By Imelda Saad | Posted: 19 November 2010 2218 hrs
SINGAPORE: Minister
Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has described it as "pipe dream" for Singapore to
develop its own companies and expect them to compete with successful
ones in other parts of the world.
Speaking at Hewlett-Packard's
40th anniversary in Singapore, he said that is one reason why the early
strategy to develop Singapore's economy was to attract multi-national
companies.
And as the years went by, the quality of investments
Singapore attracts must change to keep pace with the expectations of
workers.
He said MNCs based here should offer higher value-added
services and manufacturing to ensure Singapore can stay ahead of
regional competition.
Another key strategy, said Mr Lee, is to
use the English language to train workers at all levels.
"Had we
taken Chinese as our working language, there would not be a Singapore
today as it is. How would we make a living? How would we connect with
the world?
"But we speak English and of course we got Chinese as
a second language, so we connect with them, not speak with them at the
same level as they do, but we get by!"
- CNA/fa
Luckily spore never have 1 language as a first language, if not, spore will be like them.
Yes agreed that English is a MUST to connect to western world, so as chinese that connecting to the china. India and Japan and Hong kong, we use english as a tools for communication. Even Indonesia and malaysia, we use english too.