And about this urging. What good does it do? If I’m an employer, my key concern is bottom line. If by hiring foreigners, I beef up that bottom line, I will do so in the interest of myself and my shareholders. I will NOT bend to your `urging’. If the minister is sincere in helping the locals, do what the govt is most proficient in…..hurt the pocket. Increase the levy for hiring foreign workers. No need to go the emotional route (by urging). Go the business route!

$2b in govt funding for SMEs runs into hurdles

Banks reluctant to lend despite govt schemes: companies

By CHEW XIANG

(SINGAPORE) Over $2 billion in government funding support for local companies hasn’t managed to clear the credit clog, said participants at a seminar yesterday organised by the Singapore Manufacturers’ Federation.

The seminar, featuring presentations by Spring Singapore and DBS Bank, was to publicise the government’s recently enhanced financing schemes for SMEs and to get feedback from companies.

Participants – mostly from small and medium-sized companies and from the manufacturers’ federation – said credit lines were still being pulled and that applications for the various schemes weren’t getting approved by banks, which remain reluctant to lend.

Just 7 per cent of SMEs benefited from government-funded financing schemes, according to the recent SME Development Survey 2008 report.

to reply to your question, YES , I am absolutely Fed Up to here (nose).

thanks.

to reply to your question, YES , I am absolutely Fed Up to hear (nose).

thanks.

IMHO, TC should at most have 1 year’s operating costs in their reserves and not have a sinking fund. They should raise funds for each project. This will reduce excessive expenses like re-tiling common walkway when the old tiles are still ok or unnecessary “upgrades”. Excess should be refunded to residents. E.g. Allocated to relieve the low-income households of their TC S&C bills. Using numbers from a TC’s 06/07 report, even if the excess is distributed evenly amongst households in the TC, 1-room flats may save around 40% and 3-roomers 20% of this monthly cost.

I cry myself to sleep each night ….i comfort myself by thinking on the bright side – the country is paying 80 plus PEOPLEs’ Representatives to voice up for the people wor. no worry wan. they do their job wan. The people had spoken.

… Did you read Saturday’s Straits Times’ interview with WDA’s CEO? The CEO admitted that those unemployed placed on “retraining” are NOT counted as unemployed. Thus thousands of unemployed are removed from the denominator and numerator of unemployment statistics….making the % of unemployed much lower than reality. …

————-

Someone ever asked if getting the Unemployed to register a sole proprietorship will lower the Unemployment rate.

The Moral of the Story : TRANSPARENCY on UNEMPLOYMENT Statistics reporting process is good for the people to understand these numbers. For this, Mr Leong, you have my support – I think you are the man!

Do these manpower top elites will not dare to reduce CPF rates or they are actually here to grandstand?

It would be very tough for companies to heed the call
as companies can always just use this excuse:

got to hire the cheaper labor. else we migrate.

‘S’ pass, ‘EP’ all makes hiring very easy.

PR also very fast processed.

since when did the term ‘local’ = pr + citizen?
I agree that this is the current definition but wonder since when the definition became this.

the way i see it, for companies to continue hiring foreigners, they can 1st recruit foreigners who say they will apply for PR. like this, every few short months, their foreigner headcount becomes a local headcount?

i wonder.

i believe in doing things a step at a time – companies should retain singaporeans 1st than PRs. If can, then keep PRs. Afterall, citizens have sacrificed and done their part to earn the citizenship, not just in the form of paying income tax or cpf. why swallow whole? 1 step at a time.

MIW loves to use confusing statistics to fool the masses. For instance, in the town council investment fiasco, they said 0.8% of 14 town councils’ aggregate investments are in worthless structured bonds. They don’t want to tell us what percentage of EACH town council’s investments are in such worthless shit.

Did you read Saturday’s Straits Times’ interview with WDA’s CEO? The CEO admitted that those unemployed placed on “retraining” are NOT counted as unemployed. Thus thousands of unemployed are removed from the denominator and numerator of unemployment statistics….making the % of unemployed much lower than reality. That is what I call, lying with statistics!!!

1. he is deeply into religious charity works – visiting terminally ill people and tell people about his work. He sells cookies to his employees and collects the proceeds for charity under his name.

2. he tells his employee he is a millionaire but wears simply and humbly although he reminds people with his luxury car by wearing a cap of that car brand.

3. he keeps reminding people of his past glorious days.

but if you resign and he threatens you he can just give a tel call to bosses in singapore and bar you from being employed.

sorry, may be a bit off-center. cannot help it as it brings back memories of this training boss.

urge here, urge there,

why dont come up with effective measures?

why make commoners life so pressure, so expensive?

in the 70s, 80s (example) isnt life not so tough during that time?

PAYING for ELITEs?

can we pay ourselves instead?

aiyoyo

Whether it is political or social issues that had been in public or cyberspace discourse (at least in this site and others); on one hand it is true that a majority of us felt betrayed and left out in some ways (obviously there are some who are in concurrence with the government, that I think we can only respect their personal views to say the least since most if not all of us are advocating freedom of speech, expression and choice). The TCs, the minibond saga, the over priced HDB, the price hike (GST, ERP, and Utilities), the in-competencies of the internal security forces (referring to the MS escape), the foreign worker immigration policies that had all but affects the native employment perspective…etc. Most importantly, helping the less-fortunate and dire straits fellow citizenry (I will reserve my comment for this particular issue until the 2009 budget is being unveiled). I do not think any amount of ranting will have an immediate impact or bring around changes that we so hope for. I believed a lot had been said and there are no short of workable suggestions (not taken in or advice not heeded by the Government).

I think if we just continue to allow them to exude their arrogance and ignorance, it is not such a bad thing after all; as it provided the citizenry more ammunition to vote wisely in election time (given the chance to vote). We must constantly remind ourselves of these mishaps and the relevant authority refusal to be more transparent and accountable. While continuing our effort in doing our part as concerned Singaporeans for the betterment of this country, sort of citizen watch; I would like to suggest to TOC or other blog sphere to compile a list of all these mishaps over the years and have it published just immediately after the announcement of election. This is a stark reminder to all and to encourage the sharing with our closest kin, friends, colleagues and neighbors and even strangers that we should do the RIGHT thing to enforce changes. Para-phrasing from the infamous John Lennon once said: IF YOU DREAM ALONE, IT IS ONLY A DREAM. IF WE DREAM TOGETHER, WE CAN MAKE THE DREAM A REALITY.

Uniquely Singapore, the high flyers foreign talents particularly those in the finance industry are asked to go home. The minister need not stress this fact because these companies operate on a hire and fire basis. When the going is good , they hire and when they are down, they fire.

Uniquely Singapore, what is happening is the irretrievable change in employment profile. Certain type of industry will be dependent on foreign labour for the forseeabe future such as lorry driver, bus drivers, nurses, factory hands the hotel industry because singaporean and to some extend, malaysian now are withdrawing from these sectors of the industry. The foreign labour has crowded the job site and will stay put, come rain or shine. To these group of people, there is no job at all at home, whether there is sub prime crisis or not does not touch them. The big bosses at home will be pleased and will adjust to this development since the cost of operation is lower. The government is tacitly encouraging this developement of foreign labour with more housing clusters for them, even floating houses was suggested. Scrutinised the various minister statements , you will notice that there is a simialr pattern, it is all lip services. Many bosses are taking the advantage of this stupid govenrment policy and to their benefit.