3,500 vying for positions at Singapore Marina Bay Sands

3,500 vying for positions at Singapore Marina Bay Sands 

By Lim Wei Chean & Diana Othman 
  
As Singapore’s single biggest hiring drive began yesterday, job seekers headed to registration booths at an NTUC employment office or applied online or even via SMSes for positions at the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort.
THE Marina Bay Sands integrated resort was swamped with about 3,500 phone calls, text messages and e-mail from job seekers yesterday as the single biggest hiring drive in Singapore history got underway.

The US$4.5 billion (S$6.6 billion) complex is looking for 10,000 workers, including housekeepers, waiters and security guards, before it opens next year.

Starting at 9am yesterday, housewives, retirees, the unemployed and others began submitting their applications in the hope of landing a job at a place that has promised to hire ‘as many Singaporeans as possible’.

Almost half the applications came via a special hotline, said a spokesman for the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), which is helping fill the positions.

The resort’s website received almost 1,000 applications, while 700 others applied via SMS text messages. Another 200 hopefuls walked into an NTUC employment office at Redhill Road.

Marina Bay Sands has become the first employer here to woo traditionally overlooked groups like seniors, housewives and the jobless.

Resort officials say finding the 10,000 workers will be no mean feat. The challenge is expected to get tougher when Singapore’s second integrated resort, on Sentosa, begins hiring. Scheduled to open in 2010, it will also need 10,000 workers to staff a casino and theme park, among other things.

The Marina Bay Sands resort, which will include a casino and over 2 million sq ft of retail and convention space, has linked up with NTUC and the Singapore Workforce Development Agency to screen, train and place candidates.

When The Straits Times went down to the NTUC employment office at lunchtime yesterday, at least two dozen job seekers were crowded around registration booths, where staff took down their particulars.

Retiree Jasbir Singh was among those in the line. The 61-year-old said he hoped to clinch a front-line position, which includes receptionist and bellhop.

‘I have savings so I am looking for a part-time job to fill my time,’ said the former safety trainer with the Port Authority of Singapore.

‘Instead of spending all my time watching television and listening to the radio…maybe I can start working again to bring in a supplemental income so I can travel.’

Madam Chen Tai, a 53-year-old odd-job worker, said working at the casino resort would be an exciting career change.

The mother of two adult children, one of whom is studying in Australia, asked about a position as a security supervisor. ‘I have been in retail and the food and beverage industry for over 10 years, so I want to find something new, challenging and different,’ she said.

The first phase of the hiring exercise will last until Nov 5. After that, candidates who make the cut will be called in for interviews. The Marina Bay Sands is hoping to have its staff in place by the middle of next year.
Source : Straits Times - 21 Oct 2008

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$150b unlikely to be tapped -Singapore

$150b unlikely to be tapped  -Singapore

Deposits guarantee is sufficient because banks are sound, says Minister Lim Hng Kiang 

By Fiona Chan 

THE Government may not have to use much - if any at all - of the $150 billion it has set aside to guarantee bank deposits in Singapore, said Minister of Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang yesterday.
But Mr Lim said the blanket guarantee the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) issued last week was necessary to keep local banks competitive and to prevent a flight of deposits overseas.

MAS announced last Thursday that it would guarantee all the bank deposits of individuals and corporates here with immediate effect until the end of 2010.

This amounts to about $700 billion in Singapore dollar and foreign currency deposits in banks, finance companies and merchant banks, Mr Lim said yesterday in a ministerial statement in Parliament.

His statement on the Government’s decision to guarantee deposits followed a series of questions from 10 MPs on the fallout from the global financial crisis.

In his statement, Mr Lim said the move to guarantee deposits is backed by $150 billion in Government reserves.

This should be ‘more than sufficient’ because it is unlikely the guarantee will be needed at all, given the robustness of Singapore’s banking system, said Mr Lim, who is also MAS deputy chairman.

‘For the guarantee to be called, two things have to happen: a bank has to fail, and at the same time its assets must be worth so little there is not even enough to repay its depositors,’ he said.

Since banks here are sound and closely supervised, there is little likelihood of them failing owing to problems in Singapore. Even if one fails, it should have enough assets to pay depositors, who have priority in being paid, he explained.

‘The $150 billion backing is an amount that will be ample to meet any eventuality except the most remote,’ he said, adding the amount ‘does not in any way reflect an estimate of the likely draw over the two years of the guarantee’.

‘On the contrary, we expect the actual draw to be small or, if we are fortunate, even zero.’

Still, the Government had to give the guarantee to ensure ‘a level international playing field for banks in Singapore’.

Bank guarantees given earlier by regional governments such as Australia and Hong Kong had ’set off a dynamic’ that put pressure on other economies to do the same or else risk disadvantaging their own financial institutions, he said.

‘If Singapore had not introduced a similar guarantee, there was a real risk that depositors would have shifted some of their deposits out of Singapore banks, to banks in other jurisdictions which guarantee deposits,’ Mr Lim added.

The guarantee also bolsters the public’s confidence, helps Singapore’s financial services sector function normally and contributes to restoring confidence in the global financial system, he explained.

As for worries that financial institutions will abuse this guarantee by expanding aggressively and taking on excessive risks, the MAS has stressed to them the need to remain prudent, Mr Lim said.

Even with $150 billion set aside, MAS will have ‘ample means, with the full backing of our not insignificant reserves’ to defend the Singdollar if needed.

The potential impact on the reserves is low, he added. ‘Singapore’s financial system remains sound and we are well- placed to meet the challenges facing us.’

The other issue that dominated yesterday’s sitting was a constitutional amendment to let the Government spend more of the investment returns on reserves. Parliament will continue the debate today.

Source : Straits Times - 21 Oct 2008

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Mindy Yong

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