... Here's 1 which I personally am interested to think about. If you were tasked with coming up with a plan on the future survival of Singapore in the world, what would be your game plan? It looks like no exciting companies want to list on SGX. Our homegrown blue chips are starting to lose their shine. Population size is small, home grown talent is relatively few. What's the true advantage that SG has and how to use that advantage to benefit the citizens of SG?
-TK
Truthfully, I never thought about it. Cos I've always just tried to make things work for myself. As in... this is the country I live in, then I just try to wriggle my way around, make things work for myself and live my life. Everything else, not my problem right?
Whereas this question posted by TK is a challenge, cos it makes me think of what I believe could be good, not for myself, but for Singapore as a whole.
Taking care of myself is easy. I can work, invest, live frugally.
Whereas thinking for a country and it's future economy and growth is a lot more challenging.
When I start thinking about this issue, I come up with a number of questions and statements.
Due to being a small country, I believe, Singapore needs to provide a lot more value per person. This can be achieved through only a certain number of industries.
Eg, Financial, where one person can process a $1,000 transaction, or a $100 million transaction.
Casino, where it is possible to make a $50 bet, or a $100,000 bet. You only need one croupier to deal the cards.
Software, games, apps, media/shows/cinema, all of these can be easily duplicated and sold throughout the world.
For a small country, production of products would likely not be sustainable in the future.
There are bigger countries which can have cheaper labour to do such industries.
This is the same idea as... IF I want Singapore to win an Olympic medal, what sport would I choose to train Singaporean talents?
I would choose a sport where Singaporeans have no competitive disadvantage.
The Asian physique is genetically smaller than many other countries/regions. They will be bigger than us, faster than us.
So if I were to think of a sport where Singaporeans have a chance to win, then it would be individual sports, shooting, archery. Cos we don't have an inherent body disadvantage. We just need to practice a lot.
Similarly, as an economy, Singapore cannot/should not focus on industries which require a lot of manual labour, it needs to be skills based and not labour based. Cos Singapore cannot afford to "waste" manpower doing low value add jobs.
Simply put, we have 5million population, everyone works 10 hours a day.
There are only 50 million manhours in a day. What is the best way to use these manhours.
It's not like China where they have 1.4 billion people. They have a lot of manhours to waste.
Questions that go through my mind are...
Why can't Singapore be like HK?
Why is Singapore media/shows/movies not as popular ask HK?
Why isn't Singapore like Cayman Islands, whereby the citizens don't even need to pay tax cos the fees that the Government earns through company registration is enough.
A company which develops games/apps/etc... doesn't need a lot of manpower.
I believe Singapore has the required talent and skills.
HOWEVER, I believe that Singapore and Singaporeans don't have enough business acumen.
It's like having an army of skilled soldiers with no good general.
Whereas a good general can do more with unskilled soldiers.
Furthermore, there are good enough jobs for skilled Singaporeans.
I'm ok being a Major, or Captain. I earn enough. Why do I need to take the risk and try to be a General?
Another problem I see, is that Singapore has very little problems.
Ride sharing is more useful overseas, where there might be little cabs, hard to find cabs, cabs might have unscrupulous drivers who charge different prices to different people. Think of Malaysia or Thailand or Europe.
Add that with people who have difficulty finding jobs...
And ride hailing apps becomes a really good idea.
This would/could never have come out of Singapore, cos Singapore doesn't have these problems.
Singapore's financial system is also crazy good.
We have FAST, we can transfer money from one bank to another in seconds. We have Paylah, Paynow, etc.
This isn't the same overseas. It's not easy to transfer money in other countries. It takes days with fees. So the idea of e-finance might seem more appealing.
Did Grabpay really change our lives in SG? No right? Cos we already had Nets, Visa, Mastercard, etc.
Whereas in China, payment wasn't made easy until Alipay and WeChatpay came around. SG already had multiple convenient payment methods, so we didn't need to think of better ones.
Supermarkets are all over the place located at convenient places.
So there used to be less reason to get groceries delivered. Once again very different from many other countries.
The thing is... Singapore doesn't have many of the problems that many of the other countries have. Even IF Singapore solves it's problems, these products and services might not be applicable to other countries.
And so I move on to TK's question...
First, a way to answer the question is... where do we want Singapore to be?
I think a lot of Singaporeans still believe, or want to believe that SG is the Switzerland of Asia.
Which I think is a good way to look at SG.
Ok...
So TK's question...
1) Coming up with a plan on the future survival of Singapore in the world.
Personally, I believe there isn't time to train homegrown talent. It would take another 2-3 generations at least to change the mindset of Singaporeans and grow the next generation of leaders or business leaders.
If I were the Government or some kind of planning agency, an option would invest Government money in home grown companies and link them up with other large companies overseas to help expand Singaporean products and services. Same as how Temasek supports companies within SG to keep the companies and economy stable, another Gov investment company can be for helping SG companies expand overseas.
Marketing, branding, etc... How come Redbull, a Thai drink, can end up known all over the world?
Cos it "gives you wings". There's so much marketing for Redbull.
So such a Gov company could force prominent Singapore companies to expand out of Singapore.
Similar to how Softbank believes start-ups don't expand fast enough and forces money onto the companies to push them to expand.
This is IF I want SG to be a country which nurtures it's own companies. But yet, so what if the companies expand to other countries? Will the overall economy in SG be better? I do wonder cos US has many big companies, yet the wealth is only concentrated within a small sector of society.
2) It looks like no exciting companies want to list on SGX. Our homegrown blue chips are starting to lose their shine.
I feel the problem with listing on the SGX has multiple issues.
There aren't many big global company which is listed on the SGX, so other big companies don't want to list on it.
Furthermore, more people know HK more than SG. Just by name, HK wins, and it's a better gateway to China. Singapore in this case is just a proxy for HK.
GLP used to be a big company listed on SGX, then it got sold and privatized and that's the end of it.
And our homegrown blue chips... well, they can't or aren't expanding much out of SG so... that's another issue. If the companies don't get big, then the world doesn't know about SG and there's less interest in the country.
Singapore is well known in certain circles, but it's less well known than HK.
Keppel used to be the biggest rig builder in the world, but how many people know about Keppel?
Cos... only certain industries know about Singapore and the companies.
Singapore companies have to sell outside of Singapore. The problem is the most of the biggest SG companies are Gov related companies and have no incentive to expand out of SG. It's not like a hotshot CEO trying to expand to make his place in the world.
BUT, that is also for the stability of SG, cos these companies MUST not fail as it is the baseline support of SG economy.
Another problem is the SGD. The SGD is not a globally recognized currency.
Compared to EUR, CHF, Chinese Yuan, even HKD is pegged to the USD.
No doubt, SGD is strong in Singapore and the region, but around the world, it's not widely known and accepted.
Once again, I wonder, so what if Alibaba listed on SGX? Not as though the typical Singaporean would have any improvements with their lives. Pride? Yes, Overall benefit to everyone? I'm not so sure.
3) Population size is small, home grown talent is relatively few. What's the true advantage that SG has and how to use that advantage to benefit the citizens of SG?
I think SG's problem is the problem of many European countries.
Everyone is comfortable.
Singaporeans are hardworking and willing to work. But they are comfortable, so there's no need to do much better. Life is good enough.
There's no more hunger, and there's not much opportunity.
If I'm a graduate, I can just find a cushy job and not take any risks and I'd be set for life. This is not so easy for many other countries.
Probably the easiest way to keep Singapore relevant, is for the Government to encourage global companies to set up HQ in SG.
The lucky thing is everyone in SG speaks English, we have a large enough skilled work force so as a gateway to Asia, SG is better than HK or China, considering language and political barriers.
BUT, the unlucky thing is that not everyone in SG speaks good mandarin. As a gateway to China, HK is way better, if not for the political issues.
4) Conclusion
I've been pretty much all over the place when talking about this.
The thing is... I feel there's a lot of issues within SG and the system and economy.
A business which makes it in SG doesn't have much of a chance when expanding overseas.
Even if the company can expand overseas, it doesn't mean that jobs and production will remain in SG.
SG is so small. It's different running a biz in SG vs Malaysia or China.
And so, it's hard for a biz owner to switch from running a biz in SG, to expanding to bigger countries. Cos it's just not the same.
So let's say Yeo's comes out with a great drink that is exported overseas like Redbull.
Production of the drink will still leave SG, so jobs will not remain in SG.
Even if a software type company creates the next Facebook, it may start in SG, but eventually will need to go where the talent and market is, meaning it will move to Silicon valley, and once again, jobs will not stay in SG.
So for me, I believe that SG will not be able to play in the field of the big boys. There just isn't a market big enough in SG. We are limited by our population and size.
Even if we have good products to sell to the world, the jobs will not remain in SG.
And businesses will not view SG as an attractive market due to the limited market.
HOWEVER, I think SG can be a good support country and do it will.
Hey, no shame in being the support player.
Being the Robin, or Alfred is not too bad. (Alfred even got his own show on Netflix hor.)
In any party there is also a healer, buffer, thief, etc.
And I think it's win-win for SG.
Don't need to think too much about being innovative, the citizens have good jobs in big MNCs.
People don't need to take too much risks, Gov just need to attract companies to set up shop as a gateway to Asia, SEA region, and of course the skills of Singaporeans must also be catered to this support role.
Regional/Global expertise, tax incentives, educated workers, maybe include coding as a subject in school, etc...
The problem is this position of support character is now being challenged. As MNCs can set up in HK, or Shanghai, etc.
So, for me, I believe that for Singapore and Singaporeans to have a good economy and a good life for residents, it's all about jobs. Good jobs. Cos I believe that having a SG created "Facebook" in SG, doesn't do much for the general population. It's just like any other company which creates jobs. Only the owners get rich. Same as companies which list on the SGX.
Which is what happens in US, many companies start in the US, but production moves out of US due to cost of production, thus, US has lost many jobs.
But if SG is able to consistently attract good companies to set up in SG, like FB, Apple, Google, Tencent, Goldman, etc... then SG should be able to continue to thrive.
It's like the Cayman Islands. They only register companies for tax purposes. And it's well known for providing this service.
So SG needs to set up good schools and institutions to prepare the workers for the different jobs which will be required by these MNCs.
Of course this is just my own personal thoughts, I might not be understanding the whole situation and I could be wrong about this whole thing.
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