calugaruvaxile, I agree with what you say about both trying to use the MNC's to force non-qualified Singapore hires and the history of attracting foreign companies, then workers. And, I agree that until Singapore starts teaching people how to think rather than parroting facts, not much of this is going to change.
Singapore has made a major error in a couple of other respects as well. First and foremost was making changes to real investment laws that loosened the rules on foreign investment. The idea, of course, was to introduce foreign money in order to spur growth and more jobs.
That happened in 2004 and property prices have been skyrocketing ever since. I judge that the authorities, by not allowing foreign sales of HDB and landed properties, thought that they could let the private condo market rise without affecting housing for the 'average' Singaporean.
Obviously, that has not turned out to be the case, and the average Singaporean sees housing as more and more out of reach; hence the desire to earn more in order to buy into the market and make money via appreciation. The excessively high auction prices for raw land have not helped, either.
The increase in real estate values has hurt Singapore in many other ways as well. Retail, office, and commercial space, all which can be invested in by foreigners, is a principal driver of costs, especially retail and commercial, where a significant percentage of the retail purchase price goes directly into the the landlord's pockets. As a result, real purchasing power has been eroded, increasing the demands for larger salaries for the 'good things' in life.
The government is trying to fix this mess with taxes on foreign investors and taxes on property flippers, and even the solution creates more problems now that the horse is out of the barn. Falling property prices and foreign property taxes has foreign investors fleeing and that means real estate inventory is going to hang around for a lot longer than anyone wants. The government can't push on this too hard... there are already hundreds of millions in defaulted mortgages held by Singapore banks... and yet prices are still out of range of the average Singaporean.
And or more minor import, yet one that creates still more dissatisfaction, is the policy of auctioning COE's instead of running a simple lottery... again, the 'average' Singaporean is excluded.
