PM Lee: Intake of foreigners will “slow down”
October 14th, 2009 | 
Author: From our Correspondent
For the second time in a month, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has reassured Singaporeans that the intake of foreigners will slow down.
In his 45-minute speech at a labour movement conference, PM Lee said that Singapore can expect lower growth as the country slows its intake of foreigners, as there is a limit to what it can accommodate.
This means companies will find it harder to get workers and grow: ‘This is a trade-off which we cannot avoid.’
He also said Singapore would gradually phase out less productive activities that rely on foreign workers, like the disk drive industry, and replace them with new ones.
PM Lee also identified broadly the critical steps that needed to be taken for Singapore’s post-recession economy.
‘We have to pursue higher productivity and build better capability, and move workers from less competitive businesses into newer, expanding ones. We have to foster restructuring, not try to hold it back,’ he said.
Singapore’s population has reached the 5 million mark, contributely largely by the influx of foreigners.
The Singapore government has adopted a liberal immigration policy to boost the island’s flagging population over the years much to the chagrin of local citizens.
Despite increasing resentment and disgruntlement on the ground, the government is adamant that Singapore will need to recruit more foreigners in the long run to keep its export-orientated economy afloat.
In the past, only skilled foreigners are invited to take up PRs. Nowadays, even semi-skilled workers can obtain PRs easily as evident from the experience of a PRC Chinese teacher Zhang Yuanyuan who got a PR within 2 months of application.
PRs form 40 per cent of the buyers of resale HDB flats, pushing prices up to a record high, thereby squeezing ordinary Singaporeans out of the public housing market.
With no opposition in Parliament or an alternative center of power in the civilian population, it will be an uphill task for Singaporeans to change their government’s pro-foreigner policy.
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I finally decided to write a comment on your blog. I just wanted to say good job. I really enjoy reading your posts.
“Slow down” is not good enough. There should be a total policy review.
Anyway its too late, the demage is already done!
*yawn* where have I heard this before?
A sure sign that election is just around the corner, maybe a snap election sometime december?
U are lying thru your nose! Show us the proofs!
don’t believe LHL.
Letting foreigner in freely has become a “drug” for this million dollars ministers.
They get to boast high GDP and get their commissions for higher flat prices indirectly.
He will not slow it down.
Note that PM Lee said the intake of foreigners will only “slow down”. We really need to partially reverse the number of foreigners/PRs here as it is overcrowded and stretching public resources beyond their limits!!!
Alas, what can we do? Blame those 66% who voted this party in .
@ Too late on Wed, 14th Oct 2009 11:09 am
Anyway its too late, the demage is already done!
If only that mob shut up, sit down and listen to ALL SINGAPOREANS and not their preferred politically correct crowd, we would NOT be sitting on this population bomb waiting to explode in another recession or downturn.
TOO LATE OF BLINDLESSNESS AND INDIFFERENCE TO PUBLIC OPINION.
Vote in opposition for our own good and FOR THE GOOD OF SINGAPORE.
LHL is an under performing PM!!!!
This is a vote catching bait, DON’T BE DECEIVED AGAIN, SINGAPOREANS.
Blackfeline said: U are lying thru your nose! Show us the proofs!
Wow! Very dangerous comments here, you can get sued for calling his A LIAR!
Better rephrase your statement and say: I DON’T BELIEVE YOU!
PM Lee,
please stop insulting our intelligence with your nonsense and red herring. Your words show that you did not deliberately stop the influx of foreigners but rather you leave it to the nature of economies to do the work. You say that once company retrenches or close down, the foreigner will leave the country or discourage from coming, but yet the foreigers are free to stay and come to look for job/companies in Singapore. In other words, you are not giving assurance and promise based on your action, but based on how economy work. How smart of you to make use of nature of economies to control foreigner influx and yet could blame totally on it when it fails ?
PM Lee: “Singapore can expect lower growth as the country slows its intake of foreigners, as there is a limit to what it can accommodate.”
ME: “How can I take your word at face value ? You are assuming you know the limitation. In fact, there is no limitation in Singapore as long as there is free market and no regulation of foreigner influx. Do you even know the limitation when you are sitting in Ivory Tower with lackeys reporting false news to you everyday, that Singapore still can take in millions ? Are you going to take responsibility from your words that nature of economy will help curb the foreigner influx ?”
PM Lee: “Well, if the nature of economy can’t do the work, don’t blame me, after all, ‘it’s the lapse what to do,
it’s happened “. !
It was claimed of compelling long-term economic necessity of demographic population explosion, now for political considerations, it will be “slowed down”??
It proved the strongly publicly-held thesis, the quiet massive injection of foreign migration has been politically-motivated all along and found unworkable of desired outcome. The ECONOMIC MOTIVE IS COMPLETE BULLSHIT.
Read this below to gain a better understanding of the danger of population-based artificial lifting of economy written by an economist
http://www.theage.com.au/business/beware-population-growths-hidden-costs-20090927-g7ro.html
The moral of the story is THE COSTS OF SUSTAINING MASSIVE MIGRATION IS EXPENDITURES IN THE ECONOMY PAID FOR BY ALL INCUMBENT CITIZENS COUNTED IN AS GDP GROWTH to make the numbers looks deceptive good but GDP pe person keeps going down i.e. we are all poorer and poorer by the day.
In simple analogy, money spend on sewage plants are income to the contruction company undertaking this contruction project, it is therefore added to GDP figures. But who paid for this construction costs incurred by Government – you and me and savings which could have gone into our reserves in the hands of the Government, if need be of development expenditures.
POPULATION GROWTH=GDP GROWTH IS A GOOD HOAX OF SMART ECONOMY.
THEY REALLY SHOULD STOPPED THIS RUBBISH OF PUBLIC DECEPTION NOW!!!
Foreigners will still come here no matter of how badly the economies and state of Singapore is as long as Singapore gov continue to lax regulation of foreigner intake, and that foreigners, being opportunist, perceive Singapore as a better place to stay/work compare to their respective country. Any wonder why Singapore can only attract China, Vietnam, Burma, india foreigner etc and not western counterpart ?
they always say others never give concrete data, policies, actions to back up their claim. LHL also same what.
Guys
Whatever he said in a few words:
LPPL = Got Say = No Say.
PERIOD.
>PM Lee said that Singapore can expect lower growth as the >country slows its intake of foreigners, as there is a limit to >what it can accommodate.
>This means companies will find it harder to get workers and
>grow: ‘This is a trade-off which we cannot avoid.’
Serious? With so many unemployed Singaporeans are companies fussy instead?
To the average Singaporean, what is important is always their ‘rice bowl’. LHL is no fool to that and he is well informed. That is why he has to take the route of slowing down foreign intake. However the government reiterated that in the long run we need more foreign workers so be assured that the slow down is only temporary, lasting up to election time.
The government has heard your vocal disgruntlement and given you a reprieve. It will set the correct atmosphere when election comes. Thereafter the public as a whole will feel less pressurized as they will be able to retain their ‘rice bowl’. By then running an old story no longer have an impact as the foreign not so talent’s facade has changed and the good old scene reappeared. People will once again happily vote wisely by choosing the PAP. It is pure shrewdness on the part of our PM fast becoming a season politician like his dad. Wisdom runs in the family.
You are no wiser than him and your two bit ranting will fall on deaf ears once again when election comes. Meanwhile enjoy your ranting while you are at it.
i dont think the ft intake will slow down. most of the time i dont believe the son of the lky. in fact the harm has already be done. slowing down wont help much. eg lower the housing prices.
I believe the foreigner intake will slow down….before election.
Once Singaporean fools vote for PAP thinking that they have been heard in the next election and PAP once again come back in power with 82 seats of MP in parliament, the floodgate will be open again and intake of foreigners will increase 10 times.
Remember, popular votes here mean nothing. PAP may get as low as 51% popular votes, if they have majority MPs in parliament, they still win hands down.
Mark my words. After election, if they win hands down, they will re-increase the foreigner intake.
## Exposer on Wed, 14th Oct 2009 12:04 pm
Very good points, Bro.
He speaks with a forked tongue.
We should take it with a pinch of salt and let it go in one ear and out the other.
Once bitten, twice shy.
singapore grow but we suffer , singaporeans are worse off now except for the elite group u know who.
good try slow ft intake growth slow , world economy slow we slow. so well can we tell the gov is doing a good or bad job.
tell singaporean what is the big picture , slowing now and than double ot triple rate of intake later adds up to the same in the end. actaually most of us are tired of such statements. ppl just want a better life thats all. where in the world but here u see 70 s year working and struggling to earn a few dollars a month. look at china most ppl are happily enjoying their life after 55 yrs we need not say more
@ Exposer
I agree with u. It’s like the tomato analogy.
Singapore to them, is like the best “not so rotten tomato” amongst all the “very rotten tomatoes” in the whole crate. In this situation, the choice is very clear.
We need quality of life and not GDP figure. We only welcome foreigners if they can help to improve our quality of life. But the rate of import is excessive now that we are facing overcrowding and housing problem. High GDP figure can only make PM feel good but the ordinary citizen are not !!! If this trend is going to continue, LHL is going to destroy Singapore!!!
Action speaks louder than words!
“PM Lee said that Singapore can expect lower growth as the country slows its intake of foreigners” – twisted logic. The ministers are not worth the millions they paid themselves.
“Slowing down” is a subliminal word and subjective. Slowing down mean the target of 6.5 mil will still be fulfill. Just slower. By how much? 1 day? 1 hour? Slowing down is just a smoke screen. We need to stop it now. Now is already too much!
My house at woodlands is pack with china people. Most of my neighbours are china people. Native starts moving out including me, I finally cannot take it for all their dirty bad habits. Littering outside my door, hanging cloths, mattresses and carpets outside my corridor etc etc. I rented out the whole unit and move out. I feel I was been force to leave. The feeling is so terrible as this is my country. Now it is barely mine.
govt is finding an excuse for the slowing in GDP growth by pinning it on the “slowdown” in foreigner’s growth.
productivity is more important in GDP growth,even with a slowdown in foreigner’s growth, so long productivity increases, GDP can still grow. however, govt find it easier to control pop growth than productivity growth.
Economics growth is irrelevant to ordinary citizen if the quality of life is not improved. In fact, quality of life had been deteriorating since 5 years ago due to high inflation that was caused the government policy i.e. immigration policy.
“PM Lee said that Singapore can expect lower growth as the country slows its intake of foreigners” — Is this insinuating that Singaporeans are not productive at all, since he pegs the growth to the intake of foreigners? Sacrilegious if you ask me.
They should overhauled the entire immigration policy to harvest and retain only quality immigrant with some hope and intention to taking up citizenship.
For example, those existing PRs after living here for more than 3 years and have not taken up citizenship should be notified that they ahve another 2 years of grace period to decide on their commitment – failing which they will lose their PR status. Australia and Canada both revoked PRs if they failed to meet certain residency and character requirement. THERE IS NOTHING PERMANENT in the permanent residency grant. New rules could come into play that after 3 years, they lose all benefits presently available and also they may only purchase public housing after residing here for not less than 3 years – this will ease a little bit of public housing pressure for Singaporeans in the interim.
With such fine-tuning policies in place, we will get rid fast of “passengers of convenience” who has no interest or commitment here.
These foreigners can have the option to apply for PEP instead.
It is fair to them and fair to Singaporeans. We don’t want to be the doormat or toilet tissues for foreigners. Tighter and fairer rules will attract those who are genuine of possible commitments, not those who will be here only to take advantage of our generosity.
Time for Change and put Singapore first.
“He also said Singapore would gradually phase out less productive activities that rely on foreign workers, like the disk drive industry, and replace them with new ones.
PM Lee also identified broadly the critical steps that needed to be taken for Singapore’s post-recession economy.
‘We have to pursue higher productivity and build better capability, and move workers from less competitive businesses into newer, expanding ones. We have to foster restructuring, not try to hold it back,’ he said.”
LOL, this was pretty much what many posters on TR said. Singapore has to pursue high-value industries that make full use of the labour force’s high education level instead of using foreign workers to force wages down.
Who the heck actually believes LHL will do as he says when he was preaching the exact opposite just last month by saying that Singapore needs such a large number of foreign workers.
what has globalisation,together with high technology and IT, actually done for the ordinary man in the MAIN STREETs throughout the entire GLOBE?..Simple,make the rich richer..and that was not meant to be!Workers are supposedly thought to be able to have a better work-life balance and all that?!!!
Contradictorily,the oridinary joe is working later and later
in the office and “ta pau” more work home,most of the times for the same pay whilst his boss -with the decreased costs,mostly and easily from job-cuts-takes home more pay and a big fat bonus.Is this progress,i wonder and i am sure,so do you!
In order for the world economy to really grow, jobs must and need to be created,not reduce.then only can peoplen have money to spend and create a positive multiplier effect.This is economics 101 i learn in school and i am no scholar.
All it takes for the world to grow and progress is magnanimous
and broad-minded corporate and world leaders and not selfishness and self-centredness.
So,when will that “profit number” be OPTIMAL so that greed
doesn’t ultimately destroy corporations and financial institutions and in effect bankrupt some and impoverish many
,even a few of the rich themselves!
sometime this year, this group of PRC people moved into a flat along my corridor. don’t know how many people squeeze into that flat… but confirm a lot. and they hang their clothes outside and it stinks! there’s this odour of staleness constantly wafting from that flat. grr…
but. not to tar everyone with the same brush. my block also has a lot of other very nice PRC, whom my family and i get along quite well with. these usually are white collared workers with families, who are originally from the bigger cities in China (unlike the former group who have, i think, blue collared jobs and are all guys from different places packed into one flat and mostly from the poorer regions of China, though i may be stereotyping cos i’m not sure…).
therefore i think welcoming immigrants is not wrong per se. after all, we really aren’t having enough babies (and it might not be because of cost of living, etc. my grandparents were far poorer than my parents and really had much more difficulty in supporting the family… but that didn’t stop them from having soccer teams worth of kids…). so to have enough people to support and drive the economy, perhaps really need to augment the population through immigration. BUT we really need to CONTROL the quality.
@mama:
[where in the world but here u see 70 s year working and struggling to earn a few dollars a month. look at china most ppl are happily enjoying their life after 55 yrs we need not say more]
a big proportion of people, of all ages, in China are actually a lot poorer than the 70++ working and struggling to earn a few dollars a month here in Singapore. i was in the more rural parts of Yunnan a couple of years ago. the poverty there is astounding. and the very next day after seeing that sort of poverty, i was in Kunming city (capital of Yunnan) and passed by a Porsche showroom. China’s wealth divide is HUGE. and the poorest, who need not necessarily be just from the rural regions, are certainly poorer than our poorest (of course their richest also richer than our richest la…).
it is good to welcome people to our land just as we hope to be
welcome-hopefully-if we choose to emigrate to another country or to find work there.
however,when i read how local employers discredit our own people for not accepting a job at the same pay as for example,a chinese immigrant worker,i feel that this is unfair
comparison.Why?
well,like you say,the china nationals,coming from a poorer background,are willing and maybe “ok” wiht squeezing into
a small rented flat or even a single room to split cost.
can we expect our locals with their wives and children to
squeeze into a packed flat with some other families.How about\
the cost of food and education and other basic needs.
we have to remind ourselves that for the chinese or indian immigrant workers,even squeezing like this may be still a better living condtion compared to back home.Also,they can save
by their living here alone frugally and converting their singapore dollars into reminbi,woth a few times more,and perhaps give their families a better livilihood beck home.
can a singaporean worker with a wife and school-going children
afford the same life style? the answer,i think is quite obvious.
so,i think it is utterly unfair for bosses to compare and contrast the requirement of our own singaporeans to our immigrant friends.
Beyond a certain density level, any addition to population must bring diminishing return.
http://www.asiaone.com/Motoring/Owners/Story/A1Story20091014-173580.html
No parking lot for season ticket holder when there are 1432 parking lots. This is present situation. When this poor fellow missed his parking lot, he has to park 10 blocks away – walking 30 minutes both ways.
Double the population, you might be parking 20 to 30 blocks away. What joy is that and for the great cause of productivity to walk 30 minutes one way to your parked car and drive to work in the morning and spending another hour an hour hunting for a parking lot after work??
This is real disastrous consquence of over-population. We are already there with 5 million on this island and virtually everyone among a large proportion of just foreign workers not even driving!!
Translate that to food shopping, eating at hawker centre, queueing up at post office, banks, ATMs, bus-stops, MRT, restaurant and emergency care in hospital, transportation of goods and documents from one business enterprise to another. This place is going to grind to a halt BECAUSE YOU CANNOT RIP UP EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE OF ROAD AND MRT LINES TO WIDEN THEM OR ADD ADDITIONAL PARALLEL LINES.
When everything is jammed of traffic, PRODUCTIVITY GOES DOWN THE DRAIN SLOWING DOWN GDP GROWTH WHILST POPULATION ESCALATES.
The end results, GDP PER PERSON fell dramatically. All are poorer in good times. In bad times, one job vacancy maybe 1000 applicants instead of 500 applicants – most will starve whilst demand keep costs going UP AND UP just like our housing prices despite the worst recession in our history.
TERRIFYING ENOUGH? Or is this an old man’s silly joke or rumour mongering??
Wait – both China and India are getting richer by the day. Their middle-class segment of population gets bigger and bigger. Like us, they want better food and accomodation, do they deserve any less?? I bet NOT. They deserved all that they can afford. Meantime, farming is decreasing. EVERY FOOD ITEM HAS ONLY ONE WAY TO GO – UP, UP, UP AND AWAY.
Ask Jim Rogers why he is bullish on food and agriculture for investment. Less and less food production matched by ever expanding demand for food from rice, wheat, maize, oil seeds and everything edible like seafood.
When food prices keeps going up, a economy in deep recession and all food imports like Singapore will see A LOT FALLING BELOW POVERTY LINE FASTER THAN NEIGHBOURING ECONOMIES.
Singapore, in those circumstances, in a realistic metaphorical descript will be LIKE A VERY SICK HOSPITAL SYSTEM LOOKING AFTER OVERLOADED NUMBER OF SICK PATIENTS IN INTENSIVE CARE.
ASK YOURSELF THIS SIMPLE TRUTHFUL QUESTION – Is the influx of migration good for Singaporean and new migrants given capacity constraints??
If the answer is honestly yes, then faster bring in by round the clock planeloads to bring it up to 6.5 million or more before the election.
If the answer is honestly no, then stop the migration for now and reverse some policy criteria to drive out the marginal and lower quality PRs and maybe when economy can afford it later, focus on LIMITED BUT QUALITY INTAKE.
PICK YOUR CHOICE IN THE COMING ELECTION, SINGAPOREANS. A wrong decision may be no turning back for all.
There’s no doubt Singapore needs more of those talented foreigners who are at the top of their respective professions.
At the other end,we also need unskilled foreigners to do those jobs that S’poreans shun for one reason or another .But it is those foreigners in the middle i.e skilled workers and technical professionals that need to be drastically reduced as they are in direct competition with many S’poreans.In a nutshell,Govt needs to identify those sectors where the jobs can be filled by S’poreans and reduce the number of foreigners accordingly.
The govt.should also implement a rule whereby every business must have at least a certain percentage of S’porean employees before they are allowed to hire foreigners.Without this and other safeguards,unscruplous businesses will continue to favour “cheaper” foreigners than us.
Let’s see if the PAP will walk their talk or merely talking cock.
I seriously doubt he will slow down the intake of foreigners. Why are they building more infrastructure to accomodate more foreigners then.
What he means is he will increase the intake of 3rd rate foreigners when the global economy picks up. Meantime, as elections are around the corner, he will just say the things that Singaporeans want to hear.
This government has been stumbling from one screw-up to another ever since LHL went to Taiwan and angered China. GIC and Temasek lost billions. Suzhou and Batam are billion dollar losses also. No wonder they can’t allow us to withdraw our CPF. Anymore losses and we will probably never see our CPF money ever.
Singaporean who still continue to support the PAPPies have only themselves to blame when they see their children suffer later. Don’t say you were not warned.
Time for Change. Vote Opposition.
The PAPPies are very confused. Must be the consequences of inbreeding. How else can anyone explain the mess we are in.
It was only back in 2003 that we were very selective in granting PR status. Since 2005 we have been handing out PR and citizenship more cheaply than a Geylang prostiture handing our condoms to her clients.
The PAPies are lost. Confused. They haven’t got a clue. Just two months back they said we needed another 3 million China citizens. Now were cutting back and moving to high tech and more productive industries. What’s up man.
Time for Change. Vote opposition.
hey look, we are in the top 5!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_public_debt
btw government debt = public debt!
any bonus to gov should be tied to decreasing this amount and not the increase in GDP.
LHL, feel so sad for you that most people don’t believes what you say these days except those sucking up to you. Anyway, the damage has already been done and too late to “slow down” the influx of foreigners now.
When your head is already under the water, does it matter whether you slow the flow of water from the tap or turn of the tap? Either way, you will be drown!
@KnowItAll
Unskilled foreign workers does NOT qualify for PR application. No issue arise with them. They are transient workers to drive our economic development and needs our support.
Top of the range professional for each profession. Yes too if they bring skills and connections.
All others should be PEP but on a longer duration of 2 years minimum at start and renewable yearly as economy needs them.
SINGAPORE with such huge physical pressure HAS NO SPACE TO ACCOMODATE Permanent Residents the way Australia, Canada absorbs them.
Everywhere else economy grows beautifully without massive permanent migration influx – from South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Norway, Chile, Brazil, Ireland, Finland and EVEN MAINLAND CHINA.
Why are we wrecking this place up for undisclosed political motives with massive foreign migration risking untold magnitude of burden and risks to future generations which include the new migrants?????
Population bombs are very hard to defuse and takes enormous struggle over extended generations to resolve like China, India Nigeria, and Indonesia is finding out now.
Don’t play with TNT, it will blow you up into pieces – Governments show know that.
Don’t play with TNT, it will blow you up into pieces – Governments show know that.
should be read as
Don’t play with TNT, it will blow you up into pieces – Governments should know that.
R3 on Wed, 14th Oct 2009 10:59 pm
This is bad. How come we are so indebted. I thought we had frugal leaders. Where is the money going to?
i say it all boils down to a genuinely good education to have truly good leaders…a good and moral education!
a good education is not simply a meritocratic system where young minds are labeled even before they have time to learn the basics of life like graciousness and compassion.
how can an “elitist” school system bring forth the best in our young.Where and when to learn how to share if not in the classrooms.When “elite” pupils and students grow up,how can they ever be truly good caring leaders…the only thing they probably would care is their own ‘POCKETS’ as can be observed
easily in most homes and all workplaces in sinagpore these days…ah,small wonder so much unemployment….
Elections coming, just saying something to placate the masses.
Plans for 6 million population are already in the works. Singaporeans aren’t breeding much, so it doesn’t take a genius to figure out where the excess population will come from.
Oh, you can’t reclaim land all the way to Batam. Neither can you acquire ‘lebensraum’ by annexing JB anytime soon, so expect the sardine squeeze to get tighter. It’s for the good of the economy, you see. Nothing else matters.
We cannot trust what wikipedia has presented unless we get the figures directly from the sources they have published.
Increasing population is a good way to lessen the burden on each citizens that have to bear through their taxes and productivities though.
This is certainly the right thing to do. Singapore should depend on Singaporeans to procreate and multiply like before. The government should give more carrots to those already having 4 or 5 kids to soften the cost of living as most mothers concerned are housewives or earning very little. My 2 sisters are facing this problem after following the government’s policy of having more children.
you bunch of rednecks, i would like to see what you guys have to say when you go working in a foreign land and then the ‘natives’ there start bitching about you!
wahaha, maybe the foreigners all know singapore no hope liao so dun want to come here already and LHL is just trying to save face
@Secret – The data from wikipedia is from CIA factbook, here is the actual link:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2186rank.html
The public debt refers to all government borrowings. you can get older data as well. we are always in top 5. it is just good to know and go only by the GD[ figures.
@ secret
Increasing population is a good way to lessen the burden on each citizens that have to bear through their taxes and productivities though
The falsity of this statement conceals the secret of truth. Who says you cannot engage foreigners via PEP (professional employment pass) but without PRs and yet generate the income growth in the economy, taxes and maybe productivity gains?? Why is there the need to hide undisclosed political agenda and motives to increase “permanent” population size by seducing the lowest quality immigrants here – the better ones has Australia, NZ, Canada, USA and EU beckoning? Did you pass your high school introduction to economics?
@ dante
A bunch of rednecks here? I see a bunch of passionately loyal nationalist here, no rednecks. At least not those who look after self-interest working perhaps in foreign land and discarding his nation and home at the same time. Maybe you could save us a lot of mutual angst and embarassment by you taking foreign citizenship and not bitching about us trying to save this country for future generations. You don’t need traitors here, only true patriots.
And if you happens to be a foreigner working here, I suggest you EITHER take up citizenship and be a welcomed one of us or make yourself scare of existence if you can’t disappear completely. Otherwise leave because our sewage works are overloaded besides our car parking lots are insufficient of local and foreign use.Less man here more share FOR BOTH OF US – you might be better off elsewhere. Nothing personal, Dante
all talk is mute useless
global warming is real
by 2047 singapore will be 30 feet under water
I don’t want the influx to slow. I want outflux!
hey,let’s wake up,it’s not about mere numbers alone.
costs cannot be solely reduced by “splitting” it amongst a bigger base of people.
things like medical costs are artificially inflated-in some instances faster than the rise in price of crude oil- and they
blamed it all on that oil price hike?
costs in many things increased mainly because of greed.
on what valid basis must a doctor charged alot alot more if more people are using that panadol,for instance.Now,as critical mass increased,they can cut down fixed costs like the
rentals,machinery,etc per unit produced…ah,thay say demand increases? sure,that is true but like that oil price that jumped to usd 147 and crashed like a stone almost immediately
to usd 35 per barrel,is that the work of demand as claimed?
even a mere student understands that that is not true!no need for so called elite economists to tell us otherwise.the truth of it all is GREED and more G R E E D!
Let us not be conned again and again.
Even in mighty USA,they have to rescue the RICH with poor men’s
monies-taxes-and that is gross!I was taught by many a good teacher in school that the rich should and must have the poor..now the world is upside down!
Slow down is not good enough!! I for one would want a REVERSAL, to correct the population to 3 million MAX!!
Anyway no one should trust anything the PAP says – vote for the opposition at all costs, and the PAP will be kept in check, so we all get to live better.
If sinkees believe the PAP’s promises, and give them power again, they will again revert on their promises and make life hell!!
@ angry_one..Yes, they should tighten up the criteria and those who failed to meet should be strongly encouraged to leave simply be reducing benefits like no right to public housing etc health care subsidy etc reserving present benefits only to those who meet stringent criteria.
IT IS NO GOOD FOR THEM AND FOR US IF THE LOWER QUALITY MIGRANTS STAYS BEHIND as they lower productivity and adds to our infrastructure costs supporting them. Far better for them to leave where they come from where costs of living is cheaper than struggling here on depressed wages as well.
In place of these less desirable migrants, we can issue PEP where and when we need foreign labour – much more flexible and lower risks for us absorbing and sustaining a population bomb.
Singaporeans need to vote wisely. Our shared future depends on all to be carefully considering of our political choice and future.
@Anonymous on Thu, 15th Oct 2009 8:38 am
if you’ve got balls then why are you anonymous? ‘passionately loyal’?? you bunch of whining pussies have been stuck in singapore so long you’ve become frogs in a well, you can think about nobody’s welfare but your own … ‘Less man here more share FOR BOTH OF US’, because of people like you singapore has become a small place filled with small people with hearts the size of pinheads who think that migration is a zero-sum game
singapore will soon become sinkapore if they were filled with the likes of you .. and oh hey, ‘nothing personal’ yeh
dante, you got a sexy name, sounds a bit like dancing on the stage if you pronounced it something like “dance” and “stage”. You must be a ladyboy working somewhere in Thailand. That is why you can’t tell the separation of balls from pussies – your distinguished language of unrefined specie. You must be gender and mentality detached from normality. If Thailand don’t want you, maybe you could try Macau.
Let leave that aside for a moment of truth. People who disagree with you are no rednecks. In cosmopolitan Singapore, the necks are definitely of different colour besides red. And I don’t mind any colour. That proved you got no intellect, probably a worm or a caterpillar I did imagine.
Every country I know of choose quality immigrant but not rubbish toad like you who must find economic refuge in foreign shores. Me, I am my own boss, so I can afford to be arrogant toward your stupidity and crass behaviour.
And hey, nothing personal, yeh!!! Hope your “business” is very hot.
Dun worry LHL, we’ll make certain that the flood of stinking FTs that you let in will be stopped dead – BY KICKING YOU AND YOUR GOOD-FOR-NOTHING CRONIES OUT OF OFFICE FOR GOOD!
In olden China, most emperors were surrounded by beautiful
& voluptuous concubines inside the palaces. In modern Singapore,our palace, the so called ‘Istana’ sits our so-called emperor.But, instead of lovly concubines, he is surrounded by old white-haired eunuchs! Slow down the intake? Must ask all the eunuchs first! Something wrong
somewhere–no?
//dante
What is wrong with demanding a higher quality for immigrants?
THE PAP expects its citizens to behave but have a much lower standards for immigrants that they have to set aside to train them.
They expects these immigrants from the early 90s until now to drive entrepreneurship as if these immigrants left their countries to escape oppression and massacres like the scientists from Nazi Germany.
PAP is now a grouping of frogs in a well.
Opening the floorgate to immigration is the easy option of PAP to avoid training and developping the potential of native Singaporeans.
This generation (I don’t even bother to discuss the earlier generation) of PAP people are lazy and shortsighted.
And they squeeze a lot more monies out of us that the 1st generation did.
LSS said on TV that we need productivity to increase so that GDP increase … yada yada… pause… so that pay for people will increase.
Even he knows, GDP increase does n’t mean that people pay will increase.
The only people whose pay surely increase if GDP increase is LHL and his people.
@anonymous
Now i fianlly manage to find a true “foreign talent” who could
“create more jobs for local sinagporeans”.
It’s guys like you we should welcome not some guys who come and snatch our already scarce jobs and in the process make our lives somewhat miserable.
Ultimately,all more developed economies will face grave unemployment for their peoples if instead of creating more jobs,we merely insist on short-changing workers in the guise of
global competition and cost-cuttings-for what…more profits?-so that we can line our owm pockets with big fat pays and leave
our companies still to bleed?then,jump boat to another company
and do likewise?
perplexing indeed,but i learn in college that it takes time
for a CEO’s long-term strtegy to work.Why our CEOs going job-hopping.Not too long ago when i try to change job in the same industry they asked me why i job-hop?
So,YES! I welcome you “anonymous” for you probably help us create more jobs!..you are that FOREIGN TALENT we are looking for!
in public finance we learn about pareto optimality,ie, optimal
level of resorce allocation.
i think greed has overcome the wolrd of economics and we need some great mind to discource on “profit”to optimality,perhaps?
Looking at the ratio of PRs to citizens at this moment, it is terrifying of implications forward for Singapore. If we increase our PRs ratio to equality of numbers to citizen, IT WOULD BECOME A NIGHTMARE FOR ANY GOVERNMENT TO PLAN ECONOMIC STRATEGY both in the short term and long term.
Consider this scenario. If the ratio of PRs to citizen is 1 to 1 and the economy skided into a prolonged tailspin.What is likely to happen.PRs leave by hundreds of thousands, maybe millions back to where they originate WHERE THE COSTS OF LIVING IS MUCH CHEAPER. Suddenly the overbuilt infrastructure of massive underground MRT, hospitals, public transports and retail business becomes GHOSTLY OF ECONOMIC EXISTENCE AND UTILITY. Residential properties has a lot of vacancies but no tenant and many apartment either unoccupied or on sale to few sustaining buyers. Prices collapse, banks recalling sub-prime mortgages and some below-the-water mortgage uncollectable for banks as PRs just leave. Once collapsed, it is very hard to revive because supply will long exceed demand as some migrant resettled overseas might not come back for years and decades. This place in recovery will be short of new migrants and accomodation whilst plenty of existing properties remain locked by by foreigners now living overseas. Prices again hit the roof the moment economy show signs of sputtering.
The artificial supply/demand rigidities created by TRANSCIENT PR POPULATION will EXACERBATE THE HOUSING BOOM-BUST VOLATILITY AND TRAPPING A LOT OF SINGAPOREANS IN THE VICIOUS CYCLE EACH TIME AND ALSO MAKES LONG TERM ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING IMPOSSIBLE as labour becomes an unknown quantity of supply.
MASS MIGRATION INFLUX OF FOREIGNERS INTO SINGAPORE IS A TIME BOMB like US cluster bombs in Afghanistan, the munitions LEFT BEHIND AFTER EACH BOMBING RUN explode each time you touch them.
I could imagine the horror of economic planning and the IMPOSSIBILITY making this place work again once it hit a downturn.
THE GOVERNMENT MUST REVERSE THIS MASSIVE MIGRATION, OTHERWISE IT WILL DESTROY US LIKE CLUSTER BOMBS.
does anyone disagree here????????????
We are all missing the keyword here. Instead of spending and wasting time to understand what he meant, just flush all thoughts and shout: GDP !!!!
The reason why GDP is SO IMPORTANT and a MAJOR CONCERN to PM Lee is becasue PaPies Millisters Salary is pegged to it!
If GDP goes up, it means their Salaries also goes up. Make sense?
GDP means nothing to the PAPies except as a benchmark for increasing their Million Dollar Salaries. Don’t you all get it?
May be he should think the unthinkable i.e. he may be voted out and lost his million $ salary !!! May be then he will think less about GDP figure and do the real work!!!
GDP number is but a mere statistic,though important.
of greater importance and grave concern to all elites
-political appointess and super-scaled civil servants-
should be whether such gdp growth actually translate into
a better livelihood for the people who voted them in the first place and employment is one of such concerns.
If citizens are doing well,maybe that sdg 2-3 mio salary is still worth taxpayers’ monies.
I have a recommendation for MOM and some words for my fellow locals – that will allow them to CONTINUE (w/o slowing down intake)
1. Review all existing PR and Work Permits – who are they, what they are doing now and whether their positions can be taken by locals. This will be tedious and seong, but really, the impact will be remove a substantial qty of illegal bullshit “foreign talent” and “student visas”
2. Review the process of getting a blue IC and becoming a PR – once again, tedious, but review case by case…please feel free to increase headcount at MOM in order to do so
- I do not recommend like HK to be 7 years of Residents b4 can apply to be Permanent Resident – but rather since case by case, MOM can judge if this person can be immediately given a Blue IC (if Coco Lee applies, surely monday apply, monday evening deliver blue ic to her hotel, everyone else, please refer to MOM website for reference of PR applications.
3. I agree that structural unemployment (jobs which are never coming back) are the toughest and Singaporeans should be willing to do 2 things (and stop complaining about FT or FW)
a. Take a salary cut and work below their previous job title, responsibility , at least get a job, feed the family and help the unemployment numbers.
b. Re-training and Re-training – do not be complacent and say things like ” I was a HR Senior Manager working in Raffles Place and so I cannot possibly be a Salesman in Sim Lim Sq or a QA Supervisor that needs to be on the 3rd shift, working out of Tuas.
I am not too sure about all these things!
somehow sometime,there will always be “cheaper” workers from
some other country who may be “smarter” too. How about the
Vietnamese…they are hardworking and smart too.
Sometime ago,my friends who working in the booming financial sector before Nick and some other clowns spoilt the party,opted to be
retrained as property agents or financial advisors and everyone was selling to everyone else…in the end ,they ended up “chiak
chow”- no income.
the current wave of global competition, not only among workers
from different countries but between man and machine(technology etc) will likely lead to persistent unemployment
problems.Just when you get retrained and attempt to get into a new job,you probably would have to go retraining again and if you are unlucky,get no pay.
i don’t want to sound like a doom’s prophet but if the world’s
rich and powerful continue to uphold greed, there is never going to be any real lasting solutions to ordinary people’s
livelihood.
Forbes should really stop publishing the RICH LIST so as not
propagate greed among those are already worth billions into thinking of becoming the first “zillionaire”.
that is not to say i am not for honest hard work…it is only
extreme greed i abhor.
we must bear in mind that making profits is not the same as
profiteering!
I personally think it is a good idea to welcome SKILLED foreigners who have real knowledge to bring, AS LONG AS, the government has a clear measure for how these valuable folks are pollnating our local talent with valuable global knowledge, and if they can demonstrate how Singaporeans have benefitted from the influx. However, the level of foreign talent we welcome to our shores cannot be unbridled. It has to be strategically segmented, so that more emphasis is placed on segments of incoming foreign talent with clear demonstrated skill sets, with an eye for skills transfer (and credible publicly shared metrics to track and measure their effects), while cutting back specifically on influx that competes with skill areas that compete with our middle and lower classes. A simple statement like “We will slow it down” is nothing short of patronizing statement, and will most certainly have absolutely ZERO measurable outcomes. I think some readers here are spot on – nothing but a political maneuver to win votes in the short term…