PAGE 19 PAGE 27 THE BUSINESS TIMES - Monetary...
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By LEE U-WEN [email protected] [SINGAPORE] Good jobs for the people, more babies and a capable government at the helm are three goals Singapore should achieve if the country is to say it has progressed, said Prime Min- ister Lee Hsien Loong. These are all “easy to state, but very hard to achieve”, he said at an an- nual ministerial forum at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) last night. That Singaporeans can be in good jobs would mean that the economy is grow- ing and that investments are flowing in, Mr Lee told his 1,000-strong audience during a two-hour dialogue organised by NTU’s Stu- dent Union. “It means that we have upgraded what we’re do- ing, and that we’ve been able to be educated and take up the opportunities. That’s the first basic re- quirement to a happy socie- ty. It’s already not easy to achieve because we’re at a high level (today) and we want to go further,” he said. The second sign that the country has progressed would be if the fertility rate saw some improvement, which he conceded was a “very difficult” target to achieve. “It would mean that I have persuaded peo- ple to have a good work-life balance, to put their fami- lies first. That I’ve been able to get pre-schools, kin- dergartens, childcare cen- tres, grandparents to look after the children ... that people feel confident in the future and so they have kids here,” he said. Singapore’s total fertility rate stood at 1.29 in 2012, well below the replacement rate of 2.1. Mr Lee said that while it would “take forever” for the country to reach 2.1, it was “absolutely necessary” to at least push up the num- bers as best as possible. As for the kind of govern- ment that would be in charge 15 to 20 years from now, 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 support within the society. “It may or may not be a PAP (People’s Action Party) government. In 15 to 20 years, it won’t be me (as the prime minister). But somebody, some team, able to make this place succeed so that Singaporeans will feel comfortable to be here, have a good future here and have that confidence in their country and the lead- ership,” said Mr Lee. The lively question-and- answer session that fol- lowed delved into a mixed bag of issues, ranging from the government’s tighten- ing of foreign workers to the feasibility of having a minimum wage system in Singapore. One student asked if Mr Lee would consider having fewer expatriates come to work here because they add to the growing competi- tion that Singaporeans were already facing in the job market. The prime minister rea- soned that there were so many expatriates in Singa- pore simply because the economy had grown over the years and there were not enough locals to fill all the jobs that were created. He made the point that a foreigner should not be seen as taking up a position meant for a Singaporean. Rather, the ability to bring in the right person for the job would, in fact, create many more jobs for Singa- poreans as a result, said Mr Lee. “Can I do with fewer (ex- patriates)? Maybe. Can I re- place some of them with Singaporeans as they get trained? I hope so. If I send all of them home, will I be sorry? I’m sure the answer is yes,” he said. When asked for his take on the management of for- eign workers in Singapore in light of incidents such as the SMRT bus drivers’ strike in 2012 and last De- cember’s Little India riot, Mr Lee said Singapore would treat all foreign work- ers fairly and well, but they must do their part by con- tributing to the economy and abiding the laws of the country. “Although their num- bers are not small, we can have them in our midst without causing either some social upheaval or dis- order or problems, and they can also feel like they ... can go about their lives, and people respect them and they are not treated as inferior beings. I think that’s a mutual responsibili- ty on both sides,” said Mr Lee. By CHUANG PECK MING [email protected] [SINGAPORE] Despite ris- ing costs and a tighter la- bour market, Singapore still pulled in strong foreign investment commitments last year, the Economic De- velopment Board (EDB) said yesterday. The investment-promo- tion agency also predicted that this level of invest- ments will hold steady this year. EDB attracted $12.1 bil- lion in fixed-asset invest- ments last year, a drop from the $16 billion that came in for 2012. The agen- cy added, however, that the 2013 figure was well within its forecast of between $11 billion and $13 billion. In any case, EDB chair- man Leo Yip said at a press conference that the 2012 in- vestment number had been inflated by one-off chunky projects, making the year an aberration from recent years. “If you look at the trend over the last five to 10 years, you will see that $12 billion is actually well with- in the range we have se- cured. “There were several spikes – including that in 2012 – and those spikes were big investments.” Between 2004 and last year, there were three years when investments shot past that achieved last year: 2007 ($17.2 billion), 2008 ($18 billion) and 2012 ($16 billion). For the rest of the decade, invest- ments were between $9.4 billion and $13.7 billion yearly. Last year’s investments are likely to create val- ue-added of $16.7 billion for 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 and a record $7.8 billion yearly in total business expendi- ture (TBE), up from $6.2 bil- lion in 2012. A big chunk of the TBE are salaries, said Mr Yip. EDB said the strong TBE commitment, sitting in the upper bound of its forecast of $6.5 billion to $8 billion, came from the setting up of several significant head- quarters with regional and global functions in Singa- pore. Mr Yip said: “The invest- ments achieved by EDB in 2013 reflect Singapore’s strong position as a global business hub, as multina- tional corporations and oth- er companies continue to be attracted to the market opportunities in Asia.” He said that EDB has not lost any investment projects as a result of the tightened labour market and changes to the foreign worker policy here. “They have not as a factor swung their business decisions. No company has told us, ‘Look, we don’t want to come to Singapore because your manpower situation has made you less attrac- tive than before.’ ” He maintained that over- all, including ease of opera- tion and capability, Singa- pore has stayed attractive to foreign investors. This year, EDB is look- ing to attract investments of between $10 billion and $12 billion with TBE of be- tween $6 billion and $7.5 billion. It also expects the number of new skilled jobs created this year to fall 25 to 35 per cent to between 14,000 and 16,000. “It’s a steady level of in- vestments that’s in keeping with where Singapore is to- day, in its phase of econom- ic development,” Mr Yip said. “Our cost structure is approaching that of the ad- vanced economies, so real- ly, the growth we seek has got to be high-value-added, productivity-driven.” The investments project- ed for 2014 are at a steady level, also in keeping with Singapore’s workforce growth rates and land con- siderations, he added. Electronics was the top investment sector last year, accounting for 27 per cent of total investments. But commitments in electronics fell to $3.3 billion, down 46.8 per cent from 2012. Investments in the chem- ical sector, where the big- gest chunk (42 per cent) of total investments went to in 2012, dropped 62.7 per cent to $2.5 billion last year. EDB’s managing direc- tor Yeoh Keat Chuan said the sector is now in the down-cycle and companies there are now making smaller and more capital-ef- ficient investments. Meanwhile, the semicon- ductor industry has en- tered a phase in which it was uncertain that the re- covery is clearly on a strong track. He said: “They’re hold- ing off from making major greenfield investments. So what they are doing is mak- ing incremental expansions in order to be able to tweak and expand their existing capacity.” ☛ Investments into S’pore chemical sector still strong, Page 4 MARKETS Tuesday Change KL COMP 1,781.25 +2.37 NIKKEI 225 14,980.16 -25.57 HANG SENG 21,960.64 -15.46 SET INDEX 1,271.79 -16.80 JAKARTA COMP 4,341.65 +18.87 MANILA COMP 6,022.81 -58.80 SEOUL COMP 1,916.93 +6.59 SHENZHEN B 842.62 -2.06 MUMBAI IND 20,683.51 -23.94 11am EST Change DOW 15,923.55 +85.67 NASDAQ 4,094.58 +10.97 They are: good jobs, higher fertility rate, and capable govt trusted by people $12.1b fixed-asset investments pulled in last year; investment level expected to stay steady this year G ST INDEX 3,062.41 (+19.98) G ST INDEX FUTURES 3,062.00 (+21.00) G SIMSCI 349.01 (+1.82) G SIMSCI FUTURES 348.40 (+2.90) FOREX US$ 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 RATES SINGAPORE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.38 MALAYSIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.55 HONG KONG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00 INDONESIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.582 TAIWAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.036 JAPAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.475 KOREA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.33 BRITAIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.50 US . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.25 CANADA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.00 SWITZERLAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.50 INDIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.75 Source: Bloomberg MARKETS DIGEST PM: Three goals S’pore should achieve to show it has progressed Lively dialogue: 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 in Singapore. OPINION Transport infrastructure key to domestic, export growth ■ PAGE 21 Source: EDB Strong and steady flow 2013 investment commitments Fixed asset investments (S$b) 16.0 11.0 – 13.0 12.1 Total business expenditure per annum (S$b) 6.2 6.5 – 8.0 7.8 Expected value-added per annum (S$b) 20.3 16.0 – 18.0 16.7 No. of skilled jobs 18,600 19,000 – 22,000 21,400 2013 ACTUAL INDICATOR 2012 ACTUAL 2013 FORECAST PROPERTY Braddell View up for privatisation PAGE 10 TRANSPORT HUB Parallel imports of cars down 24.5% PAGE 19 EXEC MONEY Managing threat from emerging markets PAGE 27 CORPORATE RESULTS SMRT’s Q3 profit down 44% PAGE 6 Investment commitments robust: EDB PHOTO: AZIZ HUSSIN/ THE STRAITS TIMES T HE B USINESS T IMES S$1.00 online at http://www.businesstimes.com.sg CO REGN NO 198402868E MCI (P) 085/08/2013 Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Transcript of PAGE 19 PAGE 27 THE BUSINESS TIMES - Monetary...
By LEE [email protected]
[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 [email protected]
[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
