What have I learnt today? Blogging about books, media, words, Singapore and the world today. The blog that was Blowin' in the Wind.
The Singapore government is willing to trade off economic growth for social harmony, said DBS chief executive Piyush Gupta yesterday. Yes, the government’s new goal is sustainable growth, not high growth. And it comes at a cost.
Singapore’s mainstream media don’t want to sound alarmist. Maybe that’s why the Business Times says about the property market cooling measures: “The more dire estimates expect property prices to fall by up to 10 per cent …”
Singapore will try to reassure multinational companies that plans to tighten immigration will not affect white-collar expatriates, reports the Financial Times.
Foreigners make up about 34 per cent of the country’s population of 4.99 million, following a long period of high economic growth up to 2008 during which Singapore accepted up to 100,000 people each year.
A report by an economic review strategy committee chaired by Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam will say that the focus of reductions in the flow of foreigners must be on blue-collar workers, says the Financial Times.
This follows growing concern among locals, it adds. But Singapore has to remain open to highly skilled professionals, says the newspaper, quoting "a person familiar with the report".
Subscribe to this site's RSS feed.
