$7 billion dollar plan to make Singaporeans work “smarter”
February 23rd, 2010 | 
Author: Written by Our Correspondent
For the last few years, the PAP has been exhorting Singapore workers to be “cheaper, faster and better”, but it seems that they have been erased from the official vocabulary as of now.
The new slogan is working “smarter” and the PAP has poured in $7 billion dollars worth of taxpayers’ monies to help companies and workers “worker smarter, grow and become globally competitive.”
If it is successful, Singapore could see a big leap in incomes and living standards, and become a major force in the explosive growth of Asia and other promising regions, boasted Finance Minister Tharman who unveiled the ambitious plan yesterday during his Budget speech.
“Raising skills and productivity is the only viable way we can achieve higher wages, and is the best way to help citizens with low incomes,” he claimed.
While boosting productivity is important, how far can it get Singapore if it continues to lag behind other developed countries in terms of R&D, innovation and entrepreneurship?
Despite the fanciful plans outlined by Mr Tharman to “reform” Singapore’s economy, he failed to realize that the biggest problem lies in the PAP’s control of the economy.
Without reforming Singapore’s political economy to free it completely from the crutches of the PAP’s sovereign wealth funds and state-linked companies, Singapore will never be able to compete with other international players.
In a recent speech made at the Civil Service College, prominent MIT political economist Professor Huang Yasheng urged Singapore to “rethink” the “Temasek model” and warns that Singapore’s state management model has “milked this system for all it is worth.”
“The private sector is the best way to grow the economy. It has the most productive, most innovative and entrepreneurial culture. The state-owned enterprise system doesn’t give you that….You are already hitting the wall. Retaining this strategy could mean sacrificing future growth that is possible only through a bigger, more dynamic private sector,” he said.
He also opined that Singapore should expand its private sector in order to compete with China and India:
“Maybe a better way is for the government to fund more basic research and then allow universities, private equity firms, venture capital firms and rich individuals to take care of the rest. That is because even when the state sector is well managed, it is not as innovative as the private sector, he says. From a technological development point of view, you need a bigger private sector to compete, to come up with new products, processes and technologies, to better compete with India and China.”
Prof Huang felt that creative thinking is often in short supply with civil servants leading the charge due to the culture they are immersed in:
“Civil service culture is about discipline. It’s about execution. It’s about efficiency. Entrepreneurial culture is about challenging the authorities, questioning the existing ways of doing businesses, moving away from the routines and norms. It’s about the unconventional, rebellious and diverse. These values are almost polar opposites.”
He also criticized Singapore’s education system for “not producing diversity in ideas and unconventional ways of solving problems” and warns that Singapore risks going down in history as an “economic has-been” if it fails to exploit the potential of its private sector.
After losing billions of dollars in failed overseas investments, it is strange that Mr Tharman did not propose any changes to the management of both Temasek Holdings and GIC which are “owned” by his ministry as claimed.
Temasek Holdings should sell off its stakes in government-linked companies which should be entirely privatized and allow new players to emerge.
The political and media landscape must be liberalized to foster critical and creative thinking among Singaporeans which have long been muzzled and stifled.
And it is about time the overpaid PAP ministers lead by example by working “smarter” with less pay before Singaporeans follow suit.
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Still it’s about WORK and WORK … !!
What about some free money from the gov ??
since they got so much levy from foreign workers ..
Give some SHARE of the levy for singaporeans ??
same shit, different day, different packaging.
Then our overpaid MPs and Cabinet ministers should also be “cheaper, faster and better”.
Same old wayang wayang.
Need 7 BILLION$ to retain workers?
Who will train the worker? Those so call edu schools run but grassroot fellas?
Train and train, retrain and retrain. The PAP seems to be extremely obsessed with this programs of ceaseless training and retraining which we have been hearing for years and years. And yet we still have recession after recession after another recession after another recession every few years and after every few years.
Train train go away, come again another day !!
FOLKS,
THIS GOVT IS BLANTANLY INHUMANE! THEY ARE MAKING THE MOVE TO START SUCKING AND MILKING THE FTS NOW!
AFTER SQUEEZIING FROM US TRUE BLUE SINGAPOREANS , THEY NOW ALSO WANT TO MILK THE FTS , SO THAT THEIR SALARY WILL BE ABLE TO INCREASE, AND THEY WILL GIVE THE REASONS THAT THEY ARE NOW LOOKING AFTER 5 MILLION POPULATION WHICH IS JUSTIFY FOR THEIR SALARIES TO BE INCREASE AGAIN!!!
WE HAVE TO BLAME FOR VOTING THIS IDIOT IN THE PAST AND THE CONSEQUENCES WE ARE EATING NOW. BUT IT IS ALSO OUR TIME TO DECIDE WHETHER WE WANT TO MAKE AMENDS NOW FOR OUR FOOLISH ACTIONS AND START TO REDEEM FOR OURSELIVES NOW….
SO FOLKS,
ACTION NEEDS TO BE DONE NOW BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE FOR ALL OF US TO REDEEM BACK OUR DIGNITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS!!!!
GO TO KENNETH LIN PETITION CALL AND START VOLUNTARILY TO SIGN UP , LETS MAKE THE FIRST STEP REBEL AGAINST THIS EVIL GARMENT!
MAKE THIS TO BE A NATIONAL SHAME TO ALL THESE PAPPIES IN HISTORY!! WE WANT TO MAKE THEM UNFORGETTABLE FOR WHAT THEY HAVE DONE TO SINGAPOREANS IN TELEVISED !!!!
VOTE FOR CHANGE! VOTE ALL PAPPIES OUT!!
This so called training is for some people to make money and to make the gorman look good.
One of my 50+ retiree friends who was working in admin in a GLC recently signed up for a FUND MANAGEMENT COURSE (stock investment) in a so-called upgrading course and received 90% govt subsidy!!!!! whatever for…so that he can punt in the market…not to upgrade his skills. Can he switch job to do fund management? This is how our govman SQUANDERS OUR COUNTRY’S HARD EARNED MONEY. Instead of giving it to the poor, unemployed, retirees….this is how our govman squanders out money.
Another way they squander our money is in our education. I just found out from a teacher that schools now engage outsiders (private companies..not sure who they are related to) to teach children in CREATIVITY courses. The courses are useless and the people who give these courses speak very bad English. Of course MOE pays for these from children’s school fees.
Someone should investigate who are the ones conducting these courses and who is making money out of so called upgrading skills and educating our children.
There are former MPs who have set up private schools….TR should do research on this.
What will probably happen is that this sum of money, after contracts have been awarded out to friends, will probably just be given away to MNCs.
EDB has given lots of free money (”grants”) to MNCs to persuade them to relocate operations here. These MNCs just end up hiring 80%-90% foreigners.
What 7 billions only?
Even the tens of billions could not make some elites work smarter,I thought?
This is Singapore Inc., and we are all part of the capitalist machinery. Depends which rung of the hierarchy you are on and which Class you are in (poor, middle-class, elite or in between). Most Singaporeans attended schooled for 12 years and many at least 16 years. The higher your educational level, the more you earn the privileged from the social system. The obsession to have a higher education is of course to provide yourself with a bountiful life and to fill your life with amusements and material objects (self-interest).
Capitalism is not compatible with justice nor with compassion for fellow beings who fall through the crack. Rule of the game? Every person unto himself and may the best man win. The world does not love the loser, period. Simply put, unless you yourself, whatever Class you belong to commit Class Treason to bring social change, everything will be status quo. No one in the elite class is willing to accept such changes as they have more to lose.
When the foreign worker levy goes up, so will your towon council conservency charges.
In don’t think they really have a solution. Very sad situation for the millions they are paid.
“both Temasek Holdings and GIC which are “owned” by his ministry as claimed.”
claimed by who? i don’t recall the Minister of Finance ever claiming that these two entities are owned by his ministry. perhaps these two entities report to MOF, but i don’t think MOF directly intervenes in the operations of these two entities.
this country is getting sick. obsessed with work and productivity and working longer, and higher productivity, and more work. can’t they talk about something else, besides trying to milk us or treat us as PEOPLE…..
sigh…
It is obvious that the so-called education system is not working, or that there is no correlation whatsoever between education and the state of economy of a country.
I think it is both.
The issue of productivity, on the other hand, is a real one.
I can still remember LKY speaking about it ages ago – I think when Margaret Thatcher was UK’s PM. The latter was mentioned at the same time as the productivity matter. That was how I remembered it. I think LKY was talking about investing in capital equipment to attain higher productivity.
And since then I do not think I have seen any significant change in the Singapore worker’s productivity, if not a regression instead.
Productivity is not just a matter of the worker and his efficiencies, but the nature of the work and the job matters too, if not more.
For one worker can do humanly only so much. He cannot go beyond that, even with mechanisation, if applicable and appropriate. And it is also not necessarily a matter of improving efficiencies.
For example a coffee shop table cleaner can clean only so many tables in an hour. He needs a break to eat, shit, and smoke too.
What can we do to make him more productive?
Will “education” help? Entirely irrelevant I must say.
Can it be helped with machines? Probably not, and advisedly not also.
Can he do the work of two or three cleaners. Perhaps, at a stretch. he can be “compelled” or “incentivised” to be more efficient. But then his wage will probably increase at most 2 times – the rest will go into his employer’s pocket – and also it is from a low base, ie it is a low paying job to start with.
So perhaps the coffee shop ought to become a restaurant. Then just serving the same number of tables at the same efficiencies will increase his pay. Maybe he has even to be less “efficient” as each table now needs more attention and time.
Can you imagine all your all HDB coffee shops turning into restaurants? You can, but the immediate question is will they be viable businesses? For who will come to pay the higher price for, presumably, better food and service? Will the population be wealthy enough for all to afford to eat at restaurants instead of whatever cheap trash the coffee shops dole out daily now? (I can also imagine – and I have also seen – some calling themselves restaurants but still serving the same trash for higher prices.)
But then it is this very scenario that is really really needed if the Singapore workers’ productivity is to be significantly and truly improved.
It is not by sending the table cleaner to some bogus “upgrading courses”, and then reducing number of cleaners to one third. Productivity growth, truly and literally, out of the ordinary workers’ hands. Someone else is responsible.
And you can also see why the issue of productivity is a very hard one and whatever mentioned in the budget gave no hints what such necessary transformation are, and how they are to happen, if ever such a goal was at all in their minds. And the government is full of strategists and long term planners. What have they been doing all these good years?
Maybe they have asked the same questions, sketched the same scenarioes too; but, as typically Singaporeans, they do what the boss says and work smart. If boss says injecting cheap labour was the quickest and surest way to get the numbers going why argue. Just do and get promoted and enjoy your world class pay.
I think this insidious culture is perhaps a more significant and a greater detrimental factor than any “poorly educated” worker with no skills and no talents can ever be. Again, of course, the budget does nothing to change it, not now, not ever, if at all possible.
What the budget really does is to soothe ruffled feathers, perhaps for a segment of the population – maybe some 20% – analysed to be able to swing the votes. What gets actually implemented on the ground, especially after the election, may be another thing.
the government is seeing like a idiot fools. even my china partner who said that u increased the levy so are we to jerk up the price and pass on to comsumers.
u see it?? even the china man r smarter than this shit government.
@ODIE: Well Said…
Shouldn’t the STUPID gahmen the one to be working smarter?
They had failed many projects and policies and dare to blame citizens for the failure in the economy, but put high value and praises in FTrash & PRubbish?
Strange…they want us to work faster and harder…and with depressed wages some more!
How about the PAP govn’t start trimmming and sacrificing all that excess fat, passed retirement age over the hill and ridiculious super expensive not very productive bloated top heavy “management”?
Obviously they never read this below quote in their tinny whiny little minds…
Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in the blood of his followers and the sacrifices of his friends. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 – 1969)
Only a “smart’ government will spend $7 billion to make its citizens work “smarter”. Get it?
Not forgetting this smart government loss S$58 billion. So what’s left is S$7 billion.
Don’t worry, private property fees, casino levys and more ERPs and coming GST increase will cover it back… maybe even get back the S$58 billion from Singaporean’s pockets.
Damn smart.
Mr Gov,
Wow, so smart of SinGov to use $7 billions to hoodwink the nation. So where is the accountability and audit of this sum ? Just because you say $7 billions will be used and it will be used to help SinLand ? Who are you trying to kid ? I am more than believe that this gigantic sum of money is used to cover-up for the loss of TH and GIC than to help the people. No wonder you keep coming out gigantic sum to “help the poor” one after another, after all, all this “rhetoric money” is just “rhetoric”, and everyone knows where it goes to ultimately. Still trying to hoodwink the nation and world into thinking that SinGov is full of love and compassion ?
新年快乐!
http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/02/22/tharman-praises-govt-for-taking-measures-to-counter-impact-of-recession/
To read about what pappy’s ‘productivity’ means!!! It’s in response to @Relief who is small enterprise with 1 workers.
Please note I wrote it NOT against him but rather used his views as a Spring-Board to shared my 1/2 cent worth about pappy productivity issue!!!
http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/02/22/tharman-praises-govt-for-taking-measures-to-counter-impact-of-recession/
Its about what pappy’s ‘productivity’ means!!! It’s in response to @Relief who is small enterprise with 1 workers.
Please note I wrote it NOT against him but rather used his views as a Spring-Board to shared my 1/2 cent worth about pappy productivity issue!!!
Talking about productivity – it should start with the civil service (cs). It is *THE* single most inefficient organization. Anyone who has dealt with cs knows they are INCOMPETENT, LAZY, VERY TERRITORIAL, and do the MINIMUM to get by. They have so much build-in redundancies ( 3 person to do 1 job in case 2 goes on leave ) that 80% can be fired, and no one will miss them.
No one dares to do anything different because of the “who will answer” mentality.
Having said that – there ARE some really hardworking ones – who pull the carriage with 10 getting free rides on it. Those are gems – but will not last – cos they don’t fit into the lazy culture.
Stat board, quasi-govt, semi-autonomy : they all behave like cs. Just same pig in tuxedo.
With 80% fired, that can really save this country A LOT ( and i mean A LLLLOOOOTTTT ) of money.
How about it – Mr MOF ??
People should start waking up than to believe in the lies of this government. Where is those billions come from other than from your imagination. Notice this gov is getting bolder and bolder in coming out ridiculously large sum of money from their money without revealing the source. their source is from their mouth which is hollow and nothing to show this figure.
Anyone remember Woody who promise $100 millions upgrade to Hougang but eventually admit that he has no idea where this money comes from ? Now this gov is using the same trick to give nonsensical billions that they can’t cough out. Moreover, so convenient to give such large non-existing figure but yet later justify this nonsense with higher GST and price hike that citizens will physically force to coerce out.
Where is the prove that this gov has no money ? Isn’t the gov even need to get $2billions from DBS to build IR ? If $2 billions also have problem, how these farters come out $7 billions or more ? Only by using their mouth can they cough out such figure.
http://www.sgpolitics.net/?p=1015
The best part is in building IR, you have to show the money and you can’t hide with false figure because you need money to buy material and real resource for construction. And now all these clowns can talk about coming out fake billions with nothing to show and prove ? why not gov says $50 billions instead after all, just a figure not real money !
i thought we already have skill development levy since years back for training etc.. what happen to higher productivity ??
same bullshit year in year out, these mother fuckers are simply lost !!! they just do not know what to do anymore, allowing casinos is their card, period.
Still same old bullshit. Trust takes years to build and a moment to destroy. We have given these group of money faces too much chances. Vote out PAP. They will still be talking from their asses after elections.
“Singapore will pump in S$5.5 billion over the next five years to improve productivity among workers and companies. This will be in the form of tax benefits, grants and training subsidies” – CNA
That works out to be S$1.1billion per year, or S$91.667million a month. Assuming there are 4 million Singaporeans, that works out to be S$22.92 per Singaporean per month.
Truly a bold investment into our lives. Thank you PAP.
New article just published from Business Week:
‘Good’ Beats ‘Innovative’ Nearly Every Time
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/feb2010/id20100222_506858.htm
An excerpt:
“… From my studies of the history of business innovation, I’m convinced you can beat competitors and even dominate markets without fancy tricks. All you need is the ability to make things that are good consistently, since few companies do. …”
Problem with Singapore is this: It tries to do so many things, it is not good at a single thing. Jack of all trades, master of none.
Another piece of shit from this incompetent govt. Just throw numbers hoping to win votes. Where is the detailed programme to achieve productivity? Sorry, I am not convinced. Talk is cheap especially during election year. The PAP can start couning their days because they are really numbered.
One can get highly paid and go for overseas vacation:
http://blog.omy.sg/alvinology/2009/01/13/who-is-tan-yong-soon/
Well again PAP mistake – see they changed name of Nat Productivity Board, dumped it, closed it.
Productivity spiralled down, and worst still, paid millions of dollars ministers still blind for all these years happily took their salaries, see nothing and did nothing, and now woke up. Huh ! All of a sudden every minister lamenting about poor singaporeans’ low productivity and what next, billions of dollars going to be spent now.
What big shit is all these wayang !!!
No free money directly credited to bank accounts, but can’t you blame it? It’s running out of money. Budget deficit for consecutive years. Bonds were issued to recoup massive losses made in poor investments overseas.
The fact that this is an election year, which by past trends should indicate a very generous budget, shows how desperately poor the government is.
All the reliefs etc are worthless to me, a single young man working, who does not own property yet. Medisave top-up for the old folks, not for me. Education grants? Can you even do an MBA with that? And can the struggling folks be guaranteed a decent job after using the money for courses?
Not even an angpow for NSF and NSmen! Amazing!
Fact: foreigner population in Singapore as of now is 36%… and growing. The increase in Foreign Worker Levy is nothing more than a desperate political move to placate angry Singaporeans. Same as the raising of school fees for foreigners’ kids. It does nothing to solve the economic and social problems we have now.
Also, notice that in every year’s budget, flowery ‘feel good’ language is used to describe it. Adjectives to feign concern like ‘inclusive’, ‘progressive’ etc. Peel off these layers, and all you get is a big ‘F YOU’ at the core. Especially this year.
The good news? GST has not been raised… YET. Wait for it. 2011 or 2012. A nation of sheep deserves a government of wolves. Therefore my fellow Singaporeans, let’s bend over and enjoy the lovely screwing from the PAP, yeah?
ENOUGH OF ALL THEIR FULL BLATANT LIES AND SHITS !!!
VOTE ALL OF THEM OUT, OTHERWISE WE WILL SUFFER DOWN THE ROAD… AND WE WILL CONTINUE TO PAY GST 10% WHICH 7% IS ALD UNBEARABLE FOR ALOT OF SINGAPOREANS LIAO!!!
SO FOLKS, DO NOT BE STINGY IN YOUR VOTING POWER!! DARE TO VOTE THEM OUT! PUT SHAME AND SHITS AND DUNKS ON THEIR FACES!!! THEY DESERVES THAT!!
VOTE ALL PAPPIES OUT!!! VOTE FOR CHANGE!!!
anon on Tue, 23rd Feb 2010 4:23 pm says:
“Another way they squander our money is in our education. I just found out from a teacher that schools now engage outsiders (private companies..not sure who they are related to) to teach children in CREATIVITY courses. The courses are useless and the people who give these courses speak very bad English. Of course MOE pays for these from children’s school fees.”
To add to the above, MOE employs mono-lingual Chinese teachers to teach students Mandarin. How the hell can they communicate with English-speaking students by being able to speak only in Mandarin? Is is possible that the teacher can succeed, or, is MOE iso desperate, they cannot get a teacher that speaks both English and Mandarin? What comes to the mind of the pupil that his/her teacher is monolingual and expects him/her, the student to be bi-lingual?
MOST OF U HAVE NO CLUE WHAT U R TALKING ABOUT. PLEASE EDUCATE URSELF. VOTE OUT PAP. GREAT… LETS DO THAT IN THE NEXT GE. BTW, WHO R WE VOTING IN?
If you notice the Papayas would rather spend money so that we can work harder rather than improving our quality of life.
This greed-infested government knows only one way to solve problem – pour out the money and massively.
No one join PAP? – Increase minister pay by $millions.
No baby? – Give baby bonus
No FTrash coming? – give them free scholarship
…and the list goes on.
WE are paying the ministers by the $$$Millions, and yet the solution is something that a person receiving 1/10 of their obscene wage can think of.
PONG on Wed, 24th Feb 2010 6:29 am asked “BTW, WHO R WE VOTING IN?”
I say, any donkey will do.
Do you think it will it make any difference?
If governance is simply letting inevitables be, then really there is no need for any talent for that job. And also we are not importing talents to be ministers, are we.
I’ll settle for any donkey.
BTW the $7m is a pledge. No committment yet.
oops I mean $7bn.
Introduced HIS “Cut Waste Panel” to not only Cut-Waste… BUT also to improve the Civil Service’s ‘Productivity’!!! WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THAT EFFORT??? And did we all hear anything about it’s progress at all afterward then too???…
THIS is What is call “All PLAY and No WORK… Makes Jack and Playful boy”!!!
Reminders on this anyone???
7 Bln. $$$
The first thought that came to my mind is that the PAP is trying to mend the holes created through those numerous failed investment.
7 Bln is a lot a lot a lot of money.
How many ppl they plan to train?
Who are those they intend to train?
What are training?
Who will be conducting the training?
Blur blur blur all lot of ??? lingering in my mind.
Loss in productivity?
Of cause we have loss in productivity. We do you expect? Open the floodgate for TomDickHarry to come in while we are losing jobbbsss. How can productivity be increase?
Training? What to train for if there is no job available in the first place?
Training a worker to handle 2 worker’s workload. End up lossing more jobs.
I smell rats…