Serious Singapore is Fucked Once Again by PRC, Get Ready to Pack Up

[Froggy]

https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/China-s-Greater-Bay-threatens-Singapore-s-finance-and-tech-status

China's 'Greater Bay' threatens Singapore's finance and tech status
Analysts see huge Hong Kong-Macao project siphoning business away from city-state
JUSTINA LEE, Nikkei staff writer March 04, 2019 06:35 JST

To stay competitive and become a "smart" city, Singapore has been investing in emerging digital technologies across various industries.

SINGAPORE -- China's ambitious Greater Bay Area project encompassing Hong Kong, Macao and nine cities in Guangdong could threaten Singapore's standing as a hub for finance and technology.

Earlier this month, Chinese authorities unveiled their plans for the vast area, which boasts a population of 71 million and an estimated gross domestic product of $1.64 trillion.

Although a concrete road map for developing the Greater Bay Area has yet to be made, the unveiling was a crucial step forward in Beijing's efforts to quell rising protectionism around the world and spark a slowing economy at home.

According to economists, the project could eventually overshadow Singapore.

Lawrence Loh, director of the Centre for Governance, Institutions and Organisations at NUS Business School, noted that the huge project "will definitely" have an impact on Singapore.

"The geoeconomics of the new Chinese development will be formidable in its scale and scope, [creating] synergies across many industries and markets," he said. Loh added that the Greater Bay Area is also "a much bigger region," with 12 times Singapore's population and almost five times its GDP.

"The main challenge for Singapore will be specifically in the finance sector and -- more broadly -- in its location as a business hub," Loh noted.

Tommy Xie, head of Greater China Research at OCBC Bank, said that Hong Kong will be the first to benefit from the project. Strengthening Hong Kong's role as a global financial center and magnet for investment by China "may pose some immediate challenges to Singapore," he said.

Still, rather than being put off, some Singapore companies see potential in the huge area. Lucas Loh, president of China & Investment Management at Capitaland Group, said the core growth engines, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, in the Greater Bay Area "are also part of [the company's] core city clusters in China."

Capitaland has been ramping up its presence in Guangzhou over the past year, acquiring two residential sites in Zengcheng District and a mixed-use site in Guangzhou Science City, which Loh says is "a key component of China's plans to turn the Greater Bay Area from a strong manufacturing base into a science and technology hub."

Shenzhen will form an important part of China's Greater Bay Area. © AP

However, not all analysts think the project will damage Singapore. "Hong Kong and Singapore are global cities which tap worldwide talent pools and financial markets, so the Greater Bay Area does not really represent a marked shift in the competitive dynamic between the two," said Duncan Innes-Ker of The Economist.

Innes-Ker thinks the city-state can mitigate some effects of the project by reducing barriers that prevent Singapore-based companies from operating in Southeast Asia. "ASEAN's economies are expected to expand rapidly," he said. "This should provide many opportunities for financial and professional service providers based in Singapore.

To boost competitiveness, Singapore has been increasing efforts to transform itself into a "smart" nation by investing in emerging digital technologies across various industries. In fintech alone, investments in 2018 more than doubled to $365 million from a year ago, according to a recent report by Accenture.

Singapore is also working on fifth-generation, or 5G, technologies. In January, Singapore Telecommunications, Ericsson and Singapore Polytechnic launched the nation's first 5G training and testing center. The partners will use the facility to develop applications for transportation, logistics, health care, manufacturing and other industries.

 

[Hypocrite-The]

The resident Ah Tiong Commie dog will sing and dance and shout for Joy,,,

 

[borom]

This is what you get for importing millions of PRC's into this country., reserving places in universities for them and awarding them generous scholarships using taxpayers monies.
How many millions were lost by Temasek/GIC because of investments in China and how many millions were cheated by S chips and their fake accounting?

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Actually Ah Tiong land is having economic problems,,so It will actually try and canibalise the rest of the world's economy. Remember, Ah Tiong land economic development is based on economic mercantilism which makes the (Ang Mor colonisers look like saints), that is why there is soo much trade and investment restrictions ...now that the rest of the world is waking up to the ah tiong tactics,,,the slow down within ah tiong land could be worse than what the Commie gahmen makes it out to be,,,

Tough struggle': China moves to shore up slowing economy
China to cut taxes and boost spending as trade dispute with the United States takes toll on the economy.
2 hours ago

Officials sing the national anthem during the opening session of the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing [Jason Lee/Reuters]
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China will cut billions of dollars in taxes and fees, boost infrastructure spending, and step up lending to small firms to shore up an economy expanding at its slowest pace in nearly three decades.
The government is targeting gross domestic product (GDP) growth of between six to 6.5 percent this year, Prime Minister Li Keqiang said at Tuesday's opening of the annual meeting of China's legislature. Its previous target was 6.5 percent.
Three-quarters of provinces have already lowered their annual growth targets this year, especially in export-driven coastal areas.
"In pursuing development this year, we will face a graver and more complicated environment as well as risks and challenges, foreseeable and otherwise, that are greater in number and size," Li told the nearly 3,000 delegates from across the country who had gathered under smoggy skies and tight security for the two-week session.
"We must be fully prepared for a tough struggle," he said.

GDP expanded 6.6 percent in 2018, the slowest pace since 1990.

Trump to delay tariff increase on Chinese goods (1:59)

Ongoing trade war
The slowdown and a simmering trade war with theUnited States have turned into major challenges for President Xi Jinping, one year after the congress made him the country's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong by abolishing term limits and etching his name into China's constitution.
Relations with the US deteriorated sharply last year after President Donald Trump hit roughly half of Chinese imports with new tariffs in an attempt to force trade concessions.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday he thought the two countries were "on the cusp" of a deal to end their trade war, adding to recent positive signs about negotiations from both sides of the Pacific.
We will "continue to promote China-US trade negotiations", Li told delegates, and will settle "trade disputes through discussions as equals".
To help shore up the economy, China will lower corporate taxes and employer contributions to social security and reduce red tape.
The government will also monitor closely the job situation at exporters heavily exposed to the US market, Li said.
The government aims to create more than 11 million new urban jobs this year and keep the urban unemployment rate within 4.5 percent, he added, unchanged from its 2018 goals.
China last year cut taxes and fees worth $194bn and allowed local governments to issue $201bn in special bonds to fund major projects.
The special bond issuance quota for local governments has been set at $320bn, the finance ministry said in a report on Tuesday, as China ramps up infrastructure investment.

Economic worries overshadow Chinese New Year celebrations (2:53)

Boosting lending
This year, the government has set a budget deficit target of 2.8 percent of GDP, up from last year's 2.6 percent, reflecting the reduction in taxes and higher government spending.
Pauline Loong of Asia-Analytica in Hong Kong told Al Jazeera the measures together indicate a sea change in China's approach to the economy.
"The tax cut is part of a broader plan to stimulate the economy for growth," she said.
"But what is important is not the numbers themselves, the more important takeaway is that the Chinese government it giving its people a new narrative on economic policy. Only last year we were hearing about things like deleveraging, how we must make sure the economy is balanced. This year the message is entirely about growth."
China has lowered reserve requirements for commercial banks five times in the past year to boost lending to small and private companies - vital for growth and jobs.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the state planner, said a balance needed to be struck between stabilising economic growth and fending off risks in a report released on Tuesday.
The legislature will next week pass a new law regulating foreign investment, in a move that could help ease US trade tensions.
The legislation will bar the forced transfer of technology by foreign firms to Chinese joint-venture partners, a major bone of contention with the US.

101 EAST
China's TV Confessions

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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• Li Keqiang
• Xi Jinping
• Asia Pacific

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[Hypocrite-The]

CHINA ECONOMY
Chinese premier: 'We must be fully prepared for a tough struggle'

• In prepared remarks, according to an official English handout, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang warned that there will be greater risks ahead for the world's second largest economy.
• This year's meeting comes amid tariff tensions with the U.S. — China's largest trading partner — which have placed immense pressure on China's economy and financial markets.
• At the annual parliamentary gathering, Beijing also announced the official economic growth target this year will be 6.0 to 6.5 percent, slower than last year.

Evelyn Cheng | Joanna Tan
Published 7 Hours Ago Updated 5 Hours AgoCNBC.com
















Lintao Zhang | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang speaks at a press conference in the Great Hall of the People on January 31, 2018 in Beijing, China.
China must be prepared for a "tough struggle" as the country faces a "grave and more complicated environment," Premier Li Keqiang said at the opening of the annual National People's Congress on Tuesday, the country's annual parliamentary meeting.
"We must be fully prepared for a tough struggle," Li told a delegation of nearly 3,000 representatives. "The difficulties we face must not be underestimated, our confidence must not be weakened, and the energy we bring to our work must not be allowed to wane."
This year's meeting comes amid tariff tensions with the U.S. — China's largest trading partner — which have placed immense pressure on China's economy and financial markets.

In prepared remarks, according to an official English handout, Li warned that there will be greater risks ahead for the world's second largest economy.
"A full analysis of developments in and outside China shows that in pursuing development this year, we will face a graver and more complicated environment as well as risks and challenges, foreseeable and otherwise, that are greater in number and size," Li said.
Growth target lowered
The gathering of delegates from different strata of Chinese society is typically ceremonial in nature. The real power in the country lies in the Communist Party and its Politburo Standing Committee, headed right now by President Xi Jinping. But announcements made during the congress can shed some light on government policy.
Beijing also announced it expects the economy to grow at a slower pace in 2019 than last year. Li said the official economic growth target this year will be 6.0 to 6.5 percent, in line with many economists' expectations. Last year, the Chinese economy grew at its slowest pace since 1990, expanding by 6.6 percent in 2018.
"Against the backdrop of mounting downward pressure on the economy, the policies and measures we adopt should ensure stable expectations, stable growth and structural adjustments," Li said. "In working to forestall and control risks, we need to get the pace and intensity right."


China's NPC will be more than a 'rubber stamping meeting': CEO 7 Hours Ago | 02:32
Beijing's economic target range was "sensible" and reflected the "maturity" of Chinese officials, said Tai Hui, Asia Pacific chief market strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management.
"It reflects top officials' maturity in accepting that China needs to stabilize growth in a sustainable manner, instead of a rush of liquidity to the economy, as we saw in previous downturns," Hui said in a note on Tuesday. "They need to strike a balance between boosting economic activity and not restart another debt-fuelled boom."
"Onshore investors should take the latest growth target positively, since it would (be) unrealistic to expect 2019 to be stronger than 2018 considering global headwinds and some structural challenges in the Chinese economy that are being addressed in the latest NPC," Hui added.
Commitment to trade
Li also warned at the congress meeting that the trade war with the U.S. has had a negative impact on business activities in China.
Trade tensions with the U.S. escalated last year after President Donald Trump announced additional tariffs on $250 billion worth of goods from China, and Beijing countered with its own duties on $110 billion worth of U.S. goods.
But in signs that tensions from the tariff battle could soon ease, sources tell CNBC that the U.S. and China are currently in the "final stages" of a trade deal that could end this month.
During Tuesday's address, the Chinese premier reiterated Beijing's commitment to "safeguarding economic globalization" and pledged to promote China-U.S. trade negotiations while advancing negotiations on other trade agreements.
"We faithfully honor our commitments and are resolute in safeguarding our lawful rights and interests," he added.
Critics have noted Beijing has been slow to act on many commitments it made when it joined the WTO in 2001.

Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) waves to the press as he walks with US President Donald Trump at the Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida, April 7, 2017.
Beijing is attempting to maintain stable growth, while reducing the economy's reliance on debt. Many criticized the government's efforts in late 2017 and early 2018 as overly harsh, causing authorities to reverse their tone in the second half of last year with announcements of stimulus plans.
Zhang Liqun, research fellow at the Macroeconomic Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council, said last week that due partly to trade tensions, many export-related companies in Guangdong let their employees go on vacation in November with no clear plans for further production.
Retail sales have also slumped as consumers remain uncertain about the economic outlook.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/05/china-economy-2019-growth-target-set-at-6percent-6point5percent.html

 

[syed putra]

Singapore can do the same with batam and jb if only pap stop behaving like a leech. Currently pap only interested in welcoming tax avoiders and tge rich from its neighbours,

 

[laksaboy]

Maybe if Pinky Loong hadn't opened his baboon mouth on a few occasions, the situation could have been different.

 

[laksaboy]

Singapore can do the same with batam and jb if only pap stop behaving like a leech. Currently pap only interested in welcoming tax avoiders and tge rich from its neighbours,

B A T A M = Banyak Anak Tapi Ayah Mana?

 

[laksaboy]

Tough struggle': China moves to shore up slowing economy

China is losing the trade war. Nobody double crosses Trump and gets a happy ending.

 

[zhihau]

Altogether now!!! HUAT AH!!!

 

[rushifa666]

Sinkies are traitors. Thats not new

 

[winnipegjets]

This is what you get for importing millions of PRC's into this country., reserving places in universities for them and awarding them generous scholarships using taxpayers monies.
How many millions were lost by Temasek/GIC because of investments in China and how many millions were cheated by S chips and their fake accounting?

Are there more Ah Tiongs here than Ah Nehs? I think there are more Ah Nehs here.

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Are there more Ah Tiongs here than Ah Nehs? I think there are more Ah Nehs here.

Be prepared for more AH Nehs to come to singkieland,,,chennai Biz park will be expended to make way for them,,

US to end preferential trade status for India, Turkey
Donald Trump set to open a new front in trade wars with a plan to end preferential trade treatment for India and Turkey.
6 hours ago

Ending India's participation would be Trump's strongest action against New Delhi since he took office in 2017 [File: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters]
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At President Donald Trump's direction, the United States intends to scrap the preferential trade status granted to India and Turkey, the US trade chief's office has said.
Washington "intends to terminate India's and Turkey's designations as beneficiary developing countries under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) programme because they no longer comply with the statutory eligibility criteria," the Office of the US Trade Representative said in a statement on Monday.
India has failed to provide assurances that it would allow required market access, while Turkey is "sufficiently economically developed" that it no longer qualifies, the statement said.
Under the GSP programme, "certain products" can enter the US duty-free if countries meet eligibility criteria including "providing the US with equitable and reasonable market access".
India, however, "has implemented a wide array of trade barriers that create serious negative effects on United States commerce," the statement said.

It said Turkey, after being designated a GSP beneficiary in 1975, has meanwhile demonstrated a "higher level of economic development," meaning that it can be "graduated" from the programme.
The changes cannot take effect for at least 60 days following the notification of the US Congress as well as the countries affected - a process Trump began on Monday with letters to the speaker of the House of Representatives and the president of the Senate.
The change for India came after "intensive engagement" between New Delhi and Washington, Trump wrote in one letter, the text of which was released by the White House.
"I will continue to assess whether the government of India is providing equitable and reasonable access to its markets, in accordance with the GSP eligibility criteria," the US president wrote.
In his letter on Turkey, Trump said the country's economy "has grown and diversified," and noted that Istanbul has already "graduated from other developed countries' GSP programmes".
No retaliatory tariffs, says India
India exports $5.6bn worth of goods to the US duty-free, making the South Asian nation the world's largest beneficiary of the GSP programme.
Ending India's participation would be Trump's strongest punitive action against New Delhi since he took office in 2017.
Reacting to the move, a top Indian trade official on Tuesday said New Delhi does not plan to impose retaliatory tariffs on US goods.
Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan said the withdrawal of the GSP for Indian products would have limited impact. The two countries had been working on a trade package to address each other's concerns, he said.
New Delhi hoped the planned withdrawal of the preferential trade treatment to India would not lead to trade hurdles, an Indian government source said, adding that the "actual benefit" to India was only $250m a year.
"GSP is more symbolic of the strategic relationship not in value terms," the source told Reuters news agency, declining to be named ahead of a press briefing by the Indian trade ministry.
While New Delhi has played down the impact of the move, India's opposition parties could seize on the issue to embarrass Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of general elections due in April and May.
New trade war front after China
The move against India and Turkey comes as the US and China seek to negotiate an exit from a costly trade war that is part of the Trump administration's efforts to address what it views as inequitable commercial relationships with other states.
READ MORE
'Tough struggle': China moves to shore up slowing economy
Trump has made taking aim at what he considers imbalanced trade relationships a central plank of his presidency - sparking the year-old trade war with Beijing.
The US and China agreed to a 90-day truce to work out their differences, and Beijing and Washington have been edging closer to an agreement in recent weeks.
The truce was scheduled to end on Friday, but Trump lifted the ultimatum to further increase tariffs, satisfied by progress made in several rounds of talks.
Under an agreement taking shape, Beijing would lower some barriers on US companies' operations in China and purchase large amounts of American agricultural and energy goods if the US lowered most of the tariffs in return.

 

[theblackhole]

china is unstoppable....unstoppable. it will run and dictate the world's direction in every field. so better bet on the right horse or else , sinkieland will be gone in no time. china is big in everything...big big big..; all we need now is to plug ourselves in this massive earthquake creaked by china...just ride on the surge...we should be ok...but don't be howlian showing what you have and what you intend to acquire. knn...be humble lah….eat humble pies.

 

[Hypocrite-The]

US-China trade talks: Has Beijing been playing an ancient game?
Dutch illustration of the Chinese emperor, 1665.
PHOTO: Handout
MICHAEL KEEVAK
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

Mar 05, 2019
FacebookTwitterGoogle+Email

Even the most casual student of the history of China's relations with the West will know something about the famous failed embassy of George Macartney to the Qianlong Emperor in 1793.
Reading the king of England's haughty letter to the Chinese emperor alongside the emperor's equally haughty reply remains an excellent object lesson in nonconversation. George III asked for the right for English merchants to live and work in China and to have access to Chinese markets. He sent presents. Qianlong replied with even more magnificent gifts but refused the king's requests point by point. China needed nothing from the outside, he wrote, and certainly nothing from the Western Ocean people who had at last come to pay tribute to the Middle Kingdom and the centre of the world.

Much has been written about the immense distance between these two positions, and the exchange has served as a symbol of a wide variety of interpretations about relations between the West and China both past and present. Indeed, deciphering the exchange takes on a particular pertinence given the ongoing trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing.

What few readers know, however, is that this pattern of Western request and Chinese denial stretches back to the very earliest contact between the two sides. Before 1842 and without exception, these encounters were all in Chinese control. Western visitors got almost nothing they asked for and were not allowed to remain; they were told that the only way they could interact with China was by obeying its laws of tribute, even if these rules were largely symbolic.

Tribute regulations were a means of restraint, invoked or relaxed as necessary but nonetheless functional. But in a sense the West became part of the Chinese world much more than the other way around; despite the Europeans' best efforts, in other words, these were not embassies to China, they were tribute missions.
In this sense all the embassies were failures, at least from the Westerners' point of view, and even those few requests that were granted were conceded on a limited basis and only in terms dictated by the Chinese. The first official embassy, sent by Portugal in 1515, arrived in Canton via the recently established Portuguese stronghold at Malacca.

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Portuguese Malacca, circa 1650. Photo: Handout
The entourage hoped to set up a trading post similar to the many others in their burgeoning overseas empire. They claimed to be on a mission of friendship from the Portuguese king, but it soon began to dawn on officials in Guangzhou that the newcomers were really attempting to monopolise the already existing trade and to set up long-term fortifications by force of arms.
In a disastrous development for the Portuguese and for European relations generally, the ambassador and his entourage were thrown into jail, where they died one by one over the course of many years.
Chinese sources accused the newcomers of many illegal activities, including "setting up stones", which almost certainly refers to the Portuguese custom of installing stone pillars as symbols of their expanding empire, which at its height encompassed seaports from West Africa to Japan. Evidently, one had been erected at Tunmen, now part of Hong Kong's New Territories, to show that China had also been "discovered" by the Portuguese crown.
Yet this was a vision of empire that differed markedly from the Chinese understanding of international relations, since in principle China did not seek to absorb other lands or to impose its form of government or religion on foreign peoples.

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A Portuguese padrao, or stone pillar, 1482. Photo: Handout
The next embassy was from Holland in 1655, originating in its own regional base of operations at Batavia, present-day Jakarta. Not claiming any interest in territorial expansion at first (they had already occupied southern Taiwan since the 1620s), the Dutch requested what they called a "free trade" agreement, by which they meant a mutual exchange between nation-states unfettered by private or governmental controls.
But in China there was no such thing as free trade, and even if tribute-bearing status was granted, it carried its own set of rules at odds with the Dutch demands: all tribute bearers were assigned ports of entry, they were given a maximum number of ships and men and told how long they would be allowed to remain, and they were informed how many years should elapse before the next tribute mission could be undertaken.

Dutch Batavia, circa 1627. Photo: Handout
The Dutch envoys, who were in reality merchants in the employ of the Dutch East India company, had to overcome the fact that their insistence on mutual profit seemed to have little effect on Chinese officials, whose tradition taught them that trade was a low priority and that merchants should be placed at the very bottom of the social scale. The Dutch hoped for unrestricted yearly trade, but instead were sent away with an imperial edict telling them that they might pay tribute to the emperor but would have to wait another eight years to return.
Other embassies fared little better. There was, however, one major exception: Russia, which received many favours that were consistently denied to other European nations. In 1689 a treaty was signed that guaranteed "mutual commerce", and for the next decade Russian caravans came to Beijing every year (and about every two years after that).
Secondly, unlike the small number of Roman Catholic missionaries who were allowed to live in China, another treaty in 1727 gave Russia the right to establish a permanent Russian Orthodox mission in the capital. Most remarkably of all, in 1721 a visiting Russian ambassador was granted permission to install a representative in Beijing who would oversee all Russian commerce and, when problems arose, speak for the Russian empire and its various policies.

Title page of the diary of the Russian 'consul', 1726. Photo: Handout
How do we explain this? The simple reason was that Russia was not seen as a Western Ocean country. The Russians were a "border tribe", and their affairs were administered by an office that dealt with a complex set of nomadic peoples to the north and west beyond the Great Wall, an area fraught with dangers and numerous invasions. China thus came up with a policy in which allowances could be made in exchange for Russia's non-interference in central Asia - crucial for maintaining a balance of power.
Frequent trade was one such concession. Another was the right to install a Russian "consul" in Beijing, although it lasted only about two years. Western-style diplomacy might be allowed to function at certain times and under certain circumstances, but this did not mean China had altered its traditional attitude towards foreigners or that the West's point of view had somehow managed to win out. On the contrary, Russia's hopes for commercial profit, religious freedom, and diplomatic recognition, like those of all other Western nations, remained largely unfulfilled.
The ambassadors did not hide their disappointment and frustration, but a much more interesting undercurrent in their accounts is the way in which European pretences were constantly being deflated by Chinese interlocutors. Such irony was typically lost on Western narrators, who considered themselves superior to anything they encountered in the Middle Kingdom.
For both sides, perhaps, the real motives of the other remained somewhat inscrutable, but when two versions of empire, trade, and diplomacy collided, the Chinese side nearly always seemed to emerge victorious, and the West's desires, whether they were ever understood or not, could be rendered completely superfluous.
But at the conclusion of the First Opium War in 1842, many things changed. China became a colonial contact zone. Hong Kong was ceded to Britain and a number of 'treaty ports' were forcibly opened, where foreigners could reside year-round and trade with anyone they wished. For the first time in its history, China had to bow to the dictates of Western desires.
Michael Keevak is Professor of Foreign Languages at National Taiwan University and author of 'Embassies to China: Diplomacy and Cultural Encounters Before the Opium Wars'