TR EMERITUS – Untold Hard Truths From Around The World – 淡马锡评论 – formerly Temasek Review

GDP growth & the living standards of average Singaporean

By Kenneth Jeyaretnam, Voting RP blog Singapore’s per capita GDP is one of the highest in the world but at the same time Freedom House rates Singapore as near the bottom of the partially free countries with a score of 4 (where 1 is most free) for civil liberties and 5 for political rights. However what is noteworthy is that Singapore appears to be an outlier. If we look at the top twenty countries by nominal GDP in 2008 as measured by the IMF, World Bank and CIA, we find that between 85% and 95% of the countries on the list rated between 1 and 1.5 for the combined average rating for political rights and civil liberties. The countries that did not fall into the category of free states were all oil exporters with low populations such as Qatar and Kuwait (though Kuwait rates as slightly freer than Singapore). You can argue about the direction of causation. However also consider that Singapore finds itself in the company of some of the world’s poorest countries in its ranking in the Freedom House Index. These include Pakistan, Nigeria, Haiti, Uganda and the Central African Republic. Now Iet’s examine the quality of Singapore’s per capita GDP. Using the Yearbook of Statistics, 2009, I computed that the share of GDP going to foreigners in 2008 was approximately 45%. If we divide indigenous GDP by the total Singapore residential population of approximately 3.6 million we arrive at a figure of approximately SGD 38,000 or USD 27,400 at average 2008 exchange rates. This would push Singapore’s ranking in the charts down from around 22 on average to between 25 and 30, about the same level as Israel and below Hong Kong. This accords more with the fact that employment income’s share of GDP is only some 40% and domestic consumption (which is a good proxy for employment income) is about the same level. And our inequality of income is the second highest in the world (behind only Hong Kong) and ahead of both the United States and China, both of which have huge regional variations. According to a UBS survey recently the living standard of the median Singaporean lagged behind his counterpart in South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong. After adjusting for the differing costs of a similar basket of goods, his income was only on a par with a Malaysian worker. In recent years our GDP growth rate has been high but this has mainly been achieved by adding more inputs of capital and labour (from abroad) rather than by raising productivity which stagnated in 2007 and declined sharply in 2008 and 2009. The current government’s economic model appears to be one of maximising GDP growth at all costs without paying attention to the question of whether this is raising the living standards of the average Singaporean or the effect it is having on the quality of life. Now you might have listened to this and say it is all very well to criticise but how would the Reform Party make a difference? Given Singapore’s peculiar set of economic circumstances what choice did we have? Could we do better? I would like to respond by outlining a number of policy areas in which we would advocate a different path. We believe this would lead to better outcomes for the bulk of ordinary Singaporeans. The Reform Party is a liberal free market party and that our openness to foreign investment and trade would not change. Singapore’s small size and lack of natural resources militates against anything else. In certain areas we believe in less state control not more. The Reform Party would, if elected to power, adopt the following policies: Read rest of article here. Read More →

Foreign workers put up free and new flags for the entire block!

I refer to the article PAP RCs hanging flags to generate fake patriotism for National Day on Aug 5. To add on what my RC in Yishun North actually did was they employed foreign workers to help put up the free and new flags for the whole entire block! This was already been practicing for around a year and after the season, the residents are supposed to bring down the flags just to prevent being fined for the extended period. Danny Read More →

EC Harris: Singapore building costs are 10th highest globally

Singapore has been named Asia's most expensive country (excluding Japan) to build in, with the economic rebound and demand for construction services conspiring to drive tender prices higher here. Consultancy EC Harris' international construction cost report puts Singapore ahead of Hong Kong, which came in second in Asia excluding Japan, and ranks the Republic as the 10th costliest country globally for construction costs. Switzerland took top spot as the most expensive global location in the rankings, with Hong Kong coming in 21st and South Korea 25th.As EC Harris does not have projects operating in Japan — where construction costs are 20 percent to 30 percent higher than those in Singapore and Hong Kong — the country is excluded from the survey. Source: The China Post Read More →