Manpower minister sounds alarm on Singapore's cost competitiveness

Singapore Business Review – Wed, Nov 2, 2016 4:03 PM SGT

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• ricky l 0 seconds ago
  With the advent of disruptive technologies and robotics, moving up the productivity chain make sense. 
• In the past, relying on huge influx of foreign workers to drive down cost though boost the GDP growth has other adverse implications :- 
• (1) More foreign workers with lower cost will crowd out local workers causing more and more local unemployment - that will trigger local discontentment - the like of Brexit and Donald Trump phenomenon that hit UK and US. 
• (2) More foreign workers will also create social problem such as Little India riots, Bangladesh terrorism, Chinese bus strike, Malaysian Bersih demonstration etc. 
• (3) It tip the balance of local workers as primary workforce with foreign workers as supplement - into discrimination against local workers due to higher costs - to become local workers as secondary workforce and foreign workers become primary workforce. 
• Thus through economic and business restructuring and reform, it will be an attempt to redress the balance. 
• (1) Make business more productive through the use of sophisticated tools and technologies - which in turn provide employment to local workers. This will ensure local workers have the right skills to handle the sophisticated tools and technologies and this will improve the salary of local workers through higher productivity. 
• (2) This will reduce the reliance of many low cost foreign workers and thus lower the risk of social problem. It will go back to the origin intent of the policies to make local workers the primary workforce and supplemented by foreign workers that make a difference for us. In addition, with the traditional source of foreign workers drying up (due to their original country improvement in their economy, policies relying on cheap foreign workers to boost our economic growth is no longer viable in the long run.
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• ricky l 0 seconds ago
  Having say so, many Singaporeans PMETs and blue-collar workers will have already drop out of the workforce. Many have tried to apply for jobs through job banks, through WDA, through e2i, through private headhunters and job search companies or portal, going through many countless of interviews - but cannot land a job --- due to the business reform and restructuring compounded by the current poor economic conditions. 
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• Until the businesses and enterprises have successfully reform, restructure --- can the business really serious in employing local workers. 
• Having say so, Singapore Government and businesses must have a proven, tracking process to identify and scoop up those Singaporeans PMETs and blue-collar workers who either have given up hope of looking for jobs or who have tried their best and could not land themselves jobs - to reinfuse back into the workforce. 
• Else Singapore come election will face the same scenario of Brexit in UK and the Donald Trump syndrome in US. 
• If Singapore ever end up like Brexit or Donald Trump syndrome, it will be a big impact to Governance, Business and the People. Singapore will go down the drain economically, politically, socially - and Singapore will be ruined. 
• Business loss, job loss, riot etc will unravel. This is the adverse consequences of Raw Capitalism that rear its ugly head - as manifest in Brexit and Donald Trump syndrome --- that Singapore must avoid.
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• ricky l 0 seconds ago
  The tripartite alliances - the Government, the Union (NTUC), the Business --- that have in the past proven track-record to ensure good industrial relation - to ensure our Economic success - must again prove its worth ---- to ensure Singapore PMETs and workers are gainfully employed, that help to contribute to the well-beings of the business and the Economy. 
• It must not only be the job of the Government. 
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• The business (that is dependent on peaceful, conducive environment) for it to operate must also chip in. 
• If the society fail, business also cannot survive. 
• Brexit and Donald Trump syndrome has proven so - where they are anti-Establishment, anti-Wall Street.

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• ricky l 0 seconds ago
  To quote an example, when SCS (IT company) was disbanded, hundreds and thousands of IT personnel lose their jobs. 
• There was an "informal" systematic process of identifying these retrenched IT personnel and reemployed them back into the other IT companies. 
• Now Singapore business reform and restructuring are done across so many sectors - whether IT, banking, manufacturing, services, retail, F&B etc ----- a more formalised, systematic process and system must be put in place to track the retrenched or job loss Singaporean PMETs and workers - to put them back into workforce. 
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• Else a Brexit or Donald Trump phenomenon will manifest.

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• ricky l 0 seconds ago
  And just to crudely describe what is Brexit or Donald Trump syndrome :- 
• "We local workers are not well. 
• We have been robbed of our job. 
• We want the Establishment to go down with us - who has caused pain to us, who has make us lose our job. 
• We don't care whether the Country, the business can do well or survive or not. 
• As long as we don't do well, we want to tear everything down". 
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• This is the frightening psychological mindset of Brexit or Donald Trump syndrome that is driving the UK and US voters in voting for a destructive outcome.