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Investing in an inclusive society
This is an edited excerpt of remarks made by Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Deputy Prime Minister , Minister for Finance and Minister for Manpower at the Institute of Policy Studies' Singapore Perspectives 2012 conference.
This edited excerpt is from the Ministry of Finance Facebook page.
Building a fair and inclusive society is at the heart of our role as Government.
It is about both social and economic strategies, as they are bound inextricably together. The first question we must always ask ourselves is: how do we make our living in the world? How does Singapore move up in manufacturing, how do we gain appeal as a global city, in services, and how can we ensure that those who do well are not just those in the top 20 per cent but also average Singaporeans and those in the bottom 20 per cent of incomes?
The story of how China and other emerging countries have depressed wages for low-skilled jobs all over the world is well-known. But the next chapter has also begun. Pressure is shifting to the middle of the workforce, as more white-collar jobs are replaced by technology or cheaper competition. The result has been stagnant middle class incomes in most developed economies, in some cases a real decline over more than a decade.
All hands on deck to weather storm
Tharman is the man, besides the Prime Minister, who will be the key brains behind Singapore's strategy to overcome the impending slowdown. In 2009, he devised and introduced a whole slew of measures to not only cushion the impact of the crisis for Singapore but also to take advantage of the lull to encourage workers to upskill and be ready for when the economy picked up again.
NTUC Chief on ‘glocalization’ and ‘corecalization'
26th of November 2011. Secretary general of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Lim Swee Say, brought a message of hope for the hopeful at the YSA (Young Sikh Association) Ministerial dialogue session held at Suntec City.
Singapore will be resilient and shall grow at 3% – 5% per year for the next ten years, growing to a whopping S$0.5T by the mid-2020s. By his account, Singapore has done better than the rest of the OECD (Organisation for European Economic Co-operation) countries. We are not plagued by the same issues of structural unemployment or high unemployment rates. However, going forward our challenges are two fold – an ageing population and the widening income gap. The income disparity was a forgone conclusion; as long as it didn’t affect the crowd gathered to listen to him, it was a non-issue.
Startling data from some industries - Lina Chiam
In September 2011, I asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Manpower for the breakdown of the percentage split between the number of local and foreign workers from 2009-2011 for the following industries:
(i) chemical industry
(ii) marine engineering industry
(iii) offshore engineering industry
(iv) aerospace engineering industry
(v) manufacturing industry and
(vi) the financial sector.
The rationale for asking such a question was to make sure that we are promoting the correct industry mix in Singapore. Beyond growing the GDP and wage level, I wanted to find out the cost of pursuing such growth. This is consistent with my maiden speech in Parliament where I promised Singaporeans that I would fight for sustainable growth.
Quality more important than quantity
The assumption that we need more people in Singapore is flawed. Quantity is not the answer. We need to selectively bring in high quality people who are able to contribute the value that are multiples of low wage immigrants.
As seen by the tech trends in the USA and Japan, technological advances are job shrinkers. You need less people to do the same work every year with more machines and software.
Public transport - alternatives worth considering
In response to the debates about Singapore’s public transport system, the Workers’ Party (WP) proposed to nationalize the system and charge fares on a cost recovery basis. The Minister for Transport then wrote in his Facebook page that such a system won’t run well and a profit motivated system is better as it spurs efficiency.
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