Singapore can look forward to good year
By S Ramesh | Posted: 30 April 2010 1837 hrs
SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has declared this year a
"good year", with Singapore emerging from the financial storm in a
strong position.
In his May Day message, he urged Singaporeans to take the opportunity to
push forward with improving productivity and transforming the economy.
Prime Minister Lee's optimism comes on the back of a revised growth
forecast of 7 to 9 per cent for Singapore economy this year.
But he cautioned Singaporeans to see the remarkable performance in
perspective.
The first-quarter growth of 13 per cent year on-year reflects the
volatility of a small open economy.
And Mr Lee said some sectors like electronics and biomedical sciences
expanded sharply but others had not done quite as well.
Prime Minister Lee believes that with everyone's concerted effort,
Singapore can maintain its lead.
While firms push on with the productivity effort, workers need to
improve and achieve greater mastery at their jobs.
Workers' upgrading is a marathon without a finish line, said Prime
Minister Lee.
He noted that during the downturn last year, workers had taken the
opportunity to upgrade their skills.
Mr Lee said this momentum must continue even as the economy has
improved.
He noted that with the strong pickup, many companies are restoring the
wage cuts while others are awarding bonuses and increments, depending on
their improved performances.
He said these companies have remembered the sacrifices made by workers
during the crisis.
These actions are strengthening the trust between workers and employers,
said Prime Minister Lee.
He urged companies to work with unions to build up variable bonuses, and
structure their wage systems to be more flexible over the longer term.
Mr Lee credited tripartism as a key competitive advantage in Singapore,
and promised to continue to pay special attention to low-wage workers.
"Singapore has successfully tackled past challenges because of our
strong tripartite partnership. Unions work with employers and the
government to enlarge the pie so that all will have more to share," he
said.
"Investors and businesses value highly our collaborative spirit, facing
difficulties and solving problems together. Our track record of
tripartism is a key competitive advantage that wins investments and
brings in jobs for Singaporeans," added Mr Lee.
"Our union leaders understand what Singapore's prosperity, and our
workers' well-being, depend upon. They know that there is no substitute
for hard work, ingenuity and enterprise. They have done much to help
workers understand the economic trends affecting them, and encourage
them to go for retraining and upgrading," said Mr Lee.
- CNA/ir
Hopefully the economy will do well this year and the salaries of the people increase accordingly. Living in Singapore has become more and more expensive despite the recession. Now that we're projecting a good year, we need to regain some of our losses.
Can't really believe him, the world is not out of recession.