What is PAP’s long term economic vision?
February 18th, 2010 | 
Author: By Hurr Riyahi
After the release of the ESC’s findings, I notice a big sigh of relief on the faces of the 66% of Singaporeans, the group that votes of PAP without fail. I hear them speak about how the government has put Singapore into a firm position to ride the post-financial crisis storm. They proudly claim the ESC has charted new directions that will take Singapore out of uncertain economic waters. How good will life be for Singaporeans if only that is real and true.
During the post 1959, PAP had an economic vision for Singapore. They wanted to transform Singapore to become a manufacturing hub from one that was purely a services hub. They wanted to achieve this by luring foreign direct investments using cheap labour resources. That was a clear economic vision as the agenda clearly showed the type and number of jobs that can be created, the kind of investments that can be attracted and the type of economic transformation that Singapore will go through.
By 1980s the vision started to crack. The PAP government swung into a new direction which was to develop its services and going into high value added manufacturing. Things started to get more tricky but this vision too has become too uncertain in recent times.
The question now is what is the economic vision of Singapore. Are we going to be a services hub or manufacturing hub or both? What services and manufactuing industries are we going to focus on? Well propaganda machinese, arm chair bureacrats and sexy ST journalists may say we aleady have everything mapped out for the next 50 years. However what is clear is that Singapore does not have a long term economic vision.
A couple of years ago, it was growing the country using immigration. That cant be a long term economic vision. Already it has failed even as a strategy as conceded by the government backed economists themselves. Currently the vision seems to be casino, pharmaceuticals, petrochemical and finance. That is more like strategies than economic vision. What is clear is that PAP is no longer able to come up with a long term economic vision. Singaporeans have to accept that.
Part of the requirements of an economic vision is that it must show where are the newly created jobs in the longer term going to be. The kind of strategies for Singapore only shows some industries and its not something that all Singaporeans can rush into.
Part of the requirements of an economic vision also includes a clear identification of how incomes are going to be generated. With many of the newly created jobs going to foreigners and lack of areas for Singaporeans to seek opportunities in, its very unclear how are all Singapore families going to generate income in long term. What is clear is only for some segment population and labour force. LKY claimed that income gap can be rectified if jobs are created. But there are jobs already being created currently and income gap only has widened. Going forth this gap will only widen further.
What the PAP has instead of a longer term economic vision is a series of short term economic strategies stringed one onto another to make it appear its a long term vision. 66% of Singaporeans are naively watching this stringed rope of strategies with great relief and continued confidence as a rope that which they can hold on to. Its definitely a noose which offers no promise or security. In an era where we are seeing neighbouring economies such as Vietnam rapidly expanding, Singapore can be rest assured that it will one day become a case study of a rich country that started ahead but finished last with nothing.
Posted in 
“Singapore can be rest assured that it will one day become a case study of a rich country that started ahead but finished last with nothing.”
Sounds abit like Creative vs Apple
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PAP’s long term vision?
To squeeze as much $ as they can from us, then get the hell out before Singaporeans finally wakes up and starts lynching them.
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Policies have failed again & again. No accountability & no transparency! They are waiting for the Budget to sweetened the ground and to get the 66% to vote them in again, and claim again that if they have failed, the voters would have voted them out. But not to forget, they have created this so-called GRC, boundaries redrawing just before election time ( we have places faraway from Marine Parade coming under Marine Parade GRC, really absurd !!), etc. We need heads to be rolled for failed investments in GIC & Temasek…….
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Nah RWS, not fair on Creative. More like Aztech and Creative, with S’pore being Aztech
Aztech and Creative were both in sound cards. Aztech today mickey mse co in property dev, construction material, manufacturing electronic stuff.
And talking of lack of strategic brains, did you know we only major financial centre with retail casinos, hence the need to be unfriendly to gamblers — last three paras of http://atans1.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/casino-tots/
D
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what long term vision . Every policy is short term to cover their backside . They have pressed the panic button and internallt shooting each other . Their goal is just to try to win the next elections , nothing else . They don;t give a shit to local citizens . time for a change . freak election coming .
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(This comment is for Interview with Kenneth Lin, 15 year old who bla bla bla. It seems that it cannot appear. Is there a technical error? Take note hor~)
CitizenReddot,
Given the political reality, expecting Ministers to write in may be too ridiculous. Hahahahahahahaha…
You’d expect them to party at the beach with sexy ladies instead of wasting their sliva with such sites. Do you know what is the consequence of lending credibility to (say) Temasekreview?
Yes. They need the cyberspace.
No. Temasekreview would be beyond their control. What if they said the wrong things, they realise the PM is going to send in the ax, then want to ‘instruct’ Temasekreview to remove or edit?
If Lui bluntly used ‘adversaries online’, do you think he’d assumes it easy to just demand or ministerial instruct TR to amend???
Are civil servants so… courageous? Hahahahahahahahahahaha…
Most likely, you’d expect their media men. That’s all.
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They should just give up doing business with our money. Privatise all GLCs and leave the management in private hands and not interfere.
These are backdoor businessmen who do not risk their own money but use our money to take huge and unnecessary risks which they are not qualified to do; instead they should concentrate on improving the quality of life for the citizens especially the older folks who worked so hard and end up with nothing.
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TELL TALES SIGNS OF BEGINNING OF THE FALL OF ANY SYSTEM OR GARMENT
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
inconsistency in statements and policies
quick U -turns
left hand does not know what right hand is doing
contradictory statements by different so called leaders
inequitable ways in dealing with similar issues
lack of comprehension of the ground
not looking at the crux of issues and problems
confusing ends and means of issues and problems.
turning a blind eye to problems insisting they are not there
inaction in dealing with issues and problems
painting pictures of well-being and prosperity when gap between the top and the others is a big wide longkang and getting wider
cost going up and earnings growing slower or stagnated
no new ideas for rejuvenating econmy other than casinos and land/property speculation
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There is no plan, apart from selling out singapore. We see PAP MPs buying houses overseas, ready to run at a moment’s notice. We see rich developers squeezing every square inch out of our land, and milking workers for all they’re worth. I even predict the PAP is considering selling the whole country to China.
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Singapore did not start out as a country with any economic vision and yet we made it and found a place in the world.
When people say we could not make it, we did not have a master plan to show the world that we can be a first world, yet we made it to the rank of the world.
We develop out of the blue similar to places like Hong Kong, Taiwan, S Korea etc. Japan also did not have any master plan or economic vision when they almost take on America. They simply just work and work at it with no economic vision of being the best economy of the world.
Without economic vision is not doomed. The vision will come about usually on hindsight where sycophant leader brag about their past achievement. They will pick all the right moves and frame it up as their true vision to dazzle the world plus they can add on a new whole chapter to spice up their biography for future children to see.
If the PAP has no economic vision, then its opportunity time for the opposition. They should lay out their economic vision for Singapore and we all can vote them in to see if they could succeed.
Opposition must produce visionary leader to win the confidence of the public at large. So far they also don’t have a clue how to lead Singapore, hence PAP for the time being is the best we have got.
We must be matured citizen in bringing change to this nation without rocking the boat. It is fine to prepare an alternative to our present government and let the alternative flourish and mature, it is totally unacceptable in order to torpedo the government we simply bring any Tom Dick or Harry to govern Singapore.
Some may argue if we don’t try how we know the opposition cant make it. Tell you what, trust is not build in one day. Yes we cannot trust PAP, that does mean we should anyhow trust other people. If the opposition has proven that they are trustworthy and reliable then it is a total different proposition. They will surely make it to be the government of the day with or without much of what we say.
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PAP thinks we the local citizen are small flies and cannot do anything to them . Lets unite and use our voting power during election . if we don’t change the garman , we will soon be 5th class or out class citizens . think and vote properly .
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As Singapore’s economy matures further, it gets too complex in the globalized world where no one really knows what is happening until it is too late. Of course the fact is that nothing ever happens overnight – there are always the symptoms that those close to the ground can catch and react in preparation for it.
Therefore the economic vision for Singapore’s future must have a heavy dose of privatization and entreprenuership which has been stifled for too long. I hope there can be this element added.
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I agree with the writer that PAP seemed like stringing together bits and pieces of policies, here and there, now and then. Example – what has happened to the talk of sending a team to the SA World Cup 2010? What has happened to the talk of aping the Swiss standard?
To me, examples, Omega is Swiss, Longiness, is Swiss, Rolex is Swiss, Swiss Army knife is also Swiss. Singapore, what?
Another point, I read alot about Singapore being a hub for this, hub for that. What do these hubs mean actually?
Taiwan? They have Acer, TSMC, Compal, ASUS, Qimei etc etc. In Singapore – is there anything similar, comparable?
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Policies of the last five cause a lot issue include a declining employability among Singaporean and fall in Productivity. We need good opposition to challeng he ruling party so that only good policy that benefit people will get implemented.
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Having seen how PAP works, it is no longer the party I wanted. The issue at hand is to get rid of them and bring in any other parties available to pull through this trying time that Singaporeans faced under the arrogant party. Rest assured the new alternative parties will work very very closely with Singaporeans, they have been with us and see the ground clearer than those in the ivory towel. Whatever threats that LEE family spewed during the election is no longer a threat to me. I have had enough under PAP and as matter of fact, under constant threat whenever they are out to get rid of the people thru their double-standared policies & rhetorics.
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actually, PAP already has a long term vision, which is not just purely economic. However, LKY said:”Pledge is an ideal. Not a reality”
The National Pledge:
We, the citizens of Singapore,
pledge ourselves as one united people,
regardless of race, language or religion,
to build a democratic society
based on justice and equality
so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and
progress for our nation.
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Don’t forget 80% of local citizens are educated and thus knows what is going on from the internet . papaya will have to worry about wining the coming election . they are confused and worried and will sell anything to win the votes , including the country . no joke
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PAP does not have any long term vision under the incompetent LHL, only the fight fire policy.
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Hi angry_one
where is the prove of PAP MPs buying houses overseas?
i just know there isn’t a single PAP MP living in a HDB flat, all are living in million dollars bunglows, detached houses… posh neighbourhood.
the best plan for singapore is to have more casino.
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their long term economic vision is to remain in power as long as possible…
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PAP had a vision – sadly that was AEONS ago and they were sincere and most of it were implemented and it worked.
However, from the late 80s onwards the party has degenerated into a greedy party, i say greedy only for two things – money and power. The past does not equal the future so to simply talk about it – which they are very good at – creating fear, subtly divisive and mostly dishonest.
Singapore has been sold out at the expense of a few power mongers. That is the reality.
To assume otherwise is foolish lar. Don’t blame them – blame the voters cos they unwittingly trusted and today the mess is Himalayan lor!
The nakedness of their hypcrocisy is not only repulsive but contemptible.
Lest I am accused of being bias – scrutinize and watch and listen: from policies, regulations, broadcast media, print media all slanted and bordering on untruths.
Don’t forget HDB,CPF Board, Manpower, – the most untrustworthy types
Who is in charge? Ministers from PAP
They are no longer deserving of the votes. Singapreans are no longer in their interest OR OF INTEREST TO THEM. They have used Singaporeans enough and now they know that they are losing support amongst the locals, so the time has come to use foreigners. If a politician does things like this to stay in power – know this lar – the country is going down the drain.
If we don’t do something to end these charade and sham of a party – we are complicit in the crime also. What crime – need i mention more? It is jarringly evident lar
To unseat them is the only way to change things around – vote and vote for BIG changes.
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Looks like milking the cow dry…taking all the value they can get out of the entrails, guts, skins, bones and what have you…
All the original advantages [a deep water port, a fully constructed airport with facilities, a real working civil service etc left by the British empire] singapore had was wasted and went awry progressively from the past till now due to the aggressive stupidity by supposely “certified via elite schools like columbia/havard/etc” intelligent “people” and damaged permanently beyond redemption thru continued excess avarice by said same “people” too.
It is hopeless as long these so called “people” continued their parasitical ways. And they still think they are human beings.
As observations goes, we can continue to doubt that they have any interest in the continued constructive future and well being of the peoples of singapore and singapore itself.
Sad.
A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top. Unknown
Wisdom is not finally tested in the schools, Wisdom cannot be pass’d from one having it to another not having it, Wisdom is of the soul, is not susceptible of proof, is its own proof.
Walt Whitman (1819 – 1892)
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I need to add here that…
It is VERY important differenciate between the PAP’s vision, PA’s vision and the CEC’s vision.
They ain’t exactly the same. So…
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Hello,
Hmmm,…the writting is on the wall. You didn’t get it ???
How come??? they hinted many many times before
PM Lee SL said:” From now on Singapore grow for GDP is 2% (the key word is GNP)
SM Goh KT siad:” The new ecomonical landscape is Singapore in the future will be constriant by labor and land (which means the new reality is Singapore cannot grow anymore, we had reach our maximum capacity) start going “outside to make money”
What is the different bewteen GDP and GNP ???
GNP had something extra including income of those “located abroad” = 1)Singaporean working abroad 2)Singapore Companies abroad
Conculsion Singapore at best could deliever 2% percent growth. Due to labor and land constriant, SM Goh wants Singaporeans and Singapore SMEs to venture into China for opportunties
Make profit abroad, bring the money back home, we tax the profit. As simple as that
Our Singapore long term economical vision is what Mexico, Philipiness, Indonsesia…etc are all doing “back home no work”
1) Her citizens work abroad and remit money back home as a source of income for Singapore
2) Singapore company base overeseas make money abroad bringing home the money back to Singapore
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Singapore is bound to fail somehow. And the average man will suffer more and more. As their new ‘visions’ are like “cherry-picking”… ‘apple-plucking”… and “blowing-hot-air-balloons”
as “talents” for these ‘things’ with Multi-Million Pay Packages to “Dream Dreams” of the like one day…
MM said he’s considering building Holland type Dikes!!!… Then… NDM MBT say we are “going-underground”. I wondered what he means. what and who he was referring to!!!
So everyone… if you are in the majority of NOT having been born WITH A Silver-Spoon at least… you in old age and your siblings and children may well suffer in future because of HIGH COSTS…As so what if medical expertise is available???… For if you are poor… you’ll be trhown out to dry up and die like death leaves!!!
Please Go to http://www.cw.com.tw/issue/china. And especially note how China Government INVESTS money into Development for their Human Resource and Officers!!! Am not saying we don’t do it here… but how and how do pappy put FAITH, SKILLS and ENHANCEMENT of Our Spirits in ADDED Values For Meaning, PRIDE AND PASSION… is quite another story haw!!!… In short… If Obey & Tow-The-Line is The-Order-Of-Each-Day For ALL government’s tax money invested in it’s people and NOT “PEOPLE”… Where is the ENCOURAGEMENT FOR Our Passion and Desire For Allegiance To ONE’S NATION???
There lies the LIE for Equality!!!
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Beat Around The Bush and confuse even themselves more! Too little too late!!! SMEs now SUDDENLY So So Important to PAP???
And now just watch how WRS shares can tumble to below S$1.00!!! In around November 09, brokers were FANNING the Stock Market to milk first-half of this year for WRS at S$2.00!!! Watch and wait. AS “NEW BROOM SWEEPS CLEAN”. Also “NEW TOILET LOVE TO PASS MOTION”. Both are Chinese wisdom sayings.
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Hello,
This is the new economcial reality for Singapore
Can Singapore compete ?
1)Yes, but Govt. will a find way to continued bring in “cheap labor” to compete against overseas
Singapore reach its maximum capacity constriant by labor & land
2)For the local Singaporean that is born & breed here, you want go “good salary” you had to work abroad find work abroad
3)For the local SME stop asking Govt for to dish out projects, there is no more soil to dig. Like SM Goh said:”Come SME, we help to find business in China to make a living
4)As you go abroad, make sure you are still love Singapore. Going Global heart staying lcoal
This is the only path left to go…like thousands of Mexican workers remit millions of dollars from USA back home to Mexico
However, they will never reduce the cost of living cost and the cost of operating business here
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WRS now slapping themselves left and right as to why they paid so much for the piece of shit land and expensive casino license .Only to see FTs going there for free drinks and food . Where are the local rich singaporeans that have high net worth as mentioned by papayas ?
IT WILL NOT BE LONG BEFORE THE PAPAYA WIAVED OFF THE $100 ENTRANCE FEES TO SAVE THE CASINOS . NEXT WILL BE THE UNIVERSAL STUDIO WHEN THEY START CHARGING OVER $100 …
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For a 50 years old Papaya run nation, vision is definitely no good. Time to change that pair of old, rusty and blur spectacles.
Also eat too much Papaya and you get die-real everyday.
Forget those urban myths like: sg need papaya, in particular, the 80+ years papaya stay hanging from the tree.
These myths are man-made to keep them in power. We need a balance in politics and how to run the nation, just like your everyday diet: vegetables, meat, fruits and exercise. Too much of one is not balanced.
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SDP has already started putting out its long term economic vision for Singapore: http://yoursdp.org/index.php/the-party/our-manifesto/3381-the-sdps-alternative-economic-programme-part-3-a-comprehensive-set-of-measures-
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It’s known that they pay themselves millions $$$ is becos they think and plan ahead. That’s what they claimed. Now they set up a committee to brainstorm a long term economic vision. wtf
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The ESC is frying last evening’s left over rice – no new ideas.
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can someone enlighten me which of the ideas relies on technologies that is invented by singaporeans?
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I don’t believe there is no land to develop.
Just take some land from mindef.
It is all an excuse to charge more for land and taking seemingly under utilised land back from people.
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You know what they should have done: (the pigs I meant)
1. if you don’t know how to make monies from your investments overseas, don’t invest, return the monies.
2. the more you lost, the worse it gets.
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无为而治的”无为”，决不是一无所为，不是什么都不做。无为而治的”无为”是不妄为，不随意而为，不违道而为。相反，对于那种符合道的事情，则必须以有为为之。但所为之为，都应是出自事物之自然，无为之为发自自然，顺乎自然；是自然而为，而不是人为而为。所以这种为不仅不会破坏事物的自然进程和自然秩序，而且有利于事物的自然发展和成长。
You take away people’s tendency to trial and error, to do things without inhibitions, you kill their instinct. What we have in Singapore are lots of serf. Bound to their HDBs, working off the mortgage and paying through their noses for everything else that is basic, and savings all ‘held-ransom’ by various CPF schemes.
Would increasing PRODUCTIVITY help Singapore compete? Against China where they have cheap land, labour, and huge potential market? Obviously NO.
The ESC’s report is a total waste of time. Regurgitated vomit of yesteryear.
If Singapore is to compete, we will have to unwind some of the restrictions put into place by the PAP. Like High Housing costs and other living costs.
We do not have a LAND SCARCE problem. Those people who keep trumpeting this ‘myth’ are making the most money currently.
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Goverment does not have long term strategy that seem to work.
20 years ago we focused on electronics and IT. 10 years ago we moved on to biotech, now we focus on casinos. What will come in the next 10 years?
Now electronics manufacturing and IT and shipping out to other countries. Not much news from biotech and the casinos have not proved itself yet. Note that not all casinos are profitable.
In fact the basic bread and butter industries like banking, gambling (ToTo and 4D!) are still around.
I think we should let the private sector decide our future. First of all we need to reduce the cost of living. We can’t be innovative and go for retraining when we are living day to day. We should have an environment where the citizens can experiment freely.
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MM Lee : “SINGAPORE needs to improve the skills of its workers in all sectors, have more enterprise innovation and restructure its industries in the next five years in order to do well
Ya, when you do well, they will take away your innovation. Not if you are in US, where the private company will expand your innovation. I will never forget the hawker who come up with this mobile hawker in Orchard Road.
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Asiaone online comments
Their vision is here: you vote me in ..i increase fee lor
This is pure rubbish. They should reduce all charges..education, medical,transportations, etc for all Singaporeans whilst they increase those for PRs and foreigners. According to the ESC report, Singapore’s productivity rate has been around 1% for the last 10 years. What has happened? Shouldn’t the PAP govt take responsibility for it by reducing their salaries for the same period by at least 50% retrospect. Can some top political leaders explain why nothing was done during the same period to raise our productivity rate.
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The constant mantra: training, “education”, skill-upgrade, etc etc ad nauseum
Firstly, have we not been precisely doing these very things, all these very years, all the “good years” of the past, with our world class, first class education?
If not, what is the shortcoming in our “first class, world class” education system?
But if it is, then why is “first class, world class” not good enough for Singapore? Must the education system now be “galactic class, universe class”, better than anyone in this world, if not entirely out of this world?
And that may precisely be the problem: for no amount of world class education, training, reskilling etc will ever do for Singapore.
For it is evidently obvious that we have been importing so many talents elsewhere in the world with less than Singapore class education, to fill jobs that our world class educated population somehow cannot deliver.
So perhaps education, or training, etc is an entirely irrelevant issue. Perhaps the PAP is barking up the wrong tree, or, more likely, it is just a smoke screen.
For, and secondly, it is jobs first than education and training, or is it the other way around?
I can trained myself to be a sommelier – a world class one, needless to say – with the best French school in the world – or perhaps just a “world class” local one will do too – but if the only job that remotely needs my skills and talents is the corner HDB coffee shops, where all I need to do is to pick up dirty dishes and wipe tables with a stinky cloth, then why go spend all that time, money and effort to be a sommelier?
And then to realise that the only jobs available are tower crane operators and security guards at casinos and taxi drivers.
So it is the jobs that drive the “education” and training needs or “educated” Singaporeans somehow magically bring the jobs – the right jobs – to Singapore?
And finally, to tell you to go be retrained, reskilled etc, gives you something to do – and maybe generate some hope in you, never mind if it is false and self deluding; for it is a far better than the less desirable alternative of you idling your time way, writing blogs on Temasek Review, complaining and conspiracy theorising to others in corner HDB coffee shops, and becoming truly educated about the real Singapore.
Also then also if you didnt get a job, its your fault. Period.
You are always not trained or skilled enough. That farmer boy from rural China or Bangladesh is more skilled than you, always.
And in the meantime property prices are manipulated to go up, or at worst, to stay put for a while, so that those who really have a literal stake in Singapore, remains secured, and satisfied, and will choose to call themselves, Singaporean, at least for today.
The poor is inevitable. Just make sure they don’t get any real power.
Majulah Singapura!
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The PAP has no long term vision. What matters to them is short term. Remember the life science craze some years back? Same with the casino/IR thing. Hot, till the next big thing comes along.
One thing is for certain though, the PAP wants to squeeze as many people as it possibly can into this small island. Honest statistics will indicate that most of this population increase will come from foreigners and immigration. So, for those of us born and bred here, it will get pretty crowded and societal problems will inevitably occur. Expect the spin doctors to call this trend ‘cosmopolitan’, ‘vibrant’ and ‘essential’.
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Sim Wong Hoo made the biggest mistake of his whole life. He
should have remained in the US, and not come home. Singapore
dulls our creative thinking, making us unable to think, so his
engineers could not come up with a best seller any more.
In a culture where the GLCs dominating the business environment,
any entrepreneur would eventually fade out. The GLCs are
Singapore’s poorest paymaster to the SMEs when payment time
comes around. How to survive? This vision thing does nothing
for the local private entrepreneur.
Creative technology should consider going back to the United States for the sake of the Company’s future. This grand vision
is only for the GLCs and MNCs only.
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PAP’s long term vision is ultimately to merge Singapore with China, just like what he did to merge Singapore into Malaysia back in 1963.
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Our obvious weaknesses today are that we do not have a strong SME economy and very little innovation. Our dependence on FDI is worrying (cos FDI has no loyalty). Our lack of innovation means we can never lead the market (cos we will always be copying someone’s idea).
Going forward, one of our strategies would be to continue as a hub to the world, leveraging on our superior infrastructure, and relative openess. We want to be a financial services hub, a transportation hub, and a trade hub. I believe these would probably be the areas that will create jobs for Singaporeans (provided we don;t get over-zealous with our FT mantra). I simply can’t see any regional city that can usurp Singapore in these areas. Besides, I don;t see these area as requiring much innovation, so we’ll do well.
Another strategy would be to enhance our high value-added manufacturing/services activities so that the jobs are better-paying. This is where Pharmeceutical and aerospace MRO comes in. However, this cluster is dominated by MNCs. Ideally, we should have more home-grown companies in this sector, so that we have strong roots in this sector. However, I’m not optimistic.
SMEs need to grow beyond their mom-and-pop operations – low tech, low value-add, localised ops. If not, pay will always be suppressed, and 75% of citizens will find that their wages cannot keep up with prices.
GLCs should not penetrate every single nook and cranny of the landscape and shut off the oxygen for our SMEs. Think Fairprice. Allow our SMEs to survive in the local environment. Some SMEs can then carry the flag abroad.
Our current obsession with R&D is a correct strategy, to build the innovations that will allow us to lead the world. However, this is a very costly strategy as R&D returns is uncertain. Nonetheless, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Key KPI would be ROI.
Tourism can bring in the oxygen to keep our SMEs alive. Tourists bring in consumption dollars. Universal Studios and F1 are great. Not so sure about casinos.
By and large, the strategies are correct, but we need our SMEs to grow muscles. It is not about giving them subsidies, but to allow them to grow unique competencies.
I await the coming Budget and the details behind the ESC recommendations. So far only broad strokes, which I think is not value for money, given the expensive manhours that have gone into it.
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So what happens after 2010? After the 2 IRs open, YOG, F1, is there anything significant Singapore projects that help our economy? Even they are delaying the building of the national stadium.
Nothing.
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