Singaporeans, is this what you want? To drive investments away and together with it, the jobs as well?

Singaporeans, is this what you want? To drive investments away and together with it, the jobs as well?

Your noise will be heard far and wide.

The Government has to strike a balance. In striking this balance, they take into account 3 factors:

1. The needs of our industries and enterprises.

2. The needs of our workers of this generation.

3. The opportunities for our children in the next generations.

When you send the wrong signal and turn investors away, not only your jobs will be impacted, the good jobs the government wants to create for the young who are still in schools, and those yet to be born will be impacted as well.

There are Singaporeans with valid concerns to be addressed but there are far more people with a political agenda who, on a daily basis, are on social media to stir the negative sentiments such as pointing out the number of errant companies flagged for discriminatory hiring practices.

Tell you what, the fact that you even get to know that such discriminatory practices exist means that there is monitoring of the situation by the authorities. And yes, the process can be refined and that is being looked into.

Those who continue to stir the negative sentiments against foreigners are not doing Singaporeans any favour. Their agenda is political.

A business hub means being cosmopolitan

A business or regional hub that does not welcome foreign talents? Is it even logical?

Back in the early 2000s, then Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew told students in NTU this:

"If we do not attract, welcome and make talent feel comfortable in Singapore, we will not be a global city, and if we are not a global city, we will not count for much.

With modern transportation and communications, you either play in the big league or you're not a player."

Singapore needs access to global markets to earn our living

International trade is our lifeline. Our trade to GDP ratio is around 319%, one of the highest globally. This is how important international trade is to our economy, and therefore to Singaporeans. This is also why our FTAs are so crucial to us.

PM Lee said in a Facebook post :

Singapore needs access to global markets to earn our living, and Free Trade Agreements play a crucial role in letting us do so.

Our network of FTAs has benefited us enormously. They create investments and opportunities for our businesses, and jobs for our people. They have helped make us a leading global hub.

The misrepresentation of the effects of the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) with India has caused much unnecessary public concern.

Singaporeans are anxious about jobs, foreign competition, as well as the impact of the large number of foreigners working and living here. These are valid concerns which we will address. But if we put the blame on CECA, that will not solve our problem but instead make it worse.

It's meritocracy, not Chinese privilege!