Kampong Days - Remember Singapore Weblog - Worth Reading

[eErotica96]

not really, financial industry will be in a mess for the next 10 to maybe 20 years, that was one reason why i asked about blue and white collar job in my other thread...:o

http://www.sammyboy.com/showthread.php?136457-will-you-work-as-white-or-blue-collar

financial hub as in money exchange hub.

 

[eErotica96]

i thought that you were saying that japs are very hardworking, no...?

yes, japs are very hardworking. but not necessary productive, especially those younger jap generation.

 

[Leongsam]

being a financial hub is more feasible in the long term survivor of singapore than a manufacturing hub.

My friend. A financial hub does not have the structure to support a population the way manufacturing does.

Manufacturing operations are a tall pyramid. You have the CEO a the top.. then top management... middle management (engineers, supervisors), technicians and finally.. a large number of operators known in the manufacturing industry and accounting jargon as direct labour.

Every strata of a society has a place in manufacturing and best of all, the gini coefficient is kept low because the operators and technicians can earn overtime so they end up taking home as much as the engineers and lower level management.

A financial hub is a lot flatter in structure and the essential difference is that the industry does not provide jobs for thousands of individuals with low education. When you see a whole lot of sinkie poor trying to make ends meet, it's because manufacturing is no longer with us. In the old days, they'd be earning $2000 gross or more per month working in air conditioned comfort, provided with free transport to and from work, free lunches, medical benefits and so on even though they only had 3 O levels. Now they are lucky if they can get $800 per month.

 

[Leongsam]

Trading has always been our forte. We have always been strong in providing services to various industries.

Trading does not provide employment for the masses either. In the old days, trade did require a large number of dock hands. Today, containers do the job and everything is automated.

 

[krafty]

you kidding me, a lot of mama open shop at change alley already, you still want me to go join the crowd...?

:p

financial hub as in money exchange hub.

 

[jubilee1919]

Trading does not provide employment for the masses either. In the old days, trade did require a large number of dock hands. Today, containers do the job and everything is automated.

Not really as logistics will still be required spawning more businesses down the line. Transport companies, maintenance and warehousing etc. It is a huge business, one that is not so visible.

 

[Leongsam]

Not really as logistics will still be required spawning more businesses down the line. Transport companies, maintenance and warehousing etc. It is a huge business, one that is not so visible.

Name me one transport, warehouse or maintenance company in Singapore that employs 5000 operators per shift x 3. There is simply no comparison.

 

[eErotica96]

Manufacturing operations are a tall pyramid. You have the CEO a the top.. then top management... middle management (engineers, supervisors), technicians and finally.. a large number of operators known in the manufacturing industry and accounting jargon as direct labour.
.

but they will find it tougher and tougher to survive in singapore.

 

[Leongsam]

but they will find it tougher and tougher to survive in singapore.

You're thick. You should join tonychat.

 

[watchman8]

Manufacturing in Singapore will never be the economic engine of growth again. Singapore has to find something else that it can be very good at. The trouble is nobody knows what that is. The govt does not have the answer and neither does anyone else. The world's foremost economic consultants wouldn't be able to provide the magic formula for growth either.

You take 2 million Singaporean Chinese, add some Malays, some Indians and a whole bunch of 2nd rate foreigners and give them 695 sqkm and zero natural resources to work with and try to figure out how to sustain an economy to support a first world standard of living for everyone. It simply isn't possible.

One of issue is that sinkieland is forever jumping from on fad to another, and in past decade, tried to be a hub of anything. Electronics, oil refinery, semi-con, dot com, bio science, media, education, finance. Young people are strongly encouraged to go into certain fields, depending on the fad of the day; in the 90s it was engineering, then computer science, followed by bio science etc. University places were heavily manipulated to force the top quartile of each cohort to study certain fields. End up when the fad dies, so many graduates found themselves in the wrong place, and become master of none.

The problem is that the PAP is too greedy and impatient, always wanting to get into the latest, hottest, greatest stuff. Thus wasting so much local talent in one fad after another.

The government could have identified certain evergreen fields such as medicine, energy, law etc. and allow as many students as they can find to specialise in these fields. At the same time, GIC and temasick to concentrate their fire power in these fields, and buy into many of these companies to influence them to employ sinkies.

 

[jubilee1919]

Name me one transport, warehouse or maintenance company in Singapore that employs 5000 operators per shift x 3. There is simply no comparison.

Of course there is none I can think off since nowadays most operations are automated. SIA Cargo Complex for example is automated. Even factories themselves uses robots and machines replacing human labour. The electronics industry was very fickle back in those days and even to this day many old and established firms are going under. You were not in the right industry as other businesses grew by leaps and bounds.

 

[Leongsam]

One of issue is that sinkieland is forever jumping from on fad to another, and in past decade, tried to be a hub of anything. Electronics, oil refinery, semi-con, dot com, bio science, media, education, finance. Young people are strongly encouraged to go into certain fields,

That's because they're trying to find what works and what doesn't while at the same time not putting all the eggs in one basket.

Towards the late 80s, Singapore was responsible for almost 70% of the world's disk drive production. It was great for making a fast buck but it was a precarious position to be in. The govt had to diversify the economy. That's why they tried to create more hubs.

It was nothing to do with being greedy. It was about trying to keep Singapore going for the long term.

There is no such thing as an evergreen field. "Medicine" is evergreen but that's just a generic term. There are many fields of medicine and trends can change very quickly too. Today's hot medical product is tomorrow's has been.

I go back to what I said at the beginning. Talk is easy. You should thank your lucky stars that you have a govt that actually tries to grow the economy. Many governments make no such effort at all.

 

[eErotica96]

You're thick. You should join tonychat.

i love his postings.

 

[sleaguepunter]

Trading does not provide employment for the masses either. In the old days, trade did require a large number of dock hands. Today, containers do the job and everything is automated.

Stuffing of container still need raw power and human-machine coordination even in the event a forklift is available. no matter how high tech the forklift, human still needed to push the goods into the lobang that just big enough for the good to go in. A small size forwarder still need at least 3-4 lorry drivers, 2-3 forklift drivers and another 3-5 muscles. these jobs were available to locals with low education in the past but now only most of these job goes to prc who salaries about 1/3 less than what local were getting. Almost all the malays and a couple of chinese were fired by the forwarder towkay located on my office block ground floor and replaced by prc. not exactly a wise move as the prc cannot read the manifest and so can only provide muscle plus chicken and duck talk with the tamil supervisor.

 

[sleaguepunter]

but they will find it tougher and tougher to survive in singapore.

i tot it eRrotica69? am i mistaken?

 

[eErotica96]

i tot it eRrotica69? am i mistaken?

who is this chump?

 

[watchman8]

That's because they're trying to find what works and what doesn't while at the same time not putting all the eggs in one basket.

Towards the late 80s, Singapore was responsible for almost 70% of the world's disk drive production. It was great for making a fast buck but it was a precarious position to be in. The govt had to diversify the economy. That's why they tried to create more hubs.

It was nothing to do with being greedy. It was about trying to keep Singapore going for the long term.

There is no such thing as an evergreen field. "Medicine" is evergreen but that's just a generic term. There are many fields of medicine and trends can change very quickly too. Today's hot medical product is tomorrow's has been.

I go back to what I said at the beginning. Talk is easy. You should thank your lucky stars that you have a govt that actually tries to grow the economy. Many governments make no such effort at all.

Being too greedy is really part of the problem. There is no long signted focus and it was always jumping around hunting for the highest yielding fields.

In the 90s, so many students wanted to do medicine and law. Instead the government decided that engineering was it because it was earning more money for the economy, so literally forced and pushed students to go into engineering by severely restricting the intake of medicine and law. When the manufacturing sector hollowed out from the late 90s, the country was left with hundreds of thousands of jobless engineers and technicians. After that it was bioscience, followed by finance. I bet you the number of unemployed finance sinkies will be piling up in the coming years.

Education, medicine, accounting, energy and legal are some of everygreen fields. The technologies involved will evolve, but the core people don't change. Universities, hospitals and large law firms that can serve the region. They may not earn as much as the latest, greatest fads, but these are steady earners.

In fact I recall whore jinx did tried to lobby for sinkieland to greatly increase the intake for doctors and related medical fields in the mid 90s to serve the region, but the government eventually continued with Philip yeo's grand visions. The country is still suffering from the damage done by Philip Yeo and his backer.

 

[Leongsam]

Being too greedy is really part of the problem. There is no long signted focus and it was always jumping around hunting for the highest yielding fields.

Had the government not intervened in trying to steer the economy in the direction they felt was appropriate, Singapore would not be where it is today. Nobody gets things 100% right. The PAP has stuffed up many times but overall, they have done a very good job considering the constraints.

 

[neddy]

You've lost me. I don't know what point you are trying to make. My point was that LKY is not the cause of our problems. He did the opposite and created many opportunities.

LKY steers Singapore in the direction which he saw fit. A tremendous amount of scarce resources are utilised in areas which Singapore small population cannot support. We had to get manpower from Malaysia. A lot of ideas come from the one man who want to prove that Singapore can beat Malaysia in economic numbers.


Korean late dictator president, Park Chung-hee, pursued a similar strategy to LKY. It was his way or no way. He was credited with rapid industrialization of Korea into a major export economy. In the process, Korea remained poorer longer than it should, there were more worker strikes, more corruption and bribery, and took longer for Samsung electronics, Hyundai motors to emerged as global brands. Without IMF and chaebol reforms, Hyundai motors would not have beaten Toyota.

http://asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4838&Itemid=182

 

[eErotica69]

i love his postings.

You are his Thai partner?