A new vibrancy in town

While Tharman was trying hard to water down the heavenly expectation of a 13-15% growth, while he was trying to say that it was an anomaly, he even sounded embarrass for such an economic data, he finally ended to the extent of saying that this was a flash in the pan incident. Nothing to gloat about. So there should be more sanely expectation of our economic growth next year. No more than 5-6% if my reading is right, for that is a reasonable number for a nearly mature economy. We are no longer a developing country when everything is waiting to be developed. Our only growth factors now are property and high inflation fueled by importing more foreign workers. Remove these elements and we could see a recession in our way. Then again, there are new opportunities for growth. While we thought that the construction industry has been full blown and should go to a hibernation stage soon after the two IRs and the slew of HDB flats going to be built, I am seeing a gigantic opportunity that could drive the economy for the next 10 to 20 years. The flooding yesterday was serious. No one would dare to explain that it was caused by some twits or twigs clogging up the drain. They have done that, by fencing up the drains from twig clogging. The damages are huge and will continue to do damages down the road. And the frequency and severity cannot be ignored as a one in 50 year incident. There is a need to appoint a consultancy to study the whole drainage system and maybe to rebuild a network of drainage tunnels around the island. The machinery used my MRT for tunnelling work could still have a life. Then they could even consider new concepts like flotation gear for new buildings or capsules to keep water from flooding the basements. A network of tunnels will brighten up our friends up north. Mammoth projects like this is their cup of tea. They may even quote for the building of a floating city or a floating island. All new buildings should be built on stilts. The experience in Kukup will come in handy. They have built a whole new village on concrete stilts into the sea. In the meantime, the car workshops and mechanics and the insurance people will be busy making more money from the cars turned submarines. Oh god, my car insurance premium is going to go up again. It is my fault, the fault of motorists who own cars and so it is only expected that they should pay for the higher insurance claims.