Reopening is too slow

[sundaymorningstaple]

Spot on Observer. I was here for the Disc Drive exodus. Most were located out at the industrial park out by YCK Mrt Station where Motorola/Kenwood and Apple are/were/used to be? I've not been out that direction for 20 years now since I moved out of Seletar Air Base toward Serangoon/Kovan area so don't know if there are still there or not. Western Digital was out there for sure.

[PNGMK]

To a virtual world.

Who needs expensive expats in Singapore if you can do it WFH style?

[the observer]

To a virtual world.

Who needs expensive expats in Singapore if you can do it WFH style?

The funny thing is, esp in my co, is that a significant number of expats from the west has been replaced by Asians, especially from the subcontinent.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Same thing with the CEO's of a third of the Fortune 500 in the US.

[smoulder]

To a virtual world.

Who needs expensive expats in Singapore if you can do it WFH style?

The funny thing is, esp in my co, is that a significant number of expats from the west has been replaced by Asians, especially from the subcontinent.

From what I've seen in a large MNC bank that slowly trimmed its Singapore technology headcount over several years, when they want to send the foreigners away, subcontinent guys are easy to throw around like balls. Just tell them to either give up their job in Singapore or offer them the same role in India for an Indian salary.

[the observer]

To a virtual world.

Who needs expensive expats in Singapore if you can do it WFH style?

The funny thing is, esp in my co, is that a significant number of expats from the west has been replaced by Asians, especially from the subcontinent.

From what I've seen in a large MNC bank that slowly trimmed its Singapore technology headcount over several years, when they want to send the foreigners away, subcontinent guys are easy to throw around like balls. Just tell them to either give up their job in Singapore or offer them the same role in India for an Indian salary.

Check out the front office instead, 2010 vs 2015 vs 2020.

[BigginHill]

The funny thing is, esp in my co, is that a significant number of expats from the west has been replaced by Asians, especially from the subcontinent.

Singapore remain an extremely attractive destination for many people in the region - there's still a vast difference in opportunities within Asia, and Singapore sits right at the top. In fact, the strict successful handling of the pandemic likely makes it even more attractive to many people.

The pandemic probably just accelerated the existing shift in expat profile, away from Europeans & Americans.

I see Singapore attracting more south asians than chinese btw. I guess domestic opportunities in China compare increasingly favourable to Singapore.

[BigginHill]

So where’s the regional office going to be, if not in hk, or sg.

What office?

We're thinking of keeping a skeleton crew of locals if needed, all on indefinite WFH. They've been doing WFH for the past year already.

The rest can work overseas as they please, in their home countries or wherever.

Clients have also been a lot more accepting with flexible hrs since the pandemic started. We can't travel to see them anyway.

When regional people can no longer travel regionally (biz dev, client management etc), there's just no need for them to be here physically at all.

And if we can't travel to HQ in Europe or US, for fear of (or actual) Singapore reentry rejection, the whole equation just slowly starts to fall apart. (we're in tech btw, not finance)

I actually wonder how the local banks manage to onboard new clients around the region at the moment. I wouldn't think a Zoom session would carry a lot of traction.

[the observer]

Like the industries of the past, many will pack up and leave. And new ones taking over.

Otherwise this country will still be making disk drives till this day.

Edit: probably still are, just not as much.

So latest news around, in finance, family offices are mushrooming all over.

Boring back offices are moving out.
Hedge funds and trading floors are increasing, even in crypto.

[BigginHill]

I actually believe I saw 'Seagate' on a building recently.

Anyway, yes. In 10 years time Singapore will mostly be a south asian data centre, w/fintech & data scientists.

[the observer]

End of day, shifting sands, who knows.
Just sail along and mope less.

And the only thing I can predict reasonably well is…

The vast majority who wants to make sg their permanent home will never be able to.
~ there’s no permanence in job security/industry
~ even permanent residence isn’t permanent if one is jobless for an extended time

[the observer]

I actually believe I saw 'Seagate' on a building recently.

Anyway, yes. In 10 years time Singapore will mostly be a south asian data centre, w/fintech & data scientists.

Sounds transient to me, given it’s a cost centric function. Eventually it’ll move to cheaper locations

It’s not cheap to remain viable in sg. So it has to pay the bills so to speak.

[smoulder]

So where’s the regional office going to be, if not in hk, or sg.

I actually wonder how the local banks manage to onboard new clients around the region at the moment. I wouldn't think a Zoom session would carry a lot of traction.

Are you asking about onboarding of individuals or businesses? We are not quite there yet, but there is some move towards online onboarding in Thailand. If you have an account in another bank in Thailand, you can now just get yourself verified by virtue of that account. You can do it sitting at home using your cellphone.

Maybe it will become a thing across the region. It is probably not going to happen during this pandemic but maybe the pandemic will be the event that makes regulators push for more online onboarding.

[x9200]

I read the same article a few minutes ago. I agree that things are way too slow.

My personal observation is that people here are also very fearful. When you compare the numbers of new infections this year with what we had at the start of the pandemic, you'll find that it was way more then. Yet, I see about the same level of fear now (my opinion).

In a way it's seems similar to the neighbouring countries syndrome - e.g. demonizing Malaysia for higher crime rate so if one goes there by car, it is surely going to be stolen.

But I believe there is also a significant fraction that goes in just opposite direction. They see low infection rates, very low death rates and they think they are perfectly safe so no need to vaccinate.

[x9200]

I actually believe I saw 'Seagate' on a building recently.

They opened an R&D center in Ayer Rajah cluster just few years ago. Not sure about manufacturing.