U.S Labor Dept: Singapore has steepest productivity decline and lowest increase in hourly wages in 2007 – 2008
March 3rd, 2010 | 
Author: OPINION
According to a shocking press release from the U.S. Department of Labor last year, Singapore experienced the steepest decline in productivity among 17 developed economies in the world in the years 2007 – 2008.
Not only that, it had the lowest increase in the hourly compensation per unit labor cost and one of the highest increase in manufacturing unit costs as well.
The detailed article was not reported by any major Singapore papers except a brief mention in the Business Times. Neither was it mentioned by Finance Minister Tharman last week which would have greatly embarrassed the PAP government.
Steepest productivity decline
Among the 17 countries, the Republic of Korea and the United States had the largest increases (1.2 per cent each) while Singapore had the steepest decline (-6.6 per cent):
Second highest increase in manufacturing costs
Singapore has the second highest increase in manufacturing unit costs when the figures are expressed in national currency units at 7.5per cent after Denmark’s 8.3 percent:
Lowest increase in hourly wages
Hourly compensation in manufacturing increased in 2008 in all 17 economies. The largest increase was in Norway (+ 5.6 percent), followed by Spain (+4.8 percent).
Singapore has the lowest increase at only 0.5 percent:
Second highest increase in the number of manufacturing hours
In 2008 total manufacturing hours worked fell in 9 economies with the greatest decline in the United States at -3.9 per cent. Denmark has the largest increase at +2.7 per cent followed by Singapore at +2.6 per cent as shown by the chart above.
Analysis
Singapore’s dismal performance in labor productivity is a direct result of the PAP’s short-sighted liberal immigration and pro-foreigner policies which help companies take the easy way out keeping labor costs down artificially by employing cheap foreign workers instead of investing in innovation and research to boost productivity.
As noted in the graph below, Singapore’s labor productivity took a plunge from 2004 onwards when the inflow of foreigners started to pick up:
[Source: Kojakbt, 3in1kopitiam forum moderator]
This coincided with the beginning of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s tenure when he announced his ambitious plan to increase Singapore’s population to 6.5 million people by 2030 via immigration.
Foreigners now make up more than a third of Singapore’s workforce. The proportion is probably higher in the manufacturing which accounts for the low increase in hourly wages and second highest increasing in the number of manfacturing hours.
As foreign workers, especially those who are unskilled, are usually poorly trained, they contribute partially to the increase in manufacturing costs.
Instead of coming up with a comprehensive policy to reduce Singapore’s reliance on foreign workers, boost productivity rates and to safeguard the interests of Singapore workers, the PAP chose the easy way out by opening the floodgates to foreigners which temporarily help to keep labor costs low and keep the GDP growth figures artificially high.
(An unknown percentage of the PAP ministers’ multi-million salaries is pegged to GDP growth – the higher the figure, the more money they bring home.)
The few measures put in place such as the foreign worker levy and dependency ratio hardly deter companies from hiring foreign workers.
It doesn’t help that Singapore has an extremely lax criteria for PR application. The Home Affairs Ministry revealed last year that two out of every three PR applicants are successful, an astonishing high rate for a developed nation.
The Professionals/Technical Personnel & Skilled Worker scheme (or simply PTS scheme) is the easiest and most assured route to Singapore PR. It’s estimated that more than 90% of the people obtain their Singapore Permanent Residence through this scheme.
The key requirement under this scheme is that a foreign worker must be working in Singapore for at least six months on either an Employment Pass, Entrepreneur Pass, or S Pass.
Since the dependency ratio lumps both citizens and PRs as “resident” workforce, a company can circumvent the rules by simply getting earlier arrivals of foreign workers to apply for PRs and transferring them into the “resident” pool, thereby freeing up slots to employ more foreigners.
Theoretically, it is therefore possible for a company based in Singapore to employ 100 per cent foreigners with no Singapore citizens on its payroll.
The foreign worker levies for various types of visas are also ridiculously low, amounting to no more than a couple of ten of dollars. Even with the recent hike in foreign worker levy, it is still more “profitable” for companies to employ foreigners as they do not have to pay them CPF. Besides, the slightly increased labor costs can be easily transferred to the workers and consumers.
The PAP government has to accept full responsibility for Singapore’s low productivity rate. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong now wants to increase Singapore’s productivity to 3 per cent per annum. How is this possible when our productivity rate has been decreaasing for the last three years with the largest dip of 6.6 per cent in 2008?
DPM Teo Chee Hean still got the cheek to give himself a pat on his back by praising the “progress” made by previous productivity drives:
“We have made good progress in the past in our productivity drive and that is why we have been able to move our economy forward and have good jobs for many Singaporeans. But this is a constant effort and we have to renew and re-double our efforts,” he was quoted as saying in Channel News Asia on 28 February 2010.
What “progress” is DPM Teo referring to when Singapore’s productivity has grown by only 0.7 per cent in the last decade? What “good jobs” did the PAP create for Singaporeans when they have to compete with directly with foreigners who cost much less than them? Does he know what he is talking about? Can Singaporeans trust him to chair the National Productivity and Continuing Education Council to spear-head Singapore’s productivity drive as outlined in the Budget?
The crux of the problem lies in Singapore’s export-based economy and its perennial addiction to foreign labor, compounded by the fact that it still has not managed to make a successful transition from a manufacturing to knowledge-based economy.
Unless Singapore’s structural and political economy is completely revamped, there is no way Singapore can ever hope to boost its productivity, let alone increase the wages and decrease the working hours of its long-suffering workers which will lead to other social problems such as low birth rates, exodus of local talents to greener pastures overseas and an eventual erosion and loss of national identity.
The PAP should realize that it is the biggest stumbling block to reforming Singapore’s obsolete, uncompetitive and monopolistic state-capitalist economic system. We are doomed to mediocrity so long it refuses to relinquish its tight-fisted control over Singapore’s economy and allows the private sector to grow and flourish independently.
1. How PAP screws up Singapore’s labor productivity by opening its doors to foreign workers
3. DPM Teo Chee Hean praises Singapore government for progress made in past productivity drives
References:
1. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor
Posted in Opinion
Good article! tharma should reveal this report.
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Please…even if this leak out…Tharman and the like will then say something along the line that it is not fair…or they will use 3rd-world country and compare and say “hey, singapore perform well”
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Pappy’s PAP Pappies Govt for their “GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS” of their Never Ending Self-PROFESSED And Self-ACCLAIMED Kind!!! Lead by an old pappy they always chorus in unison too!!! Bravo AND 3 GREAT CHEERS for their Failures which ARE Swept Under the carpets of their own making too!!! HIP HIP HOORAY TO Pappy PAP wiseDOOM!!!
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There must be a reason WHY the govt. CHOSE not to discuss this finding. If it is such good news, would they NOT publicize it first time through SPH’s media? What happened was very bad…yeah right.
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These million dollars ministers should all be sacked at one go and replace with just any ordinary native Singaporean. I believed they will do a better job with just a fraction of the money.
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Actually most Singaporean is not well compensated.
If PAP is to release all the raw data of our wages, we may find compensation skewed towards the top 10% of population.
These elites are idiots who make us expensive, and exploit poor slave laborer and cannot manage us into productivity.
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In my last in-camp reservist…
One of the officers came to me and told me his men morale is really low…the men were asking themselves what are they defending and sacrificing for!
I told the officer to go back and tell his men calmly it don’t mean nothing because ultimately they will be called upon god forbid if it ever happens to defend those that truely matter to them…their loved ones and their brothers standing beside them. And that is all that matters for now.
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The worse thing is now they have PRC china communist among our midst. And these PRC also come to TR to kow peh kow bu saying PAP is the best (they are fresh from a shit hole, so pissing on their face they also think its sweet).
See how PAP suck up to PRC China. Soon, Singapore will be another obscure location ‘in’ China.
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All singaporeans should read this article.
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I have to say that this article speaks for itself, facts and figures (not flowery language or excessive praise) derived from another source outside of Singapore. Quite a shock, but as usual, this will never appear in SG’s MSM.
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TO ADMIN:
PLEASE DO NOT SHOW AND RE-USE THE PRODUCTIVITY VS FOREIGNER GRAPH AGAIN, AGAIN AND AGAIN.
THERE IS NO CORRELATION BETWEEN THEM.
EXAMPLE, YOU CAN PUT A PRODUCTIVITY VS PROPERTY PRICE GRAPH, YOU WILL GET THE SAME GRAPH.
DO NOT MISLEAD THE READER, YOU ARE LIKE PAP, TREAT ALL PPL DUMMY
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Regardless of how much internal discussion and debate is involved in the formulation of policy, the very nature of an INTERNAL debate subjects that discussion to several well known cognitive biases.
Groupthink, system justification, ingroup bias, etc are a few which come to mind.
Although I personally do not have experience with the decision making process for high level policy I have spoken with individuals who have been party to such discussions.
For instance, in the past year the government has tapped prominent Singaporean business leaders and invited them to contribute to discussions on how to position our economy for the future.
The individual I spoke to had the impression that decisions had already been made and that such discussion where more an exercise in confirmation rather than exploration.
I must qualify that these are subjective observations and a single point of view, but given my lack of resources I can only process the information I have access to.
On the basis of such anecdotal evidence, the power structure of our bureaucracy is likely to be hampering their ability to make better decisions.
To not recognize this is hubris.
On a lighter note, I remember a story from a long time ago where when the cabinet had high level meetings, the then PM LKY had this much larger chair at the table overshadowing everyone. But when GCT was PM, he didnt inherit that chair and the then SM still occupied the “throne”.
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Only the PAP, it’s blind supporters, and the mass media are blissfully unaware that the steep Productivity decline is directly due to PAP’s liberal Foreign labour policy! It’s as plain as the noses on their ugly lying faces. Instead the propaganda machinery is trying to blame Singaporeans in general for the decline……. what a bunch of wankers.
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The PAP still think that we ( LOCAL CITIZENS )are flogs in the well and they must be dreaming . The DOS have done a wonderful job covering this statistic up and presented their OWN nice version of the current economy to make their master happy .
TO BE VERY FRANK , THEY ARE DAME WRONG AND SEEMS THAT THEY KNOW FREAK ELECTION IS COMING . THE 2 CASINOS ARE DESPERATELY TRYING TO BREAK EVEN BUT THEY KNOW ITS NOT POSSIBLE BY ANY STANDARD BECAUSE OUR ECONOMY RECOVERY WAS FAKE AS WELL . THEY ARE SUCK IN MY THE BEAUTIFUL NUMBERS OUR PAPAYAS CREATED AND NOW IN DEEP TROUBLE. WAIVING THE $100 ENTRANCE FEE IS NOT AN OPTION ANYMORE BUT WILL NOT HELP AT ALL . WORSE STILL , ELECTION IS COMING SOON AND PAPAYAS DO NOT HAVE A SINGLE POLICY WORKING FOR ITS LOCAL CITIZENS . ALL POLICIES BACKFIRED .
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We are screwed big time for the next 5 years.
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@Happy
5?
Try 20.
Our system rewards power and disenfranchises the weak.
Regardless of who is in power, this structure is unlikely to change.
It is only until we Singaporeans have had enough, then only will there be real change.
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After all the grandiose plans by our PM, we get this. If not for their election chicanery they would have long gone.
Useless bunch of nincompoops.
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@Freemanland on Wed, 3rd Mar 2010 1:50 pm
There clearly IS correlation, the question is whether one CAUSES the other.
But, you may have a point.
Facts and figures are nothing more than justification for an argument.
When there is cause to doubt the represented “facts” we should.
In this case, while there is no clear causal relation (beyond conjecture anyways), there is clearly a perceived correlation.
Whether or not such perceived correlation will be accepted by the audience would depend on whether the presented correlation resonates with their own experience.
So I ask, why do you say there is no correlation?
Or maybe why do you believe that an increase in foreign workers is in no way related to productivity?
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WE ARE PROBABLY STILL IN VERY DEEP RECESSION . THE GROWTH REPORTED WAS LIKELY FAKE . THE PAPAYAS ARE TRYING TO COVER UP UNTIL NEXT ELECTION . BASED ON THE VERY BAD NEWS AND THE FACT THAT THE 2 CASINOS + TEMASAK/GIC WILL CHUNK OUT EVEN WORSE NEWS SOON , ELECTION SHOULD BE SOON .
THIS YEAR , THE MAIN FAKE GROWTH WILL BE BUILDING HIGHWAYS .
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A woman who was once young & beautiful. Light make up touches on her face is enough to attract hordes of admirers or boyfriends.
Now that woman had aged over the years. This time she need heavy make up to cover her wrinkles. But the more she cover up the uglier & fake she became.
That woman is Singapore
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sturmtruppen – morale has been low even for fresh recruits. These boys are asking, why are they giving 2 years of their life, what for?
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This fact came out in BT last yr.
And thanks Freelandman. Waz wondering the sources for this chart.
TR needs more editors to curb the passions of the activists.
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We have today a MP who entered Parliament by Walkover (Marine Parade GRC) asking the Govt to increase more spending on foreigners, as reported in the Straitstimes:
More spending on foreigners
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_497304.html
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My own gut feel is that the ‘PRODUCITVITY’ levels gone down not so much from foreign workers like construtction workers or domestic helpers but more so from the so-called FTs like those foreigners who work as lab technicians,radiographers,financial institutions’ staff and the likes that have probably caused the poor productivity levels?!!!
I still see construction sites building rather fast and efficiently and domestic helpers allowing our female workers to make active contributions to the economy.
Perhaps,some responsible committee between the PAP government and some OPPOSITION leaders should be formed to investigate into the deeper into the matter?
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//Mask
age is not really the problem.
There are many aged but charming and attractive women around.
The only problem is one who is self absorbed or nasty which singapore is.
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Singapore is the only country in the world that does not care about his citizens’ feeling on job security. What have they done so far–NOTHING except pacifying citizens to increase school fees and hospital bills for PRs.
Singaporeans have been screwed big time by these PAPies. We have let too many second and third grade FT to come into our society in a very short time. Only when we unite and kick the asses of PAP we will never see change and our job security will just go south, doesn’t matter how we try to upgrade and compete on a fair platform.
GST increase??
I am not surprised if PAPies win the next election we will see another round of GST increase to at least 9%. The son of LKY used to justify increment of GST was justified because it meant to help the poor but we don’t see much help when it is needed by the poor.
If you did not vote in 2006, please make sure your name is on the voting list and kick out PAPies’ asses!!!
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I have read the BT article – it is only a truncated version of what is published here.
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To senior citizen,
All i can say is…if AP becomes the majority somehow in charge of singapore [A very big if as long they don't contest every GRC/ward] and some over the hill more dead then alive carcass of a human being “wants” to bring in the army/police [even the CD if he has too] to prevent a major disaster as it is a freak result in singapore…
All i can say is the NS/Reservist guys had had it up to the neck with all the nonsense over the years…the sacrifice made, the pain endure, the real live loss due to death/permanent injury, their youth etc…you can only push them so far to the edge of the abyss…once beyond that, anything goes and will be bad for everyone…a qoute from a wise man and to be mindful that no matter what we are people first everything else second:
“Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you”. Friedrich Nietzsche
Good day all.
Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all. Sam Ewing
You can tell the character of every man when you see how he receives praise. Seneca (5 BC – 65 AD),
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another financial engineering trick of the pigs@ parliament:
1. force people to take up a scheme instead of the existing scheme,
2. announce to the world how many took up the scheme without telling the world how many stick with the old scheme.
remember the CPF life payout. The monies had to be paid anyway.
Same thing, with 3% growth rate in productivity which is possible since we start with a lower base now, it will take about 4 to 6 years to catch up on our lost productivity. By then the other countries would have moved further up.
This is the kind of smoke screen PAP loves to fabricate.
These people have NO integrity.
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■LIONS ROAR on Wed, 3rd Mar 2010 4:13 pm
“I still see construction sites building rather fast and efficiently…”
The rather fast and efficiently could be due the large number of foreign workers working on site, causing a drop in productivity. For example, Optus is laying fibre optic cables my office in Melbourne. The digging and laying process is automated with only 2 workers on site working 9 to 5. The digging is done with a mole operated by compressed air. You could probably see an army of workers performing the same work in Singapore. More automation means less workers.
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To senior citizen,
The boy and men doing their NS/reservist be it army/police/CD…we can only tell themselves each day as this question will always pop up suddenly of why we have to do NS is ultimately for their loved ones and yes this country they have called home…all the sacrifices and paid dues is to advance our loved ones lives better and our fellow peoples of singapore lives better…that is all we can do for now…and if given the chance to vote…vote right to each individual conscience.
As for the blood sucking leeches and parasites doing the stiffing to us daily, we can only look on with iron clad patience as we have to play by the rules they had fixed so long ago…and we will remember each second, each minute, each day, each month and each year for every direct/indirect dis-ingenous insult, of mockery made of those who elected them or “gave” them the mandate, and their every belittling of the common folks who paid for their upkeep for so many years…and if we NS/reservist folks were to be called upon at that moment in time to do the wrong thing against the peoples of singapore….we won’t, i believe many of us will do the right thing by and for the peoples of singapore.
Only those who has lost their moral compasses, their ethics and their self respect will side with the ridiculious over paid obscene “pigs walking on two legs and dressed in [business suits]” who has turn or contribute in so many contrived ways to making singapore into a modern day orwellian “Animal Farm”.
It is a sad fact.
The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. Friedrich Nietzsche
To become corrupt, corrupt all in the immediate vicinity slowly but surely. Anon
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“Uniquely Singapore!”
Things on the ground get so bloody screwed up by the very people who implemented those silly policies, yet they can still pat themselves on the back.
Hats off to them.
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Admin
I hope you are keeping track of the misreps that yr staff are making. This news was reported in BT last yr.
Could it that some misreps are not honest mistakes, but meant to discredit TR. Make it look like SPH.
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To A Tan:
Please show us the BT article you have mentioned. I have read the article too and it does not contain the graphs posted by TR here and so TR is right that it is not reported by the Singapore media.
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@x12831 @ 5.28 pm
What u mentioned is fair enough but the productivity drop may not be in fact caused by these class of workers effectively speaking.
Yes,productivity could be enhanced by technology but the crux of the matter is that there are indeed new tech being apllied together with manual workers at construction sites like more usage of prefabrication.
What i am trying to get at is that overall productivity might have been jeopardised by FTs in the industries i mentioned and not actually cuased by those in the likes of construction in the first place?
We need to have a breakdwon of the chnage in the productivity of each sector of the economy to determine the truth as to which of these sectors have caused a productivity slippage?
Thanks for sharing and in fact i always thought that the construction industry in AUSTRALIA is far more advanced in term of workflow,technology and material apllications.
cheers!
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//LIONS ROAR on Wed, 3rd Mar 2010 6:13 pm
Agreed, there should be breakdown of productivity in the different sector. The data published in the BLS press release are on manufacturing. The construction industry in Australia is fairly advanced, with great emphasis on prefab, material applications, and technology. Singapore should move in that direction and reduce the reliance on cheap foreign workers. Somehow the past productivity campaigns in the past in Singapore have gone to waste.
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This kind of performance who should be held responsible????
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Do we hear MSM reporting any of these statistics?
If not , i feel sorry for the MSM readers and the Apathetics.
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NS Men got the double-whammy.
You serve years of NS for low pay, and then reservist duty until you get old — while women in your age group go Orchard Road and Clark Quay and party all night and day with Ang Moh men, while you slash your way through the jungle with the parang with thick clothing and under 34 degrees of heat and humidity to defend them.
Then when you finally go free time to go off duty and crash in at the 7-11 store to buy a cold drink, you get a PRC attendant in the shop who cannot even understand a word of your English, but still got paid more than you.
It is tragic.
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The REAL report card is out!
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Aren’t MPs salaries pegged to GDP?
Is it any surprise then that the result of pegging salaries to GDP will produce these results?
Living conditions will not improve in Singapore until the PAP is out.
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Since when were we a developed nation?
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PAP troll — note I only said “This fact came out in BT last yr”. I made no comment on how detailed the BT piece was. And that was in response to TR’s original statement that local MSM had not reported the fact (now TR has amended this sweeping statement).
If TR had said as it now does “The detailed article was not reported by any major Singapore papers except a brief mention in the Business Times”, I would have commended TR for making the details accessible to the public.
TR must hold reporters, commentators etc to account for the accuracy of what they write. People will make mistakes, but they should be held to account when they keep getting things wrong.
Isn’t this what we demand from ministers?
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“TR must hold reporters, commentators etc to account for the accuracy of what they write. People will make mistakes, but they should be held to account when they keep getting things wrong.
Isn’t this what we demand from ministers?”
Lets put it another way, if ministers are getting away with major blunders and incompetence at the highest levels,
I hope TR reporters and commentators be more bias in their ‘accuracy’ to balance what we are experiencing out there…
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Spoke in parliament yesterday about this “productivity” thing. He began from a different angle from the PM, SM, MM and SG-NTUC. But he ended with the SAME called “Life long learning and retraining”!!!
I guess pappy and pappies have been “Going through their very own “Life long learning and retraining” too. But rather “On their jobs by Trial & Error” with us Native & long time naturalized Singaporeans!!! A bunch of rotting bananas giving us constipation instead???…
BECAUSE their MPs must have been reading OUR Comments as they are Suddenly ECHOING OUR VIEWS in Parliament… Like seeking for…
“Productive Definitions”!!! Very ‘timely’ and ’smart’ indeed. Highly paid to learning and be trained on the job by mostly Trial & Error ways. And then that’s after calling us daft, sheep, choosy, not “Cheaper Better Faster”!!!…
As LSS ONLY just gave his definition of his NOW FAMOUS CATCH-WORDS for “Cheaper Better Faster”!!! WHY DIDN’T he DEFINE it right from the onset??? Such SLACKING from them shows!!!
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Please don’t blame foreigners and immigration for this problem. This makes us no better than semi-xenophobic European countries. Instead, look at Singapore’s pathetic labour laws and the power imbalance in favour employers in the labour market. If we had strong regulations that mandate fair compensation, for example, companies wouldn’t be able to hire foreigners to scrimp on labour costs.
The government’s fault does not lie in its immigration policy. It lies in its failure to take care of Singapore’s inhabitants in the first place. When we realise that, we can stop blaming a convenient bogeyman and focus on the fundamental problem, which may help us get somewhere in the long run.
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the article draws many erroneous conclusions.
from 2004 to 2006, our labour productivity still grew, albeit at a much slower pace. but grew nonetheless. therefore TR is very wrong to say that “Singapore’s labor productivity took a plunge from 2004 onwards when the inflow of foreigners started to pick up”. it’s deliberately misleading.
also, even with the sharp drop in the labour productivity growth into the negative territory in 2007 and 2008, in the period between 2002 to 2008 as shown in the graph, labour productivity in fact still grew by about 11%. doesn’t take a genius to work things out. anyone with knowledge of sec 2 maths can figure it out. disappointing that TR didn’t and tried to hoodwink its readers.
in addition, the sharp rise in manufacturing costs coincides with the sharp rise in fuel prices and the sand ban from Indonesia, conditions which are more likely to hit Singapore a whole lot harder given our near complete lack of natural resources.
finally, TR condemns our sharp increase in manufacturing unit cost, but a closer look at the graph in the article shows that the increase is in manufacturing unit LABOUR cost. this means that we are actually spending more on wages per unit of production. which seems somewhat to contradict the subsequent point that the wage per hour has increased only marginally. the only way i can reconcile this fact is that we have employed more people. yes, perhaps a lot of these people are indeed foreign workers. but nevertheless, that doesn’t detract from the fact that we should, when reading things on TR, scrutinise every word they say because what you see clearly isn’t what really is the case and that TR loves to skew facts and figures.
i’m not saying that the government can be absolved of responsibility for the fall in labour productivity growth and the rise in cost of manufacturing, low growth of wages, but this article really is just a hodgepodge of spurious conclusions.
TR’s articles are increasingly lacking in depth of thought and analysis, simply drawing superficial conclusions. is that what we want our people to be? superficial, irrational, uncritical, not thinking? does a citizenry of such people the makings of a true democracy? i think not.
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@crc
Fully agreed. I consider myself a loyal TR reader, but I’ve been dismayed by the decline in its article quality since about Dec last year. If TR really hopes to become a mainstream media organisation someday, it really needs to put a little more time and effort into raising the standard of its content.
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It’s kinda ironic.
In classical western astrology, what governs Productivity also governs Creativity, Fun, Recreation, Reproduction, Play, Romance, Love Affairs, Parks, Playground, Pubs, Clubbing, Party, Children. All stuff of the 5th house.
The ancients know their stuff.
Can’t say the same about the Singapore ruler’s mindset.
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Some hypothesis:
We are getting sub-standard foreign talent rejects by other more intelligently controlled governments.
The good ones leave after studying here while the bad ones stay behind.
Employers are the main culprits as more low cost and low productivity workers actually increase profit margins.
Depressed morale of citizens lacking inspiration.
No lack of constant criticism by the government in all matter of economic development. A lack of encouragement by the someone who is considered significant by the citizens.
The figures for GDP were skewed after the 2007/2008 economic crisis. Losses are only just being recognized in 2009.
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