EDB wants companies to develop local talents

Normally I would have dropped on the floor and laugh myself crazy at such a statement. It is like waking up in the morning and remembering that it is important to brush your teeth. It is like realizing that we need to have our own soldiers and not hiring foreign mercenaries to guard our homes and country. But it is still good to remember and try to undo the damage, to do the necessary that have been long forgotten. It is a pathetic piece of news. Below is a part of an Editorial posted in TRE.
 
‘In a recent interview with the media, EDB Chairman Leo Yip said that EDB will work with MNCs to help get more locals into top posts.
 
“More companies are increasingly conducting global decision-making activities, such as procurement and brand management, out of Asia,” said Mr Yip.
 
“The market pull of Asia is increasingly attracting multinational companies… (and) companies are responding and organising themselves to have both regional and global functions here, and that is translating into new and exciting jobs for Singaporeans.”
He acknowledged that a pipeline of local managerial talent is needed to support the international and regional headquarters of MNCs being set up here.
 
“For a Singaporean to develop his or her career in a (multinational) on a managerial pathway, he or she will have to build up exposure to regional, or even global, markets,” said Mr Yip.
 
The EDB is working with companies to develop programmes that will identify locals for top positions in multinationals…’
 
And where should the EDB start, in foreign owned MNCs or in local companies or in the GLCs or ministries and stats board. I read recently that a foreigner is now a deputy Chairman of a stats board. I remember under the first generation of leaders, one of the key objectives was to quickly develop local talents, and local then meant Singaporeans, to assume key appointments both in private and public offices. When was this forgotten and the need to bring in foreigners became a fad all because we have forgotten to develop our own talents? When the mission then was to remove the colonial yoke quickly, today it seems that we are happily and quickly putting on the foreign yoke back on our neck and walking around as a statement of pride that we have arrived…back to the colonial days.
 
Our parent’s generation transformed this island in one generation to a modern and prosperous city, like planting a big tree. Now who is claiming credit and enjoying the fruits of this tree? Maybe like they said, it would not last through the third generation. Somehow some asses will lose it or give it away. It would be lost.

Singapore students top PISA test

Is this another joke? Did they misspelt Pizza as PISA? There is still scintillating report in the media about how smart our students were, coming in second in mathematics and third in reading and science among 65 cities around the world.
 
Singapore is also reported to have one of the top education system. And we have students that scored straight As like no body’s business. And our universities are ranked among the best in the world.
 
Here is the truth. We don’t have good locals to be lecturers and professors and must import them wholesale from the rest of the world, including Third World countries. We don’t have the talents for middle and top management jobs and the island is importing millions of foreigners from the Third World countries to help the daft Sinkies.
 
And the govt just realize that they have to train the locals for middle and top management jobs and are hoping that the MNCs can help to train them. The foreigners are recruited to shore up both the private and public companies and increasingly into govt linked companies and statutory boards. Maybe it is only a matter of time before they take over the govt too.
 
Now, what was being reported in the media? Our students are among the best in the world? What is the joke? What happens when these Sinkie children grow up? Become duds and dafts? Which is the truth?
 
Many graduates and professionals are no longer fit to be employed and can only find solace in becoming taxi drivers. And the good talents from neighbouring countries are taking over the PME’s jobs from the top to the bottom. Presumably their students must be better than our students and their schools and universities must also be better as well. The only reason that they did not fare well in those tests and rankings is that they did not waste time participating. They rather spend their time and effort doing the real stuff, teaching them to be good, to be better than the Sinkies and take over their jobs and country.

6,000 Indian companies operating in Sin

It is reported that there are 6,000 Indian companies operating here, the largest group of foreign companies, outdoing our traditional partners like the US, Malaysia, Japan and China. This explains why the whole of Changi Business Park is probably filled by Indian companies.
 
How do these companies contribute to Singapore and its economies and what is the balance sheet in favour of Singapore? For sure, they will have to pay for the rentals in the park and the utilities and corporate taxes. The staff will also add up to the demands for housing, sales and rentals, and consumption of goods and services.
What about FDI? What percentage of FDI is contributed by this huge presence relative to other foreign companies? How many good jobs are created for Sinkies? What kind of goods and services are these companies providing with their huge presence? What is the value add from these companies to the economy in skills and technology transfer to Sin?
 
Are these companies in the likes of Rolls Royce, Panasonic, Thomsons, and the big names of Europe, America and Japan? Are we having quantity or quality investments from these FDIs? Or do they qualify as FDIs?

Lily Neo felt helpless

Lily Neo wrote in her facebook that she felt very down after failing to help her residents to get back their money held captive in the CPF. Many have reached 55 or going to and are in desperate need of money only to see their money in the CPF. The money is their but not for them to touch. The impatient is turning into anger and desperation.

And many thanks to the govt for the many schemes to help the people with their life savings. And the govt is so proud to declare to the people that it is helping them with their money. As more and more Sinkies get to and pass 55, the number of disgruntled people is rising daily. On the other hand there is not a single word of sorry, of apology or remorse from the govt, but sheer arrogance that the people can just be ignored.

Now why would a population of several million people, and tens of thousands of aggrieved oldies finding themselves so helpless, so in need of money but not able to use their money? And at most there are less than 80 MPs to deal with. Even then, not all 80 of them are in favour of keeping the people’s savings out of their reach.

The decision is likely to be the brain child of a handful of politicians who are so aloof and dismissive to think that the people elected them to do anything they want to the people. Could the people change their fate and take back their money by simply voting out the govt? Is it really so difficult to do such a thing when their core interests are at stake? Howe Yoon Choong was forced to step down after he tried to extend the withdrawal age of the CPF. What had happened since was much more obnoxious. And on top of this there are many very serious issues that the people are unhappy about.

Why not change the govt in the next GE? It is so easy to vote out a govt in a GE if the people decided to do so. Is the CPF such an intolerable issue to break the camel’s back? Why would the people work for a life time and rudely awaken to find the hard truth, that they have no right to take back their life savings as promised? Why would the people feel that they cannot do anything about it? And why does the govt think that they can change the rules of the CPF and they can get away with it? And the schemes to hold back the CPF savings of the people are getting more and more audacious and unacceptable with total disregard of the people’s feeling, objection, disapproval and protest. The frustration is festering and growing.

Maybe it is true, once the people elected other ordinary citizens to be the govt, they ended up as servants and slaves to these ordinary people who are now called the govt. The helplessness is not only in Lily Neo. The helplessness is in all the citizens, young and old. Why save?

Stock broking, a new reality

Trading on SGX dived to a low of $914m daily after the recent penny stock crash. Superficially it is still a big number to generate a decent income for the brokerages and the remisiers. But what is real? My guesstimate is that 90%, could be more, of the daily trades are done by computer traders and house traders which generates zero commission. Assuming that this is true, the balance 10% or $90m, to round up the number for ease, would generate at max $450k at 0.5% or $270m at 0.3%.
 
Using an average of $350k, the broking houses’ share would be $210k or $10.5k per house (assuming that there are 20 houses). The average monthly intake would be less than $230k for one brokerage.
 
In the case of remisiers, the share of commission is $140k. Assuming there are 3000 remisiers, the daily income per remisier on the average will be $40. Multiply this by 22 days, the monthly income of an average remisier is about $1000.
 
The numbers are frightening and a pittance from the heydays. Is this sustainable for an industry of 20,000 people? Is this sustainable for a regionable stock exchange, a financial centre? Is this what we call a vibrant stock exchange?
 
Or is this the intensive ward for the critically ill? How long can this last before the patient breathes his last breath?