RESILIENCE IN CRISIS: Temasek Holdings' portfolio

RESILIENCE IN CRISIS

The COVID-19 public health crisis has morphed into a global economic crisis and has now become a social and humanitarian crisis in many parts of the world: probably the worst since World War II, said Dilhan Pillay, CEO of Temasek International.

Up until the end of January, Temasek's Portfolio Value had trended well.

But the last quarter of the financial year ended 31st March 2020 saw their net portfolio impacted.

The impact, however, was less than what commenters had predicted.

And since the end of March, the market value of their listed assets has risen.

Temasek ended the financial year in a net cash position with a strong balance sheet, proving once again the resilience of its portfolio.

"This positions us well to ride through the tough times, to position our companies for future growth, and in other opportunities that may present themselves.

"During past crises, such as the GFC and SARS, Temasek had outperformed the market indices. The performance of our portfolio this last financial year continues this trend," said Dilhan Pillay.

Temasek's 2.3 per cent decline, compared with the steeper falls on the MSCI Singapore Index and the MSCI AC Asia ex-Japan Index, which fell 18.3 per cent and 9 per cent respectively, showed that it had stayed resilient. Globally, the MSCI World Index lost 5.8 per cent.

𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐃-𝟏𝟗 𝐯𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬...

𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐃-𝟏𝟗 𝐯𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬...

The COVID-19 vaccine candidate - LUNAR-COV19 - has been approved to proceed by the Singapore Health Sciences Authority. 👍👍

Arcturus and Duke-NUS partnered to develop it using Arcturus’ STARR™ technology and a unique platform developed at Duke-NUS allowing rapid screening of vaccines for potential effectiveness and safety.

Arcturus and Duke-NUS will initiate human dosing of LUNAR-COV19 as soon as possible.

The healthy volunteer study will evaluate several dose levels of LUNAR-COV19 in up to 108 adults, including older adults.

Follow-up will be conducted to evaluate safety, tolerability and the extent and duration of the humoral and cellular immune response.

Professor Ooi Eng Eong, Deputy Director of the Emerging Infectious Diseases Program at Duke-NUS, said, “Preclinical studies on LUNAR-COV19 have shown very promising findings, including the possibility that a single dose of this vaccine may be sufficient to trigger robust and durable immune responses against SARS-CoV-2. We are very eager to start the first-in-human clinical trial here in Singapore and advance LUNAR-COV19 on its journey to becoming a potential commercial vaccine.”

Affordable healthcare through the 3Ms

Generous government subsidies, together with Medishield Life and Medisave have made heathcare in Singapore affordable.

Take this example here. The patient incurred a bill of $13,154 for a 9-day stay in a C Class ward at TTSH.

Government subsidies: $9493
Medishield Life: $2060

𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐞: $𝟏𝟕𝟐𝟗
Out-of-Pocket payment: 0

The amount paid with Medisave represents 13% of the total bill. Government subsidies and Medishield Life took care of 87% of the bill.

You enjoy the same good quality medical care by a team of doctors during your stay in hospital even if it is C Class.

Something to be thankful for.

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PM Lee formally appoints Pritam Singh as Leader of the Opposition

At a virtual press conference held at The Treasury building at around 4.30am on Saturday (July 11), PM Lee said that with 10 opposition MPs in the next Parliament, he intends to formally appoint WP Pritam Singh as Leader of the Opposition.

He will also provide Mr Singh with the appropriate staff and resources.

In a Facebook post, Mr Goh Chok Tong said that this was a significant move.

"𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐏𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐍𝐂𝐌𝐏𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤-𝐚𝐧𝐝-𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐩𝐮𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐬𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐯𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭’𝐬," 𝐌𝐫 𝐆𝐨𝐡 𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐝.

All in all, this is good for democracy as Singaporeans can look forward to robust debates on government policies and their alternatives put forth by the opposition.

DPM Heng Swee Keat accused of being racist

So DPM Heng Swee Keat was accused of being racist and a police report was even filed against him.

But what was the context and the true facfs?

Mr Heng was quoting a LKYSPP survey when he said that “older Singaporeans are not ready for a non-Chinese PM”.

He was making a statement based on statistics and isn’t some pulled-out-from-thin-air nonsense.

The irony of the outrage of those who decided to take offence at Mr Heng's words is that the same people also stood fully behind tweets about 'brown' people and Chinese privilege.

Can they make up their mind if racism exists? 

Jamus Lim and minimum wage

No big arguments needed. Just one statistic.

Minimum wage was legislated as Federal law in the US in 1938.

82 years later, millions are still left behind.

The Million-dollar salary: separating facts from lies

Did you see this photo  (on the left) being spread on WhatsApp? 

That's fake news.

It's meant to make you see red, and green with envy. But why should you?

Here's the truth. The source is the White Paper on salary review.

1. The Prime Minister does not get a performance bonus because there is no one to assess his individual performance.

2. The prime minister gets only one salary. He does not get paid extra for being the chairman of GIC or PA.

Similarly, ministers who hold more than one portfolios in different ministries get only one salary. They do not get paid double for helming more than one ministries.

3. The $2.2m that the PM gets in a year is NOT JUST THE FIXED MONTHLY SALARY + 13 month. It INCLUDES the annual variable component and national bonus.

In other words, the bonus is not over and above that $2.2m. It's included in the $2.2m.

4. Ministers' salaries (MR3, MR4) DO NOT CROSS the one-million mark if the performance and national bonuses, and the annual variable component are excluded.

Like his father, Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong also donated millions to charity.

When ministers' salaries were given a raise in 2007, PM Lee did not give himself a raise. Instead, he donated all of his salary hike for 5 years from 2007 to charity.

The total amount donated was $3 million.

He further donated another $350,000 in 2012 to establish 3 new awards to promote community bonding.

He had also donated 100% the value of 38 Oxley Road which was bequeathed to him, to charity.

Not only that, every cent he received in defamation suits is also donated to charity.

References:
https://www.psd.gov.sg/docs/default-source/default-document-library/white-paper---salaries-for-a-capable-and-committed-govt.pdf

https://www.psd.gov.sg/docs/default-source/default-document-library/white-paper/dpm-speech-16-jan-2012.pdf

https://www.psd.gov.sg/docs/default-source/default-document-library/white-paper/dpmclosingspeech18-20jan2012-1.pdf