Singapore Trails Hong Kong in Diversifying Economy
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Singapore Trails Hong Kong in Diversifying Economy (Update1)
By Yoolim Lee
March 14 (Bloomberg) -- Singapore, once so staid it banned bungee jumping, has cut taxes, opened its doors to casinos and hired fund managers to oversee billions of dollars of state funds to help attract international investment.
While the city-state has made progress toward becoming a more vibrant financial hub, it's still falling behind perennial rival Hong Kong.
Assets held by Hong Kong fund managers tripled to $579 billion from 2000 to 2005, while Singapore's assets more than doubled to $472 billion, according to regulators in the two cities. Hong Kong's stock-market value has swelled to more than five times Singapore's.
The Singapore government's grip on the economy, which extends from the city's largest companies to its newspapers, stifles the entrepreneurialism that fuels Hong Kong's success, says investor Anil Thadani. While Singapore has loosened the reins, it's not moving fast enough to match Hong Kong, he says.
``Singapore has been unnecessarily restrictive,'' says Thadani, chairman of Singapore-based Symphony Capital Partners (Asia) Pte, which invests in Asian health-care companies and luxury resorts. ``People who are told from birth what to do and say aren't likely to be self-starting entrepreneurs. We need a generation to change the mindset.''
With its government-driven economy, Singapore can't rival Hong Kong in breeding private companies, says Andy Xie, a Hong Kong-based economist. Li Ka-shing, Asia's richest man, built an empire spanning from telecommunications and property to retail after arriving in Hong Kong in 1940 as a refugee from China.
Government Initiatives
``A strong government and a strong private sector cannot coexist,'' says Shanghai-born Xie, who left his previous job as Morgan Stanley's chief Asia economist in October after writing an e-mail that criticized Singapore. ``In Singapore, it's all about the government taking initiatives.''
The biggest threat to Hong Kong may be air pollution drifting south from mainland China. Merrill Lynch & Co. cut its ratings on three Hong Kong developers in November because of concerns that educated workers would leave the city to escape the smog.
Singapore, a former British colony with 4.5 million residents, became part of Malaysia in 1963 and declared its independence two years later. Hong Kong was ruled by the U.K. until 1997, when the city of 6.9 million people became a special administrative region of China.
The two cities have much in common besides their British roots. Both transformed themselves into modern societies in a matter of decades, and both economies are built on trade, finance and international investment.
Comparable Growth
Hong Kong's gross domestic product will equal about $37,385 per person this year based on purchasing power parity, compared with $31,165 in Singapore, according to International Monetary Fund estimates. The figures rank seventh and 21st worldwide.
The cities have also recorded comparable growth. Hong Kong's economy expanded an average of 5.3 percent annually from 2000 to 2005, compared with Singapore's 5.1 percent rate.
Singapore's expansion has been built on the foundation of government planning.
Temasek Holdings Pte, the state investment arm which manages about $84 billion of assets, owns controlling stakes in seven of Singapore's 10 largest companies, including Singapore Airlines Ltd. and DBS Group Holdings Ltd.
Casinos
Singapore says it wants a more diversified economy to reduce its dependence on makers of semiconductors, computer disk drives and mobile phones. The government in 2005 lifted a 40- year ban on casinos, attracting about $6.6 billion of investment from Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Malaysia's Genting Bhd. It's also luring companies in industries such as digital media and biotechnology.
``The greatest challenge to Singapore today is to get our people to move away from the old model,'' Lee Kuan Yew, who founded modern Singapore and led the city-state for three decades, said in 2005. ``Just being clean, green, efficient and cost-effective is not enough. You've also got to be innovative, creative, entrepreneurial.''
Lee, 83, who governed from 1959 to 1990, transformed the city-state from a swampy fishing and trading town into a regional banking and technology hub and the world's biggest container port. He still holds the title of minister mentor, and his son, Lee Hsien Loong, is prime minister.
After independence, Lee developed national industries such as electronics and chemical making, attracting companies including Royal Dutch Shell Plc with cheap land and tax breaks. Exports helped Singapore's economy swell to S$210 billion ($137 billion) in 2006 from S$8.9 billion in 1965. -
Interventionist Government'
``Instead of development that's entrepreneurial and bottom- up, Singapore encourages development that involves bigger investment,'' says Julian Jessop, chief international economist at Capital Economics Ltd. in London. ``A strong and interventionist government can actually be a good thing.''
Singapore is the only government in Asia with AAA sovereign debt ratings -- the highest -- from Moody's Investors Service, Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings. That stability, along with government incentives, is helping the city-state attract companies such as Clariden Leu AG.
Clariden, a private bank owned by Credit Suisse Group, chose Singapore for its first overseas branch in 2005.
``Why did we come to Singapore? Dependability, reliability, stability, predictability,'' says Roland Knecht, Clariden's Asia head. ``These are things which are very, very important if you want to do private banking.''
Jim Rogers, a New York investor who co-founded the Quantum hedge fund with George Soros in the 1970s, is weighing the pros and cons of Singapore as he prepares to move his family to Asia.
Quality of Life
Rogers, 64, says he plans to settle in Singapore or Hong Kong because he wants his three-year-old daughter to grow up in a Chinese-speaking city and learn Mandarin, which will be the world's most important language in her lifetime. The child, Hilton Augusta, already speaks Mandarin with her full-time Chinese nanny.
``The problem for me with Hong Kong is the horrible pollution,'' he says. ``As far as Singapore is concerned, the air is clean and everything works. It's a fantastic place if you are doing something they want you to do.''
Rogers says Singapore suffers from state control.
``There is no question that Hong Kong has a much more open and competitive market than Singapore,'' he says. ``Singapore has been overprotecting its banks and citizens for decades.''
Loosening Up
Singapore has relaxed some laws as the city-state strives to soften its uptight image.
The government in 2004 eased a 12-year ban on the sale of chewing gum, letting citizens buy sugarless and tooth-whitening brands with a doctor's prescription. It ended prohibitions on bar-top dancing and bungee jumping the same year.
Other attempts to loosen up have been less successful. Crazy Horse Paris, which became the city's first topless revue in 2005, closed last month because of poor attendance. Eng Wah Organization Ltd., a local partner in the venture, blamed government restrictions on advertising.
Singapore has set its sights on becoming a center for wealth management, education and health care by exploiting its position as a link between China, India and the Middle East. About 2.5 billion people live within a seven-hour flight of the city-state. It aims to triple tourism revenue to S$30 billion by 2015.
Since the government identified biomedical science as a new growth engine in 2000, production of drugs and medical devices has quadrupled to S$23 billion.
Biotechnology Hub
The government invested S$500 million in a seven-building science park, called Biopolis, which houses the country's top research institutes. That helped it attract more than 100 drugmakers and biomedical companies, including Merck & Co. and Pfizer Inc., according to the Economic Development Board, the state agency responsible for winning international investment.
Sixteen top U.S. and U.K. researchers have also relocated to Singapore. They include Alan Colman, who helped create Dolly the cloned sheep; Sydney Brenner, who won the 2002 Nobel Prize for medicine; and cancer geneticists Neal Copland and Nancy Jenkins.
Singapore this year was named one of five key locations for biotechnology research by Fierce Biotech, a U.S.-based industry journal. The four other locations are Scotland and the U.S. states of California, Florida and Washington.
The Government of Singapore Investment Corp., which manages the city's reserves, placed about S$40 billion with private fund managers from 1999 to 2004 to boost assets managed in Singapore.
``Our first priority is to strengthen Singapore's position as a leading financial center in Asia,'' Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said in November 2004 as he announced one of the placements. -
China Gateway
As Singapore strives to meet that goal, it has to overcome Hong Kong's advantage as the gateway to China, the world's fastest growing major economy, and its 1.3 billion people.
``Hong Kong is China,'' says Mark Mobius, who oversees $30 billion in emerging-market equities at Templeton Asset Management Ltd. ``That is the market to be right now.''
Hong Kong's stock-market capitalization of $2.1 trillion dwarfs Singapore's $393 billion. Chinese state companies such as Bank of China Ltd., which have chosen Hong Kong for international stock listings, are widening the gap.
``Singapore is not going to be the primary financial capital of the Pacific Rim,'' says Donald Straszheim, who is spearheading China investments for Newport Beach, California- based Roth Capital Partners LLC. ``That title is going to go to Hong Kong. Hong Kong already has the institutional capital that a world financial center requires.''
New Companies
About 19,500 new companies were formed in Singapore in 2005, a fraction of the 73,360 local companies incorporated in Hong Kong, government figures show.
Singapore still relies on manufacturing for 28 percent of GDP. In Hong Kong, that share was less than 10 percent last year.
That leaves Singapore vulnerable to competition from lower- cost nations such as China and India, says Asia economist Xie. He predicts Singapore's economic growth may slow to as little as 2 percent in the next decade as electronics makers leave the city.
``I seriously doubt that Singapore will have much manufacturing in 10 years because it cannot compete on cost,'' Xie says.
Singapore has sought to reduce costs by cutting corporate tax rates by six percentage points since 2000 to 20 percent, narrowing the gap with Hong Kong's 17.5 percent rate. Singapore said Feb. 15 it would drop the rate to 18 percent in 2008.
Hong Kong's Challenges
In Hong Kong, unfettered growth has its downside. Luxury residential rents are 54 percent higher than in Singapore, and prime office rents are more than double, says Pamela Tsui, a Hong Kong-based researcher at Knight Frank LLP, a real-estate consulting firm.
Worsening air pollution, caused largely by factories across the border in China, is prompting some expatriates to relocate to cleaner Singapore.
Hong Kong last year dropped 12 places to 32nd in a survey of the most-attractive cities for expatriates because of poor air quality, personnel consultant ECA International said last April. Singapore topped the list, which ranked 257 cities based on factors such as climate, health care and availability of goods.
Poor Air Quality
Air pollution in central Hong Kong was ``very high'' or ``severe'' on 41 days in 2006, up from 21 days in 2000, according to the city's Environmental Protection Department. At such levels the government advises people with asthma or cardiovascular disease stay indoors.
``The air quality in Hong Kong is now regularly so poor that the long-term competitiveness of this city-state is, in our minds, in some doubt,'' Merrill Lynch analyst Spencer White said Nov. 21 in a note to clients.
In Singapore, the financial-services industry has relied on the government to spur growth. Under incentives introduced in 2002, fund managers with at least S$5 billion in assets are exempt from taxes on fees they earn in the city-state.
In 2001, the Economic Development Board introduced a co- financing plan for entrepreneurs, investing as much as one dollar for each dollar raised from investors to a limit of S$300,000. The EDB created a pool of S$110 million to fund 161 companies.
Government incentives have attracted entrepreneurs such as Vikas Goel, the Indian founder of eSys Technologies Pte, the world's largest distributor of hard disk drives for desktop computers. The company, which has $1.7 billion in annual sales, received tax breaks for putting its headquarters in Singapore.
``We went shopping around the world, including Hong Kong, Switzerland and Dubai,'' says Goel, 36. ``EDB offered us a lot incentives, and our overall costs are actually 40 percent less than those in China because logistics and financing costs offset labor costs.''
Pumping government cash into startups only perpetuates reliance on the state, says Symphony Capital's Thadani.
``You can't buy or create entrepreneurialism,'' says Thadani, who was born in India. ``You have to create an environment where entrepreneurs can fail and flourish automatically.''
To contact the reporter on this story: Yoolim Lee in Singapore at [email protected] .
Last Updated: March 13, 2007 20:57 EDT
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aKp5x.9MAWOI&refer=home -
i nearly fell from chair when read the topics!!
But I think just the opposite.HK too concentrate on financial services(CE Donald Tsang said in the forum with prospective Chief Executive candidate that if New York and London as a financial center can feed 10 million,why not HK of 6.9 million??)
logistics and ,tourism.Recently HK promote creative industries,like film making,
etc.But how much jobs can be created in long term?
i first read the articl from The Best salesman for Spore
1.The author chose to omit the FOREX market
pl read Strait Times 09 march 2007,page H34.
In last April ,SG is behind New York,London and Tokyo.
But some predicts SG may overtake Tokyo.
SG was just ahead HK
in 1998
The author stressed so much on fund amount managed by HK and stock
market value much higher than SG.I agree it is true.Other large centres include the US (with a 18.2% global share), Japan (7.6%) and Singapore (5.7%) (Chart 2). Most of the remainder was accounted for by trading in Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, France and Hong Kong.
2.Manufacturing is still SG life line
The ivory head analyst Andy Xie predicts factory in SG will die.Singapore still relies on manufacturing for 28 percent of GDP. In Hong Kong, that share was less than 10 percent last year.
But the results from SG factory make me think otherwise.
That leaves Singapore vulnerable to competition from lower- cost nations such as China and India, says Asia economist Xie. He predicts Singapore's economic growth may slow to as little as 2 percent in the next decade as electronics makers leave the city.
TAXABLE COMPANIES BY ECONOMIC SECTOR
APPENDIX 9
TAXABLE COMPANIES BY ECONOMIC SECTOR
ASSESSMENTS AS AT 31 MARCH 2006 FOR THE YEAR OF ASSESSMENT 2005
Manufacturing 20.5% assessable income S$7,898,577,000
Lets say tax exemption make the figure assessable income
drop to S$6 billion, the tax chargeable from factory
is S$1.2 billion,or 3 % of gov expenditure!!
Factory support SG econmony a lot.
Dunt foregt the multiple effects!!
3.HK public finance is in bad shape
HK has been selling governemnt assets for window dressing,
like tunnels,shopping center in all public housing,land sales procees
for operateing expenditures,etc
Remember,HK need not to feed armed force!!
4.SG economy is much diversify
Talk to u later. -
The only reason why manufacturing has yet to die in Singapore is because the Govt bribes companies to come here and set up shop in an otherwise extremely expensive environment to set up shop in.
And as time goes by and we constantly have to take up the more higher end factories, fewer employment opportunities as the factories will get more automated.
Of course there will come a day where we will be unable to attract anyone, and it is safe to say that Singapore will not be a much of an economy to speak of by then.
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fro infor SGX asset is $400 plus billion not the $393...
-
The delimma about comparing HKG and Singapore is that 1 is a island state while HKG tied its faith with China that does not have to worry about nation building. such as water supply,....maintaining its own reserve, national defence bla bla bla....I am not sure if you can take out all these factors and said HKG is doing better.
-
But having these issues would not make it harder to a financial hub nor diversify away from manufacturing. There are definitely factors that can be compared.Originally posted by Arapahoe:The delimma about comparing HKG and Singapore is that 1 is a island state while HKG tied its faith with China that does not have to worry about nation building. such as water supply,....maintaining its own reserve, national defence bla bla bla....I am not sure if you can take out all these factors and said HKG is doing better. -
All the supporters of manufacturing keep forgetting one thing: Manufacturing brings jobs but doesn't quite bring in cash. Sure the Govt gets taxes off the exports, but services and high tech industries (meaning product development and not manufacturing... seems that the Govt uses tech industry with manufacturing irritatingly interchangeably true to its nature to obscure the real message) guarantee far more far reaching returns. Alas we will never have our own Microsoft or Google. Such things would never arise in Singapore. Not because we don't have the brains or market, but because no one has the cash or the guts to start up one. To start up one, one would have to uproot oneself to go overseas to find the funding and support. You would never get it here.
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HKG is indeed better
Sillypore is good or number 1 while it lasted because we were too strict, too sanitized.....everyone just follows orders and no questions asked....
Now is the time where productivity is just not enough......chaos and ingenuity will count far more now, things which Sillypore does not have.....one thing sure Sillypore is good at is scoring straight As.....
As a boss, I have seen time and again...including fellow boss friends or mine and other high level boss clients of mine is how these straight As students stumble when told to solve a real life problem....simply useless and of no value......
Better to trust the likes of entrepreneurs like Sim Wong Hoo and the brothers who started Charles & Keith with Sillypore's future, not these straight As students....
Many bosses I have heard are sending directives out to their HRs to reject straight As and only emplopy those who can solve real world problems....
Only then can Sillypore start being number one again....case in point, Changi Airport is no longer No.1 Hahahah and what's even better, KLIA is ranked higher than Sillypore....way to go man, Malaysia boleh, Sillypore tak boleh -
``Singapore has been unnecessarily restrictive,'' says Thadani, chairman of Singapore-based Symphony Capital Partners (Asia) Pte, which invests in Asian health-care companies and luxury resorts. ``People who are told from birth what to do and say aren't likely to be self-starting entrepreneurs. We need a generation to change the mindset.''Originally posted by kilua:Singapore Trails Hong Kong in Diversifying Economy (Update1)
By Yoolim Lee
March 14 (Bloomberg) -- Singapore, once so staid it banned bungee jumping, has cut taxes, opened its doors to casinos and hired fund managers to oversee billions of dollars of state funds to help attract international investment.
While the city-state has made progress toward becoming a more vibrant financial hub, it's still falling behind perennial rival Hong Kong.
Assets held by Hong Kong fund managers tripled to $579 billion from 2000 to 2005, while Singapore's assets more than doubled to $472 billion, according to regulators in the two cities. Hong Kong's stock-market value has swelled to more than five times Singapore's.
The Singapore government's grip on the economy, which extends from the city's largest companies to its newspapers, stifles the entrepreneurialism that fuels Hong Kong's success, says investor Anil Thadani. While Singapore has loosened the reins, it's not moving fast enough to match Hong Kong, he says.
``Singapore has been unnecessarily restrictive,'' says Thadani, chairman of Singapore-based Symphony Capital Partners (Asia) Pte, which invests in Asian health-care companies and luxury resorts. ``People who are told from birth what to do and say aren't likely to be self-starting entrepreneurs. We need a generation to change the mindset.''
With its government-driven economy, Singapore can't rival Hong Kong in breeding private companies, says Andy Xie, a Hong Kong-based economist. Li Ka-shing, Asia's richest man, built an empire spanning from telecommunications and property to retail after arriving in Hong Kong in 1940 as a refugee from China.
Government Initiatives
``A strong government and a strong private sector cannot coexist,'' says Shanghai-born Xie, who left his previous job as Morgan Stanley's chief Asia economist in October after writing an e-mail that criticized Singapore. ``In Singapore, it's all about the government taking initiatives.''
The biggest threat to Hong Kong may be air pollution drifting south from mainland China. Merrill Lynch & Co. cut its ratings on three Hong Kong developers in November because of concerns that educated workers would leave the city to escape the smog.
Singapore, a former British colony with 4.5 million residents, became part of Malaysia in 1963 and declared its independence two years later. Hong Kong was ruled by the U.K. until 1997, when the city of 6.9 million people became a special administrative region of China.
The two cities have much in common besides their British roots. Both transformed themselves into modern societies in a matter of decades, and both economies are built on trade, finance and international investment.
Comparable Growth
Hong Kong's gross domestic product will equal about $37,385 per person this year based on purchasing power parity, compared with $31,165 in Singapore, according to International Monetary Fund estimates. The figures rank seventh and 21st worldwide.
The cities have also recorded comparable growth. Hong Kong's economy expanded an average of 5.3 percent annually from 2000 to 2005, compared with Singapore's 5.1 percent rate.
Singapore's expansion has been built on the foundation of government planning.
Temasek Holdings Pte, the state investment arm which manages about $84 billion of assets, owns controlling stakes in seven of Singapore's 10 largest companies, including Singapore Airlines Ltd. and DBS Group Holdings Ltd.
Casinos
Singapore says it wants a more diversified economy to reduce its dependence on makers of semiconductors, computer disk drives and mobile phones. The government in 2005 lifted a 40- year ban on casinos, attracting about $6.6 billion of investment from Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Malaysia's Genting Bhd. It's also luring companies in industries such as digital media and biotechnology.
``The greatest challenge to Singapore today is to get our people to move away from the old model,'' Lee Kuan Yew, who founded modern Singapore and led the city-state for three decades, said in 2005. ``Just being clean, green, efficient and cost-effective is not enough. You've also got to be innovative, creative, entrepreneurial.''
Lee, 83, who governed from 1959 to 1990, transformed the city-state from a swampy fishing and trading town into a regional banking and technology hub and the world's biggest container port. He still holds the title of minister mentor, and his son, Lee Hsien Loong, is prime minister.
After independence, Lee developed national industries such as electronics and chemical making, attracting companies including Royal Dutch Shell Plc with cheap land and tax breaks. Exports helped Singapore's economy swell to S$210 billion ($137 billion) in 2006 from S$8.9 billion in 1965.
If singaporeans mindset were to change as what Mr Thadani had said....I think pap will get very very worry very.........
Their policy is .......nobody on the island will or must not protest against the ruling party's decisions!!! -
Originally posted by Lowclassman:
Nothing will ever change.
[b]``Singapore has been unnecessarily restrictive,'' says Thadani, chairman of Singapore-based Symphony Capital Partners (Asia) Pte, which invests in Asian health-care companies and luxury resorts. ``People who are told from birth what to do and say aren't likely to be self-starting entrepreneurs. We need a generation to change the mindset.''
If singaporeans mindset were to change as what Mr Thadani had said....I think pap will get very very worry very......... Their policy is .......nobody on the island will or must not protest against the ruling party's decisions!!! [/b] -
It's ok. No need to be No. 1 all the time. Slow & steady poon pee pee mah........
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1.No country/place is irreplaceable.
Read history then u know.So it is wrong to say:
March 16, 2007,HK's role as financial, shipping, trade center irreplaceable: PRC Premier
2.Wrong to concentrate on financial, shipping, trade center
While many jobs can be created from the above,
manufacturing must not be over looked.
HKers and HK gov always think it is ''low class ''to develop manufacturing
in HK.Good luck to them. -
Originally posted by lionnoisy:
Your grasp of economics is either extremely poor or you just support the Govt's stance with ridiculous unwavering stance.
1.[b]No country/place is irreplaceable.
Read history then u know.So it is wrong to say:
March 16, 2007,HK's role as financial, shipping, trade center irreplaceable: PRC Premier
2.Wrong to concentrate on financial, shipping, trade center
While many jobs can be created from the above,
manufacturing must not be over looked.
HKers and HK gov always think it is ''low class ''to develop manufacturing
in HK.Good luck to them.
[/b]
Between finance and manufacturing, which generates more cash? Unless you refer to a company as mighty as Rolls Royce which neither HK and Singapore do not have. As it is, their GDP far exceeds ours, without manufacturing.
Then add to the fact that you only get serious money out taxing the company directly, you obviously get the raw end of the bargain. What do we get? Taxing the manufactured materials, while the company laughs to the bank thanks to generous concessions/bribes/subsidies bestowed upon by our glorious Govt.
Glory to the PAP! -
Every job can save a family .Every taxation income is important.
SG walk with so many feet,''low class'' manufacturing,
George Lucas high tech studio,R&D,Finance,trading,logistics,
u name it.Which trade/industry that can make $$$ in long
term SG dunt have??
2.HK limited by Beijing mandate
The Central gov says HK shall be centres of trading,finanace,
tourism and logistics.HK gov and people just concentrate
on these sectors.No more.
But are there enough jobs to feed HK 7 million peoples,with
some few hundred come fromPRC DAILY!!
Chief Ex Donald Tsang recently said in forum with Alan Leung.
''If international centers like New York and London can feed
10 million,why HK cant??''.It is a baseless confidences.
3.Lack of gov whole heartly support
From time to time,there are some industry to be
promoted but not in long life.
Like recently, after few HK films got award,
some $$ was set aside to promote films making etc.
Why?HK gov and people dunt believe gov supported industries.
Thats why all support just for showing.
If can succeed ok.If cannot succeed,also ok.
Anyway ,it is just to use up the budget!
4Which trade /industry u cant find in SG?
SG is so diversify her economny now.
HK is very limited.
Pl read the RECURIT in HK before u say more!! -
Originally posted by lionnoisy:
Oh I can pick a few. We don't have chip design centres in Singapore. In fact, anything with R&D other than Biotech and some defence industry, we have none. By the way, these reap more profits than manufacturing. Unfortunately, you miss the point. Hong Kong chose to concentrate on these industries because they are sustainable industries. Manufacturing isn't. Look at any of the Western nations. They are fighting an uphill battle trying to keep manufacturing jobs because it has become too expensive to have factories in those countries.
Every job can save a family .Every taxation income is important.
SG walk with so many feet,''low class'' manufacturing,
George Lucas high tech studio,R&D,Finance,trading,logistics,
u name it.Which trade/industry that can make $$$ in long
term SG dunt have??
2.[b]HK limited by Beijing mandate
The Central gov says HK shall be centres of trading,finanace,
tourism and logistics.HK gov and people just concentrate
on these sectors.No more.
But are there enough jobs to feed HK 7 million peoples,with
some few hundred come fromPRC DAILY!!
Chief Ex Donald Tsang recently said in forum with Alan Leung.
''If international centers like New York and London can feed
10 million,why HK cant??''.It is a baseless confidences.
3.Lack of gov whole heartly support
From time to time,there are some industry to be
promoted but not in long life.
Like recently, after few HK films got award,
some $$ was set aside to promote films making etc.
Why?HK gov and people dunt believe gov supported industries.
Thats why all support just for showing.
If can succeed ok.If cannot succeed,also ok.
Anyway ,it is just to use up the budget!
4Which trade /industry u cant find in SG?
SG is so diversify her economny now.
HK is very limited.
Pl read the RECURIT in HK before u say more!![/b]
Every Job can save a family? Where have you been? Costs are rising in Singapore, and on the other hand, you have to contend with stagnant wages. Save what? More like work to the death. -
<"The greatest challenge to Singapore today is to get our people to move away from the old model,'' Lee Kuan Yew, who founded modern Singapore and led the city-state for three decades, said in 2005.>
i would say the greatest challenge to Sg today is to get our govt to loosen its grip on the people. The govt should move away from the old model too! -
2.Pre--lim replyOriginally posted by Fingolfin_Noldor:Oh I can pick a few. We don't have chip design centres in Singapore.
h.
.
* Home to 4 of the world's top 10 fabless IC design companies
* 10% global market share for semiconductor foundry wafer output
* Home to the world's top 3 wafer foundry companies
* Home to the world's top 3 sub-contract assembly-and-test companies -
Only 3. All foreign. None local. And then when the companies get the crunch, they pack up and leave. Then again no local is to be expected granted funding is near negligible and Creative technologies is dying slowly.
You do realise that Taiwan and Korea have an order magnitude many more? Not least TSMC and UMC and Samsung are huge giants? I wouldn't go as far as call this diversified. -
2.Which company have left?Chartered Semi Conductor opened from Fab oneOriginally posted by Fingolfin_Noldor:Only 3. All foreign. None local. And then when the companies get the crunch, they pack up and leave. Then again no local is to be expected granted funding is near negligible and Creative technologies is dying slowly.
You do realise that Taiwan and Korea have an order magnitude many more? Not least TSMC and UMC and Samsung are huge giants? I wouldn't go as far as call this diversified.
some 20 years ago to now Fab 7.Besides SMC lost some $$ recently,
dunt u know in the good old times,IC makers can recover captials in 2 or
3 years?It is what I read from A boss of Taiwan MNC semi-cond book.
3.There are some IC design houses in SG.Do some home works!!
Hv u read EDB ,IE Spore etc?
Design & Development ServicesCompany Name Info Tel Fax
4.Tell me which are the exclusive industry/trade which HK
AMTEK ENGINEERING LTD (65) 6264 0033 (65) 6265 2510
COHERENT TECHNOLOGY PTE LTD (65) 6741 8673 (65) 6741 8263
COMEASE PTE LTD (65) 6297 8122 (65) 6297 8322
DESIGN EXCHANGE PTE LTD (65) 6776 6223
FTD TECHNOLOGY PTE LTD (65) 6744 9789 (65) 6488 2468
MICRONAS SOUTH EAST ASIA HOLDING PTE LTD (65) 6483 1266 (65) 6483 1566
P.S.M FASTENER (SINGAPORE) PTE LTD (65) 6278 8141 (65) 6278 8142
WEMARK TECHNO ENGINEERING PTE LTD (65) 6261 3131 (65) 6261 5674
Design ConsultancyLAWTON & YEO DESIGN ASSOCIATES PTE LTD (65) 6296 3255 (65) 6292 9273
have? -
changing old model? .....if you review the old history of Singapore we are still very much a trading post characteristics since 2nd Century. i don't think we have move beyond the fundamental of a trading post, early independent we were Import and re-export, than move to manufacturing, transhipment hub, visitor stop over, business trade show, financial center, highlevel entertainment road show to Singapore. Creating human traffic into Singapore.
I think what change is that we trades and business activities are on a global scale comparing to ship sailing by, attracting investment, facilitates of capital movement in Asia market on a bigger scale. I think it is easy to confuse the different between generate wealth vs maintaining job growth.