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ST says "Higher salary bar for foreigners seeking family visas"

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ScoobyDoes
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Re: ST says "Higher salary bar for foreigners seeking family visas"

Post by ScoobyDoes » Tue, 28 Jul 2015 6:52 pm

Strong Eagle wrote: So... Singapore is hemorrhaging decent paying blue collar skilled jobs. The gahmen sees there are not other blue collar jobs these employees can move to. So it implements a policy "up the food chain"... trying to become competitive higher up an industrial vertical... design, finance, marketing, distribution... and hopes by squeezing the nuts of the MNC's doing the hiring by increasing minimum salaries and qualifications, and decreasing the number of permits allowed, that the companies will hire locals for these positions.
A couple of times over the past few months I've had a guy in to the office to talk about what's on offer, from the likes of SPRING and government bodies dishing out the PIC, DTD and other incentives.

The amount of money available is staggering!

The government pay to employ older workers, graduates, the low paid etc. and also to train them, put in a training program if one doesn't exist, pay the trainer. There's multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars available when added to PIC, DTD and the humble Tax Rebate.

The one word that comes to my own mind? Panic.

Bear in mind I'm talking from an Mechanical/Electrical engineering background and not banking, IT etc. then...........

There is a feeling that "up the food chain" with all this incentivised training, "high value manufacturing" (whatever the heck that is, and yes, there are only so many companies like Rolls Royce that can set up jet engine manufacturing) will solve all problems. Coaxing companies in or simply to stay, training up an ever increasing number people that don't want to be trained because they don't want to make anything. It's all very well having and training management but unfortunately all the incentives won't keep in place the workload for them to manage anything.

With the downturn in Manufacturing, O&G, Marine and other sectors here during this difficult time what also some need to twig is......once these jobs move to cheaper Vietnam, Philippines, China etc. they don't ever come back. The government does understand this, hence the hundreds on millions of dollars available in incentives (you notice I didn't ask who pays for this?).
'When Lewis Hamilton wins a race he has to thank Vodafone whereas in my day I used to chase the crumpet. I know which era I'd rather race in.'

SIR Stirling Moss OBE

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Re: RE: Re: ST says

Post by Strong Eagle » Tue, 28 Jul 2015 9:45 pm

ecureilx wrote:Likewise replacement toners have a 2 day turn around time ....
I think I've been there... or the equivalent. That's what constitutes 'service'.

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Re: ST says "Higher salary bar for foreigners seeking family visas"

Post by calugaruvaxile » Wed, 29 Jul 2015 1:50 am

Strong Eagle and Ecurelix: i am honestly SHOCKED!! i have worked in a-star (where the main concern is how to make nice reports) but i was convinced that things are completely different in the real economy. for comparison, where i work now (regardless if it's the sg, houston or anything else office) the ticket average is 15 minutes.

about the habit of passing the work: we had an "industry development department", populated by locals-only. at some point, we were told to "get contracts from industry". and it wasn't the idd who has been sent out to get them. nono, they told us that "you know better which companies are interested in your research". we were all foreigners, with zero knowledge of the local "landscape". and what were "they" supposed to do? "when you negatiate a contract (!!) you bring it to me to have a look, then ask the director to sign". years after, my then-boss was in a gov't sponsored "matchmaking", astar institutes and industry. whatever my company was asking for (can you do this) they would say "surely we can". the result? the companies backed off. the general consensus was that even the mit couldn't have had expertise in so many different ares :). i explained to them how it works: get the contract, assign someone to do it, then that person will look up how it can be done.

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Re: ST says "Higher salary bar for foreigners seeking family visas"

Post by calugaruvaxile » Wed, 29 Jul 2015 1:58 am

Scooby, the concept of "high value manufacturing" has been invented in the MTI to justify the crumble of the manufacturing in sg due to the hike in production costs. the storyline was: we cannot match the cheap cost of production in china, as the cost of living in sg is much higher (sic!) but we will concentrate on those products which need technology and a very skilled workforce. we will leverage on our highly-skilled, highly-competitive workforce.

there is another concept, "knowledge-based economy", with the same origin. the masterplan of spring etc is that the companies come, they develop technology in collaboration with a-star, and the new tech (now fixed by copyright to singapore) creates highly-paid jobs. only when i moved to industry i realized that this is not going to happen, as each tech-based company is extremely fond of its own tech and never outsources the research in core capabilities.

i bet most of the projects given to astar are crappy side-research, or simply red herrings to justify the subsidy money. of course, in the official reports, things are going as planned ... maybe the guys on top, who receive those reports, truly believe those measures work. oh my, just imagine the disaster!

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Re: ST says "Higher salary bar for foreigners seeking family visas"

Post by Wd40 » Wed, 29 Jul 2015 10:09 pm

Standard Chartered is the only bank I know which has moved to KL. I wonder what use moving to KL is. It's neither as cheap as India or Philippines nor does it have a talent pool of its own.

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Re: RE: Re: ST says "Higher salary bar for foreigners seeking family visas"

Post by ecureilx » Wed, 29 Jul 2015 10:43 pm

Wd40 wrote:Standard Chartered is the only bank I know which has moved to KL. I wonder what use moving to KL is. It's neither as cheap as India or Philippines nor does it have a talent pool of its own.
About 15 years ago a couple of large companies moved to KL.

Seems they have zero regrets

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Re: ST says "Higher salary bar for foreigners seeking family visas"

Post by Strong Eagle » Thu, 30 Jul 2015 5:03 am

It's still a lot cheaper than Singapore and although it has a ways to go, KL doesn't have a lot of the problems associated with service centers in India and the Philippines.

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Re: ST says "Higher salary bar for foreigners seeking family visas"

Post by rajagainstthemachine » Thu, 30 Jul 2015 6:42 am

The infrastructure in MY > infrastructure in many Indian cities.
To get there early is on time and showing up on time is late

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Re: ST says "Higher salary bar for foreigners seeking family visas"

Post by ScoobyDoes » Thu, 30 Jul 2015 9:45 am

rajagainstthemachine wrote:The infrastructure in MY > infrastructure in many Indian cities.
You beat me to it...... an airport that works with good connections, good quality roads and a reasonable highways network, a LRT system and Monorail rail of sorts and a currently under construction MRT.

With regards both India and the Philippines, and Indonesia to some extent, it's a bit of a no brainer.
'When Lewis Hamilton wins a race he has to thank Vodafone whereas in my day I used to chase the crumpet. I know which era I'd rather race in.'

SIR Stirling Moss OBE

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Re: ST says "Higher salary bar for foreigners seeking family visas"

Post by Strong Eagle » Thu, 30 Jul 2015 10:08 am

ScoobyDoes wrote:...a LRT system and Monorail rail of sorts and a currently under construction MRT.
And nobody shitting on the tracks.

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Re: ST says "Higher salary bar for foreigners seeking family visas"

Post by Wd40 » Sat, 01 Aug 2015 1:56 pm

Strong Eagle wrote:
ScoobyDoes wrote:...a LRT system and Monorail rail of sorts and a currently under construction MRT.
And nobody shitting on the tracks.
That didn't ditter Bangalore from becoming the 2nd fastest growing startup ecosystem in the world:

http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2015/07/29 ... 93924.html

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Re: ST says "Higher salary bar for foreigners seeking family visas"

Post by sundaymorningstaple » Sat, 01 Aug 2015 3:15 pm

When you start from zero it not hard to be the fastest growing. Any growth at all would be fast compared to zero growth. (except for births that is).
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

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