By LEE U-WENleeuwen@sph.com.sg

[SINGAPORE] Good jobs forthe people, more babiesand a capable governmentat the helm are three goalsSingapore should achieve ifthe country is to say it hasprogressed, said Prime Min-ister Lee Hsien Loong.

These are all “easy tostate, but very hard toachieve”, he said at an an-nual ministerial forum atthe Nanyang TechnologicalUniversity (NTU) last night.

That Singaporeans canbe in good jobs would meanthat the economy is grow-ing and that investmentsare flowing in, Mr Lee toldhis 1,000-strong audienceduring a two-hour dialogueorganised by NTU’s Stu-dent Union.

“It means that we haveupgraded what we’re do-ing, and that we’ve beenable to be educated andtake up the opportunities.That’s the first basic re-quirement to a happy socie-ty. It’s already not easy toachieve because we’re at ahigh level (today) and wewant to go further,” hesaid.

The second sign that thecountry has progressedwould be if the fertility ratesaw some improvement,which he conceded was a“very difficult” target toachieve. “It would meanthat I have persuaded peo-ple to have a good work-lifebalance, to put their fami-lies first. That I’ve beenable to get pre-schools, kin-dergartens, childcare cen-tres, grandparents to lookafter the children ... thatpeople feel confident in thefuture and so they havekids here,” he said.

Singapore’s total fertilityrate stood at 1.29 in 2012,well below the replacementrate of 2.1.

Mr Lee said that while itwould “take forever” forthe country to reach 2.1, itwas “absolutely necessary”to at least push up the num-bers as best as possible.

As for the kind of govern-ment that would be incharge 15 to 20 years fromnow, he hoped that the lead-ership then would be capa-ble people whom Singapore-ans could trust. The govern-ment of the future, too,should be serious about do-ing a good job for the coun-try and have broad supportwithin the society.

“It may or may not be aPAP (People’s Action Party)government. In 15 to 20years, it won’t be me (asthe prime minister). Butsomebody, some team, ableto make this place succeedso that Singaporeans willfeel comfortable to be here,have a good future hereand have that confidence intheir country and the lead-ership,” said Mr Lee.

The lively question-and-answer session that fol-lowed delved into a mixedbag of issues, ranging fromthe government’s tighten-ing of foreign workers tothe feasibility of having aminimum wage system inSingapore.

One student asked if MrLee would consider havingfewer expatriates come towork here because theyadd to the growing competi-tion that Singaporeanswere already facing in thejob market.

The prime minister rea-soned that there were so

many expatriates in Singa-pore simply because theeconomy had grown overthe years and there werenot enough locals to fill allthe jobs that were created.

He made the point that aforeigner should not beseen as taking up a positionmeant for a Singaporean.Rather, the ability to bringin the right person for thejob would, in fact, create

many more jobs for Singa-poreans as a result, said MrLee.

“Can I do with fewer (ex-patriates)? Maybe. Can I re-place some of them withSingaporeans as they gettrained? I hope so. If I sendall of them home, will I besorry? I’m sure the answeris yes,” he said.

When asked for his takeon the management of for-

eign workers in Singaporein light of incidents such asthe SMRT bus drivers’strike in 2012 and last De-cember’s Little India riot,Mr Lee said Singaporewould treat all foreign work-ers fairly and well, but theymust do their part by con-tributing to the economyand abiding the laws of thecountry.

“Although their num-

bers are not small, we canhave them in our midstwithout causing eithersome social upheaval or dis-order or problems, andthey can also feel like they... can go about their lives,and people respect themand they are not treated asinferior beings. I thinkthat’s a mutual responsibili-ty on both sides,” said MrLee.

By CHUANG PECK MINGpeckming@sph.com.sg

[SINGAPORE] Despite ris-ing costs and a tighter la-bour market, Singaporestill pulled in strong foreigninvestment commitmentslast year, the Economic De-velopment Board (EDB)said yesterday.

The investment-promo-tion agency also predictedthat this level of invest-ments will hold steady thisyear.

EDB attracted $12.1 bil-lion in fixed-asset invest-ments last year, a dropfrom the $16 billion thatcame in for 2012. The agen-cy added, however, that the2013 figure was well withinits forecast of between $11billion and $13 billion.

In any case, EDB chair-man Leo Yip said at a pressconference that the 2012 in-vestment number had beeninflated by one-off chunkyprojects, making the yearan aberration from recentyears.

“If you look at the trendover the last five to 10years, you will see that $12billion is actually well with-in the range we have se-cured.

“There were severalspikes – including that in2012 – and those spikeswere big investments.”

Between 2004 and lastyear, there were threeyears when investmentsshot past that achieved lastyear: 2007 ($17.2 billion),2008 ($18 billion) and2012 ($16 billion). For therest of the decade, invest-ments were between $9.4billion and $13.7 billionyearly.

Last year’s investmentsare likely to create val-ue-added of $16.7 billionfor the year, which is with-in the $16 billion to $18 bil-lion projected.

EDB said the invest-ments are tipped to gener-ate 21,400 skilled jobs anda record $7.8 billion yearlyin total business expendi-ture (TBE), up from $6.2 bil-lion in 2012.

A big chunk of the TBEare salaries, said Mr Yip.

EDB said the strong TBEcommitment, sitting in the

upper bound of its forecastof $6.5 billion to $8 billion,came from the setting up ofseveral significant head-quarters with regional andglobal functions in Singa-pore.

Mr Yip said: “The invest-ments achieved by EDB in2013 reflect Singapore’sstrong position as a globalbusiness hub, as multina-tional corporations and oth-er companies continue tobe attracted to the marketopportunities in Asia.”

He said that EDB hasnot lost any investmentprojects as a result of thetightened labour marketand changes to the foreignworker policy here. “Theyhave not as a factor swungtheir business decisions.No company has told us,‘Look, we don’t want tocome to Singapore becauseyour manpower situationhas made you less attrac-tive than before.’ ”

He maintained that over-all, including ease of opera-tion and capability, Singa-pore has stayed attractiveto foreign investors.

This year, EDB is look-ing to attract investmentsof between $10 billion and$12 billion with TBE of be-tween $6 billion and $7.5billion. It also expects thenumber of new skilled jobscreated this year to fall 25to 35 per cent to between14,000 and 16,000.

“It’s a steady level of in-vestments that’s in keepingwith where Singapore is to-day, in its phase of econom-ic development,” Mr Yip

said. “Our cost structure isapproaching that of the ad-vanced economies, so real-ly, the growth we seek hasgot to be high-value-added,productivity-driven.”

The investments project-ed for 2014 are at a steadylevel, also in keeping withSingapore’s workforcegrowth rates and land con-siderations, he added.

Electronics was the topinvestment sector last year,accounting for 27 per centof total investments. Butcommitments in electronicsfell to $3.3 billion, down46.8 per cent from 2012.

Investments in the chem-ical sector, where the big-gest chunk (42 per cent) oftotal investments went to in2012, dropped 62.7 percent to $2.5 billion lastyear.

EDB’s managing direc-tor Yeoh Keat Chuan saidthe sector is now in thedown-cycle and companiesthere are now makingsmaller and more capital-ef-ficient investments.

Meanwhile, the semicon-ductor industry has en-tered a phase in which itwas uncertain that the re-covery is clearly on a strongtrack.

He said: “They’re hold-ing off from making majorgreenfield investments. Sowhat they are doing is mak-ing incremental expansionsin order to be able to tweakand expand their existingcapacity.”

☛ Investments intoS’pore chemical sectorstill strong, Page 4

MARKETSTuesday Change

KL COMP 1,781.25 +2.37NIKKEI 225 14,980.16 -25.57HANG SENG 21,960.64 -15.46SET INDEX 1,271.79 -16.80JAKARTA COMP 4,341.65 +18.87MANILA COMP 6,022.81 -58.80SEOUL COMP 1,916.93 +6.59SHENZHEN B 842.62 -2.06MUMBAI IND 20,683.51 -23.94 11am EST ChangeDOW 15,923.55 +85.67NASDAQ 4,094.58 +10.97

They are: good jobs,higher fertility rate,and capable govttrusted by people

$12.1b fixed-asset investments pulled in last year;investment level expected to stay steady this year

G ST INDEX3,062.41 (+19.98)

G ST INDEX FUTURES3,062.00 (+21.00)

G SIMSCI349.01 (+1.82)

G SIMSCI FUTURES348.40 (+2.90)

FOREXUS$ S$

US$ (S$ per US$) – 1.274

£ (US$/S$ per £) 1.661 2.115

EURO (US$/S$/€ ) 1.367 1.740

Foreign currency per US$ S$

YEN 102.80 80.70

RM 3.337 2.620

HK$ 7.764 6.097

BAHT 32.89 25.82

RUPIAH 12,238 9,609

RENMINBI 6.049 4.750

INDIAN RUPEE 62.82 49.33

A$ 1.138 0.894

NZ$ 1.209 0.949

PRIME RATESSINGAPORE .................................. 5.38MALAYSIA .................................... 6.55HONG KONG ................................ 5.00INDONESIA ............................... 14.582TAIWAN ....................................... 5.036JAPAN ......................................... 1.475KOREA .......................................... 9.33BRITAIN ........................................ 0.50US ................................................. 3.25CANADA ....................................... 3.00SWITZERLAND ............................... 0.50INDIA .......................................... 14.75Source: Bloomberg

MARKETS DIGEST

PM: Three goals S’pore shouldachieve to show it has progressed

Livelydialogue:

The ession with

NTU students

saw Mr Lee

tackling a

mixed bag of

issues, ranging

from the govt’s

tightening of

foreign workers

to the feasibility

of having a

minimum wage

system inSingapore.

OPINION

Transport infrastructure key to domestic, export growth

� PAGE 21

Source: EDB

Strong and steady flow2013 investment commitments

Fixed asset investments (S$b) 16.0 11.0 – 13.0 12.1Total business expenditure per annum (S$b) 6.2 6.5 – 8.0 7.8Expected value-addedper annum (S$b) 20.3 16.0 – 18.0 16.7No. of skilled jobs 18,600 19,000 – 22,000 21,400

2013 ACTUALINDICATOR 2012

ACTUAL2013

FORECAST

PROPERTYBraddell View up for privatisation PAGE 10

TRANSPORT HUBParallel imports of cars down 24.5% PAGE 19

EXEC MONEYManaging threat fromemerging marketsPAGE 27

CORPORATERESULTSSMRT’s Q3 profit down 44% PAGE 6

Investmentcommitmentsrobust: EDB

PHOTO: AZIZ HUSSIN/ THE STRAITS TIMES

THE BUSINESS TIMESS$1.00 online at http://www.businesstimes.com.sg CO REGN NO 198402868E MCI (P) 085/08/2013 Wednesday, January 29, 2014