs of adult workers.

That means flexible, focused courses for people who have to juggle work and family commitments, as well as teaching methods that suit their learning style.

The Government will also work with the labour movement, private sector and training institutions, including mobilising the polytechnics and Institutes of Education, to provide courses for adult workers.

Labour experts and industry players told The Straits Times worker training in Singapore still needs to be improved.

Mr Jerry Lim of the Restaurant Association of Singapore said many restauranteurs have yet to come round to the importance of skills upgrading.

‘They are having so much business, they are reluctant to let their workers take time off for training,’ he said.

NTUC deputy secretary-general Halimah Yacob said there is a perception that many private training providers are not up to the mark.

‘Sometimes, we get complaints from workers who have gone through the training and are upset with the whole process, from how courses are conducted to the way they are assessed eventually,’ she said.

Source : business Times  - 02 Feb 2008

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Singapore JTC appoints Mapletree to manage Reit

Singapore JTC appoints Mapletree to manage Reit

Trust due to launch in middle of the year, subject to market conditions
By UMA SHANKARI

JTC Corporation yesterday said that it has appointed Temasek unit Mapletree Investments to establish and manage its upcoming real estate investment trust (Reit). The Reit is set for launch about the middle of this year, ’subject to market conditions’, JTC said.
JTC - Singapore’s biggest industrial landlord - said last July that it plans to sell up to $1.6 billion of assets, a big chunk of which will be pumped into a Reit. Industry players have said that the Reit’s initial portfolio is expected to be worth more than $1 billion.

JTC said that appointing Mapletree is a milestone in its divestment exercise, after it announced a request for proposals to explore the appointment of a Reit manager last year.

‘We received quality submissions from a wide range of international and local players,’ said JTC chief executive Ow Foong Pheng. Mapletree was chosen after a rigorous selection process, she said.

Mapletree aims to grow its capital management business, its chief executive Hiew Yoon Khong has said.

‘This appointment reflects the recognition, both locally and internationally, of our capabilities in managing industrial properties and in structuring and managing Reits,’ he said yesterday. Mapletree already has one Reit - Mapletree Logistics Trust - under its belt.

JTC Reit’s portfolio will comprise a range of high-rise ready-built properties including flatted factories, ramp-up and stack-up factories and multi-tenanted business park buildings, the landlord said yesterday.

The asset portfolio is attractive, Mr Hiew said, adding: ‘It is well diversified in terms of tenancy, location and asset type.’ The properties also enjoy high occupancy rates, a quality tenant base and long-term tenants, he said.

Market sources said that Mapletree beat several competitors to manage JTC’s Reit, including Singapore’s CapitaLand and Australian-listed property and wealth management company Goodman Group.

Previous reports have said that UBS, Goldman Sachs and DBS are in line to underwrite the offer.
Source : business Times  - 02 Feb 2008

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S’pore Govt to reward red-tape busters

S’pore Govt to reward red-tape busters

Best idea gets $1,000 from Pro-Enterprise Panel
By QUAH CHIN CHIN
BUSINESSES brimming with ideas on ways to cut red tape and create a more business-friendly environment in Singapore now stand to win awards by the Pro-Enterprise Panel (PEP), an agency that reviews suggestions from businesses and helps remove unnecessary red tape in government regulations.

The inaugural PEP Awards for the Best Pro-Enterprise Suggestions will ‘recognise businesses or persons in businesses who give innovative and impactful ideas to cut red tape’, said PEP member Jennie Chua, president and chief executive officer of The Ascott Group.

All suggestions to the panel accepted for implementation from July 1, 2007 until June 30 this year are eligible for the awards, and the suggestions can be anything related to outdated rules, onerous regulatory requirements or cumbersome government processes.

Innovation and impact will be the key criteria in assessing the suggestions, and greater credit will be given to suggestions that benefit an entire industry or sector, said Ms Chua.

The judging will be done by representatives from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, who will select three winners.

The best suggestion will be given $1,000, while the second and third best suggestions will receive $800 and $500 respectively. All three winners will receive a plaque and a letter of appreciation.

Ms Chua made the announcement yesterday, the last day of a PEP road show at Raffles Place. The five-day roadshow, which featured a mime tied up in red tape, was to raise public awareness about the panel.
Source : business Times  - 02 Feb 2008

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Budget air flight from KL ends a long wait

Budget air flight from KL ends a long wait

By VEN SREENIVASAN
THERE was a huge razzmatazz yesterday morning to greet the arrival at Changi Airport of AirAsia’s flight AK123 from Kuala Lumpur. The flight arrived 10 minutes before schedule - but passengers had been waiting for years for such an event.
When the Malaysian budget flight landed at Terminal 1 with some 180 passengers at 10.45am, it marked an end to the decades-long stranglehold on the 45-minute route held by legacy carriers Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Malaysia Airlines (MAS).

AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes and his passengers were greeted by Foo Sek Min, director of Airport Management of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, media, invited guests and traditional dancers.

And just as the AirAsia A320 plane was touching down, over at the Budget Terminal Tiger Airways’ flight TR148 was taxiing for take-off for its inaugural flight from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur with some 130 passengers. Then at 3pm, Jetstar Asia’s inaugural flight 3K 687 took off at 3pm from Terminal 1.

Speaking to the media after the arrival ceremony at T1, Mr Fernandes said his airline was ready to increase services from the current two a day to over a dozen, as soon as it was permitted to do so.

Average return fares for the budget flights are about $200, which is half the fares charged by SIA or MAS. But the two national airlines are expected to cut their fares after a recent agreement on code-share and cancellation of their fare-fixing agreement.

The partial opening of the route is a prelude to full open skies between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore at the end of December this year.
Source : business Times  - 02 Feb 2008

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Singapore SMRT, SBS to increase train trips

Singapore SMRT, SBS to increase train trips

By LYNETTE KHOO

COMMUTERS can look forward to more comfortable train rides soon with shorter waiting times and less crowded trains. Following the recent policy speeches on the Land Transport Review, SMRT and SBS Transit are adding more train trips come Feb 4 as part of the immediate measures to improve public transport. The government seeks to encourage car users to switch to public transport to curb traffic congestion.
SMRT said it will add 83 train trips per week during the weekday morning and evening peak periods, which will shorten waiting times in some instances by more than 1.5 minutes. Its previous enhancement was done in July last year. SMRT’s latest train service enhancement will benefit some 200,000 passenger trips daily and bring its average train load during peak hours down to 1,200 passengers from 1,300-1,400 previously at the busiest points.

During morning peak hours, southbound passengers travelling between Yishun and Marina Bay MRT stations and westbound passengers plying between Pasir Ris and Boon Lay MRT stations will experience an improvement in train service frequencies. During the evening peak hours, eastbound and westbound passengers travelling between Boon Lay and Pasir Ris MRT stations will benefit from the addition of train trips.

SBS Transit, which operates the North East Line (NEL), said it will add 10 additional train trips each week on the NEL, bringing the peak frequency to three minutes instead of the current four minutes for the morning period, and to four minutes instead of the regular five minutes for the evening peak hours.
Source : business Times  - 02 Feb 2008

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Worker migration ‘better way to boost population’-Singapore

Singapore needs an A Team at helm: MM Lee

Singapore needs an A Team at helm: MM Lee

Nation’s most critical challenge is risk of losing its talent pool
By ANNA TEO

THE most critical challenge Singapore faces in the years ahead is the risk of losing - for good - its best brains to the bright lights elsewhere, from China to the US, says Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.

Mr Lee: Central core of Singapore-born remains the critical pillar
‘That’s the challenge I consider most critical,’ he said about the need for Singapore not only to attract its share of talent but, perhaps even more importantly, retain its own core.

Speaking yesterday on ‘Singapore 2030′ at the Institute of Policy Studies’ Singapore Perspectives conference on scenarios for the next generation, Mr Lee said: ‘We lose too much of our own talent pool, drawn by top financial institutions taking them to China . . .’ It is fine if they return after some years, but many do not, he said.

Citing again the examples of his grandsons, three of whom are studying at US universities, he said that there were ‘already initial reservations’ about taking up Singapore scholarships, with a view to keeping options open, given the opportunities overseas.

While the majority of his first-generation Old Guard Cabinet were foreign-born, as are a good number of top public office-holders and policymakers here today, Mr Lee said that the ‘central core of Singapore-born’ remains the critical pillar. ‘They are the guarantors of the values, the continuity, the sense of commitment, in any crisis,’ he said.

But Singapore does not have the numbers, he conceded, reiterating though that he thought that a future population size of about 5.5 million - rather than 6.5 million - would be viable. The question is the critical talent it can draw - and retain.

‘We have to make this city unique,’ he said. ‘I’m not sure that we can compete with New York or London, but in the Asia context, I think we can compete with Tokyo, Shanghai, with Hong Kong, with Sydney.’

Mr Lee, who started his hour-long session with broad strokes of the future world order - one that assumes that Pax Americana and international order remains - said that whatever the international scenario, Singapore must have an A Team at the helm to lead the country.

‘It was a stroke of good fortune that I had a superb team,’ he said. And the second A Team were able to produce another line-up.

‘The present A Team is good for another two elections,’ Mr Lee said, adding that it takes at least one term of office to bring out a really capable minister.

Examples abound in countries near and far of the consequences where the leadership has been less than competent. What is key is whether Singaporeans recognise the need to ‘vote in the capable, the solid and the honest’, he said.

‘We do not have the numbers to ensure an A Team and an alternative A Team.’
Source : business Times  - 02 Feb 2008

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Singapore SIA posts $590m Q3 net profit

Singapore SIA posts $590m Q3 net profit

By VEN SREENIVASAN
SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) reported a group net profit of $590 million for its third quarter ended Dec 31, 2007, comparable to the previous corresponding quarter’s $589.2 million, which included a one-off gain of $198 million.

Excluding the previous year’s $198 million exceptional gain from SIA’s sale of its 35.5 per cent stake in Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise (SALE), Q3 group net profit attributable to equity-holders was $199 million or 50.7 per cent higher.

Top-line revenue rose 13 per cent to $4.28 billion.

Significantly, the parent airline company boosted operating profit 67.6 per cent to $513 million. As a result, the airline company’s contribution to group operating profit rose 7.7 percentage points to 76 per cent.

The operating results of SIA’s three major subsidiary companies were:
Singapore Airlines Cargo: $73 million profit (up 39.5 per cent year on year);
Singapore Airport Terminal Services: $47 million profit (up 2 per cent);
SIA Engineering Company: $19 million profit (down 27.9 per cent).
The Q3 results lifted group net profit attributable to equity-holders for the nine months ended December 2007 to $1.52 billion, from $1.46 billion a year earlier. Stripping out exceptional gains of $421 million in the first nine months of the previous year from the sale of SIA Building and the SALE stake, net profit attributable to equity holders in the latest nine months was 46.8 per cent or $485 million higher.

Group expenditure increased $255 million or 7.6 per cent in the latest Q3 to $3.6 billion. In particular, fuel costs rose $99 million or 8 per cent to $1.3 billion as prices soared to new highs. Fuel accounted for 36.9 per cent of group expenditure. On the operating side, yield and load factors rose.

The airline carried 4.96 million passengers, 3.5 per cent more than a year earlier. Traffic grew 2.7 per cent while capacity grew 2 per cent, resulting in a 0.6 percentage point improvement in the passenger load factor to 81.3 per cent.

The breakeven passenger load factor, at 67.7 per cent, was 3.2 percentage points lower than a year earlier as passenger yield grew at a higher rate of 12.7 per cent versus a 7.7 per cent rise in unit cost.

On the freight side, SIA Cargo’s traffic was down 2.6 per cent year on year, in line with a decline in cargo capacity of 2.4 per cent.

SIA said demand for air travel was firm during the three months, with advance bookings strong.

‘Beyond the near term, however, the prospects are uncertain, with financial markets under stress and growing concerns about potential recession in America,’ it said. ‘Pricing of futures indicates that oil prices will hold at current high levels, and expenditure on fuel will be partially mitigated by hedging and recovery of incremental costs from surcharges.’

SIA shares closed 24 cents higher at $15.64 yesterday. This week, Merrill Lynch cut its price target for the stock from $23.60 to $18 but maintained a ‘buy’ rating.

Source : business Times  - 02 Feb 2008

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