TR EMERITUS

Many developing countries need funds for their economic development. They issue bonds in US dollar in the international markets. When the US dollar rises, as has happened in 2022, the developing countries find it costly to repay the borrowings. Some have defaulted in the process. Many developing countries have the means to mobilize their internal savings for their economic development, but failed to do so. What happened? In any developing country, there is a middle class that have personal savings. They put their savings in local banks at low interest rates. Part of the savings are invested in the international markets. The wealthy in the poor countries put their savings in international banks and invest in overseas assets. The money in the international financial markets return to the developing countries as loans that are denominated in a hard currency, mainly US dollar, at high interest rate. In essence the international financial system uses the savings from developing countries to provide expensive loans in hard currencies. It is probable that some development funds are taken from the excess savings of the developed countries. However, the domestic savings of the developing countries could be mobilized to reduce the dependence on foreign funds. How can this be carried out? 1. The developing country can set up a development fund and issue equity and bonds 2. The bonds will carry an interest rate that is higher than the rate offered by the local banks. 3. The equity will earn the return from the productive assets. If the development fund is managed professionally and ethically, it should attract the local investors, and maybe international investors. The developing countries are now paying a high price for funds from international institutions. It will be less costly for them to tap their own development fund. They will reduce their borrowing cost by removing the excess profit margin earned by the international institutions. While this approach may be difficult to implement, it is not impossible. I hope that the some of the developing countries can succeed with this approach.   Tan Kin Lian      Read More →

I read with sadness the Editorial, “The conflict that has dragged on too long” (ST, Dec 6). Undoubtedly, any war is disastrous, having no advantages whatsoever. Besides the huge loss of “countless” lives (including humans: civilians and military soldiers, and animals), crops, precious properties and catastrophic damage to the earth planet, the Ukraine war have created indescribable fears and tremendous negative sequelae to the world. Since war is so terrible, and it has detrimental consequences. Then, why Russia wants to wage/initiate war against Ukraine? There are two main possible reasons: Russia feels that its sovereignty, territory and national interests would be threatened, as Ukraine had expressed its intention and had been planning to join NATO. Once Ukraine joins NATO, NATO could deploy its nuclear weapons at the doorstep of Russia. The long and complicated historical entanglement between Russia and Ukraine have provided a golden opportunity for Vladimir Putin to “liberate and rescue” the Russian ethnicity in the territories of Ukraine, and fulfilling Putin’s ambition to glorify the history of the old United States of Soviet Union. Needless to say, the Ukraine war has dragged for more than nine months still never shed light on any negotiation of peace. We need to ask a pertinent key question: Why Putin or Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy is not sick and tired of the heinous war? I believe both of them (or the both countries) wish to end the war in a way that preserving their own prestige and dignity. However, for the near-term, it shows no good sign of it. Nevertheless, if the Ukraine war is aimed or expected to be shortened/ended, I assume the following could be the “Wish List” for the both countries, Russia and Ukraine: - Of course, on the Russia’s side, Putin intrinsically wish that the international community, especially the US and its close allies could lift their economic sanctions on Russia, and release all the frozen or confiscated financial assets which belong to him and his fellow officials. Simultaneously, he might want a mutually agreed treaty to be formulated which will restrict Ukraine to accede to NATO permanently. On the Ukraine side, Zelenskyy might wish all the cities (Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia) which had been captured or annexed by the Russian Federation to be unconditionally returned. Ukraine also hopes that external financial assistance will be rendered from IMF (The International Monetary Fund), US and NATO to help Ukraine facilitating its redevelopment or rebuilding of its vastly destroyed cities in all aspects if the war ends. Despite all the above, the international community also hope that Ukraine and Russia could uphold their sincerity and quickly resolve their resentments, grievances or old scores at the negotiation table. This will greatly facilitate the stability of world order, oil prices, foods supply and the vibrancy of global supply chain.     Teo Kueh Liang (Mr)    Read More →

Interesting to find a number of complaints from locals regarding imported global or foreign talents doing food delivery jobs. [LINK] Complaints: 1. Too many JHKS(jiu hu kias), Malaysians speaking and typing in Mandarin and mix only with their own gang. 2. PRCs also now doing food delivery! 3. Ang mo also doing food delivery! 4. Vietnamese and other nationalities also seen doing food delivery! Summary of the complaints is less and less orders for delivery. Understand from the market is that many are locals! They are either new citizens or PRs. And also on driving PHV, we understand many foreigners or PRs are parking their names and getting visas from companies. There are all kind of freelances paying companies to park their names there doing renovation, plumbing, PHV etc. Many local PMETs replaced by foreigners or cannot find jobs have relegated themselves to PHV and food delivery. It looks like the foreigners (PRs and new citizens) are now also competing for locals last line of survival/defence. Singaporeans are fearful and timid, they rather downgrade to menial jobs like food delivery or PHV, look down by friends and relatives than to vote against PAPPY. And although many people understand the problems, they refuse to act when coming to general election, they rather suffer in silence. As a result, massive of import of foreigners have not gone down but rather they have increased the numbers of imports, speed up the conversion process. They rebrand them as global talents, and you can see these global talents are taking jobs from top level to low level, leaving nothing for locals. Thank you for being timid and fearful, your plight is your own doing. If you can't make a living anymore or could not survive the high cost with so little rice in your bowl, we are very glad. Thanks for voting PAPPY, you deserve whats happening today. Remember, suck thumb and dont complain online, because many will ask you, "Who did you vote for?" Enjoy the boiling the pot!   WuJi      Read More →