Interesting Expat Development

[scroobal]

Agree.

The equation for the PAP and the Govt is that these expats will spend much of their income here to rent, expensive dinner etc. After all who are the landlords for apartments and bunglows that are available for rent at the high end.

Economics also tells you that population numbers drive demand and therefore the economy. Unfortunately no all can go on this journey or will benefit from it.

The inference i draw here is, the private sector will eventually take care of what the PAP govt failed to. Europeans and US MNCs are facing increasing pressure to streamline and this is gathering pace. When they start to look at job roles, they will find many with little value add and could possibly be done outside Singapore, and the people most affected could well be FTs than locals. My company's marketing department have 10 headcounts of which 5 are FTs, i see the department as the first casualty in our streamlining.

 

[TheFootballer]

I see this as law of nature, when cost gets too high in a country, business will move to the next best alternative location. There is no reason placing a department in Singapore, hiring FTs to do the job in Singapore, paying them as much as local, when the job could be done from a cheaper location. My company categorise countries into "high cost", "medium cost" and "low cost".

Singapore moved from medium cost to high cost in the last 3 years i was here, to the likes of Australia, HK, Japan, etc. The implication of this categorisation is, it is very difficult to get headcount approved in our high cost countries. India and China moved from "low cost" to medium cost. Our headoffice is even wondering if it is worthwhile doing this business in Asia !!!

can't comment much as i can't deduce the industry mentioned yet. If its the banking sector as one forummer mentioned, i fear the first to go will be back-office locals and mabbe pinoy it FTs. The "white" FTs from this sector are usually well entrenched in Management roles. Whether these Fts are actually value adding is debateble on case by case basis.

 

[fukyuman]

DHL special case. Their new German bosses had not clue at all. These Australians and NZ expats work in a tight old boys network and they take care of each other. To demonstrate their 'special' abilities, they built fiefdoms with layers of supporting staff including 'expats' from mother India. Its a strange set of corporate skills that does not benefit their employers or shareholders, but they do manage to hang in there for so long before they are finally flushed out.

It was more like jobs for your mates. Because the revenue was large, this got lost in the large numbers. Quality is there but it could be done by a fraction of the crew. I once came across a lady from DHL who was recruited for an esoteric role. When this role was assessed, nobody could even offer a sliver of evidence to support her hiring. After repeated questioning it turned out that her husband was a staff and he asked another Dept colleague to hire her. All involved were Australians and it happened in Singapore. Another abuse among the expats are the hiring of spouses on a part-time basis and on contract basis. This will not show on payroll or in establishment strength. Something our sub-continent friends have picked up.

 

[TheFootballer]

DHL special case. Their new German bosses had not clue at all. These Australians and NZ expats work in a tight old boys network and they take care of each other. To demonstrate their 'special' abilities, they built fiefdoms with layers of supporting staff including 'expats' from mother India. Its a strange set of corporate skills that does not benefit their employers or shareholders, but they do manage to hang in there for so long before they are finally flushed out.

Generally, Australians and NZ do not endorse the scratching backs culture. This can be seen from top down. Politicians have been hanged for reccomendation of their fav car dealership. However, being FTs abroad, i can't blanket it does not happen.
Similarly, Singapore, Malaysia and Japanese Banks are notorious for hiring their kind all over the world. Its done not for building fiefdom nor scratching backs nor special abilities. I'll let you draw your own conclusion from there.

TS linked MNC and its free market enterprise to correct the inadequecies of meddling govt hand. Yet to form an opinion on this. gotta ponder few days.

 

[Bigfuck]

There are many ways to pad GDP: i) issue government bonds that mortgages your future; ii) increase property prices that will up inflation iii) building more buildings to pollute the air and cause more flash floods from surface runoffs that will need money spent alleviate floods; iv) increase medical costs and give medication that makes you spend more on medication; v) keep levels of bacteria hygiene low to make Singaporeans sick and see doctor.; vi) Spend more than 1/3 of the national budget on defence.

If 20% of the defence budget were used to pad Singapore will double the greenery, aircon costs will go down. quality of air will go up, health problems will go down, productivity will increase. All these however may reduce GDP of other areas. But which would a sane person prefer? Many value add services and products cause more grief, albeit a higher GDP. But if you analyze EU, Japan and USA GDP, most of it is borrowing from the future to look big and a lot on staff that gives everyone low quality of life and more problems.

 

[mojito]

Actually I never came across a situation where a whole bunch of Ang Mos doing near clerical job in one place. I do not want one of their major client as it will give away the industry but it is a major GLC and we all know of it. No access to client accounts so do not know if the GLC has been screwed properly.

Apologies for resurrecting an old discussion from a few days ago. Going through the news and some other threads in the forum, I realise I might know which company you were referring to.

It is not uncommon to pad the final bill to the customer when most of the work is standardized, and can be subcontracted in modules to other service providers. In another thread the issue of Dr Susan Lim's bill to the Brunei Royal Family was discussed. The issue can be simplified as the effect branding has on the pricing of differentiated services. At the high end the provision of turnkey solutions is especially non-competitive.

While Company X has a good name in the market, I blame it on rampant xenophilia that they are able to do what they did. Look to your bosses, or yourselves if you are a decision maker: Would you trust a tech geek with poor articulation, or the garden variety fawning sinkie sales representatives to provide mulit-million dollar consultancy projects for your company? If I am right about the company, some of the fellas at this company are quite suave. That and being a large company must have made all the difference. You may also agree that we as a national community do not have many local-born role models to look to, and that one seldom trains new apprentices to grow into these roles, lest they realise how dispensable their masters are.

I think the situation is a global phenomena and it is probably not going to change very soon. That is why the company has attracted much attention from very prominent investors despite the excesses.