Top Story of the Week: Ambassador Adelman on U.S.-Singapore FDI
UPCOMING EVENTS
- AmCham Singapore will host a Farewell Reception for Ambassador Adelman, to thank him for his years of service to the American business community as the U.S. Ambassador to Singapore. The farewell reception will be held at Universal Studios’ “New York Street” on Thursday, September 19 from 7:30PM to 9:30PM. For more information please contact Lorna Ow at low@amcham.org.sg or +65 65975743. To register, click HERE.
- The US-ASEAN Business Council is pleased to be a supporter of the “The Marco Polo Effect: Arbitrations and Contracts with Chinese, Indian and ASEAN Parties” symposium. The event is scheduled for Wednesday, 2 October from 1:00PM – 7:30PM in New York (Venue TBC) and is being organized by the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) and also supported by the American Indonesian Chamber of Commerce. This is an excellent opportunity for members to hear from practitioners from around the world discussing their experiences with investment issues in Asia and dispute resolution options. For more information please click here. To register for the event, please click here
- Singapore overtook Japan as Asia’s biggest foreign-exchange center for the first time as trading surged in the past three years, the city’s central bank said, citing a survey by the Bank for International Settlements. The city’s average daily foreign-exchange volume increased 44 percent to $383 billion as of April from $266 billion in the same month in 2010, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said in a statement yesterday. The average interest-rate derivatives volume climbed 6 percent to $37 billion over the same period, the highest in the region after Japan, it said.
National Affairs
China expects more exchanges and cooperation with Singapore Xinhua 26 Aug 2013
Premier Li Keqiang said Monday that China and Singapore should strengthen exchanges and cooperation in various fields and bolster communication and coordination on international and regional issues. The development of bilateral relations and cooperation has brought about important benefits for both countries since the establishment of diplomatic ties, Li said in a meeting with his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong at the Great Hall of the People. New changes are taking place in domestic and international environments that the two countries are facing. China and Singapore should further consolidate the political foundation of their relations and earn understanding and support from their peoples, Li said. Li called on the two sides to communicate and coordinate on global and regional affairs, understand and respect each other, and promote a sound, steady development of the bilateral ties. Lee said Singapore highly values its ties with China and will strengthen their exchanges, improve cooperation mechanism, expand cooperation, and upgrade their free trade area
Vincent Wijeysingha quits Singapore Democratic Party Yahoo! 28 Aug 2013
In what may come as a shocking move to many, popular opposition politician Vincent Wijeysingha has announced his resignation from the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP). In a post on his Facebook profile on Wednesday afternoon, he said, "I would like to inform you that I have taken the difficult decision to resign my membership of the SDP in order to explore how I can be of service to the wider cause of our civil liberties, a project which I believe to be the dominant mission of this present period." This, he told Yahoo! Singapore in a phone interview shortly after issuing his announcement, followed a process of seeking ratification and support from the party's central executive committee and the rest of its members. He formally submitted his resignation two weeks ago. In the last three years as a member of the SDP, Wijeysingha, now 43, said he was "engaged in social and economic bread-and-butter policy issues", but the time has come for him to focus on the "more intangible but no less important work to promote our civil liberties". One subject close to his heart is the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-sexual (LGBT) people. Wijeysingha said that his Facebook post about his sexuality — he is gay — just before this year's Pink Dot event had attracted significant debate on LGBT rights. "The shape of the discussion shows there is misunderstanding of these issues, primarily because of lack of mainstream access to appropriate information. Misunderstanding leads to discrimination that works its way into the lives of LGBT people, resulting in anguish and distress," he said.
Controversial Yale Singapore opens The Australian 29 Aug 2013
Yale University formally opened a controversial liberal arts college in tightly governed Singapore this week saying there was demand for "critical thinking" in the city-state and other Asian nations. The Yale-NUS College, a joint project with the National University of Singapore, had been criticised by faculty members of the leading US university due to Singapore's restrictions on protests and on student political activity. "Singaporeans, and Asians more broadly, have a greater hunger for pedagogy that truly encourages critical thinking and a model of liberal arts and science education adapted for the 21st century," Pericles Lewis, president of the college, said in a speech. He told AFP that "we're not setting out to change any political discourse, but we're giving students the tools to be active in citizenship, to think about the issues".
Singapore Strike: The Full Story WSJ 31 Aug 2013
This story of a strike by Chinese bus drivers in Singapore offers a close-up look at a major issue facing the Southeast Asian city-state today: The growing number of migrant workers who underpin Singapore’s economy and the social tensions that their presence can generate. What happened over two days in late November 2012 rattled the foundations of Singapore’s economic success – its business-friendly governance and industrial harmony – and prompted a robust response from the government. The strike, a rarity in Singapore, resonated across Asia, where other countries are grappling with a growing dependence on foreign labor, too. And it provided a window into ordinary lives seldom-seen: the migrants who fan out from China in search of a fatter paycheck abroad. How to balance the need for new workers from overseas with the preservation of established ways, presents a major dilemma that policymakers and citizens will wrestle with for years to come.
Singapore’s Volatile Data Stump Professionals WSJ 4 Sep 2013
Last month, Singapore’s government announced the economy grew 3.8% on-year in the second quarter. But as late as June, economists polled by the city-state’s central bank were predicting growth of just 1.5%. Economists got it wrong on exports too: They predicted a nearly flat print in the second quarter, when exports actually fell 5.0%. The difference was even starker in the first quarter: Economists in March predicted exports would fall 0.5%, but in fact they shrank a whopping 12.5%. The Monetary Authority of Singapore polls economists at banks and research firms every quarter on key local data such as gross domestic product, exports, currency, inflation and employment. The results are released at the start of every quarter, with the second-quarter survey landing Wednesday. It turns out that the 20 or so economists who respond to the survey get it quite wrong, quite often. Economic predictions are never easy. But they become even more complex in tiny Singapore, where trade is more than three times the size of GDP.
Philippine Recruiters Ban Sending Domestic Helpers to Singapore WSJ 4 Sep 2013
A group of Philippine international job recruiters this week stopped sending Filipino domestic helpers to Singapore, part of a campaign to end the collection of placement fees from migrant workers. Such fees, banned by Philippine authorities but still continuing, can add up to the equivalent of eight months of a household worker’s salary. “This moratorium will stay until we get the full cooperation of all the local recruiters as well as the employment agencies in Singapore,” Lucy Sermonia, president of the Association of Licensed Recruitment Agencies to Singapore, or ALRAS, told The Wall Street Journal. There are more than 150 recruitment agencies in the Philippines sending household helpers to Singapore, while some 300 Singapore employment agencies handle Filipino workers. Regulations of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, or POEA, the government agency that tracks and oversees the deployment of Filipino workers abroad, has prohibited the collection of placement fees from household service workers since 2007. Those fees, including travel and training costs, should be shouldered by employers.
Singapore: safe haven, model society Telegraph 7 Sep 2013
Looking out towards the sea from Singapore's Marina Bay Sands infinity swimming pool, perched precariously 57 storeys above the ground – these are tough assignments, I know, but someone has to do them – is a sight as deeply resonant of man's desire to trade and better himself as any in the world. As far as the eye can see, from shore to distant horizon, there are ships, hundreds of them, all queuing for a berth at the world's second-busiest cargo port. The vast bulk of this trade has very little to do with Singapore as such. The containers come and go without being opened or offering much of a clue as to what's inside them. Rather it is to do with the city state's unique geographic location – slap bang in the middle of the world's fastest- growing trading routes, with deep waters free from storm, tsunami and other natural threats. These attributes make it the perfect entrepôt, or trading hub, as Sir Stamford Raffles, the founding father of Singapore, quickly appreciated when he first arrived at this outpost of empire in the early 19th century. Today, his vision for the region has come of age. There are many different economic models in Eastern and South East Asia, but Singapore's is one of the most interesting, as well as manifestly the most successful.
Building the Singapore of the future Business Times 7 Sep 2013
After Singapore has celebrated its 48th year of independence, it is tempting to sit back and reflect on her success story from backwater port to bustling metropolis. It is a tale that Singaporeans know well, yet success has inadvertently created fresh challenges, one of which is the combination of increasing population density and ageing infrastructure.
Singapore 'risks being Asean's slowest growing country': Shanmugam Straits Times 5 Sep 2013
Faced with a low replacement rate and a fast-ageing population, Singapore risks becoming in future the slowest growing country in the world's fastest growing region, said Law Minister K. Shanmugam on Wednesday night. Speaking to some 300 students at the Singapore Management University Ministerial Forum, he painted a stark picture of how demographic trends combined with rising costs and external competition could cause Singapore to fall behind its neighbours in Asean. "All our neighbours will be growing faster and we will be growing slowly," he said. "When you look for jobs, and in neighbouring countries, salaries are rising much faster, then the best and the brightest will gravitate out, and whoever is left behind simply can't compete internationally, and your economy is dragged down."
PM Lee to visit Vietnam for launch of strategic partnership, new industrial park Straits Times 10 Sep 2013
Ties between Singapore and Vietnam will reach a new high when Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong arrives in Vietnam on Wednesday. As the two Asean nations mark the 40th anniversary of their diplomatic ties, Mr Lee will formally launch a strategic partnership agreement with his Vietnamese counterpart Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. The other highlight of Mr Lee's three-day visit is his trip to Quang Ngai province in central Vietnam to officiate the groundbreaking of the fifth Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP). The first was set up in 1996, and all five are a joint venture between a Singapore consortium led by Sembcorp Development and Becamex, a Vietnamese state-owned enterprise.
Defense & Security
Adelman on U.S.-Singapore FDI, South China Sea Bloomberg 26 Aug 2013
(See link for video) U.S. Ambassador to Singapore David Adelman talks about trade relations between the two countries, and territorial disputes in the South China Sea. Singapore’s trade with the U.S. in 2013 will probably exceed $50 billion for a third year after the nation attracted the most investment from American companies in the Asia-Pacific region. Adelman spoke with Haslinda Amin in Singapore on August 20
Singapore and the US: Security Partners, Not Allies ISN 27 Aug 2013
As US Vice President Joe Biden told journalists when he visited Singapore in late July, his country and the city-state not only enjoy mutually beneficial economic ties, but also important, wide-ranging defence and security cooperation. Indeed, over the last 18 months it has become clear that this bilateral relationship is a lynchpin of the US ‘rebalance’ to the Asia-Pacific. Encouraging a strong US regional security role has been central to Singapore’s foreign and defence policies for more than 40 years, and it recently agreed to provide what is, in all but name, a base for US Navy Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), the first of which (USS Freedom) arrived in April. However, while the depth of their defence links may give the impression that Singapore is a US ally, the city-state has pointedly eschewed this, preferring the strategic autonomy deriving from a less formal – if still close – connection.
14th Chinese naval escort taskforce visits Singapore's Maritime Training and Doctrine Command People's Daily 10 Sep 2013
The 14th escort taskforce under the Navy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLAN) which was paying a goodwill visit to Singapore visited the Maritime Training and Doctrine Command under the Republic of Singapore Navy and exchanged their views with Singaporean officers and men on September 6, 2013. "The personnel training mode of the Singaporean Navy, namely, training by stages and grades, is well worth our studying," said Rear Admiral Yuan Yubai, commander of the 14th Chinese naval escort taskforce. During the visit, Captain Hsu Yu Chih briefed the Chinese officers and men on personnel training and management of academies of the Singaporean Navy.
Financial Service
Singapore-U.S. Trade High to Persist on Record FDI Level Bloomberg 26 Aug 2013
Singapore’s trade with the U.S. in 2013 will probably exceed $50 billion for a third year after the nation attracted the most investment from American companies in the Asia-Pacific region. “U.S.-Singapore relations are generally at an all-time high,” U.S. Ambassador to Singapore David Adelman said in a Bloomberg Television interview. He gave the trade target for the two countries, saying “Southeast Asia has become increasingly important to American multi-national corporations as they continue to increase their participation in the global economy.” U.S. foreign direct investment into Singapore rose 17 percent to $138.6 billion in 2012, higher than to Japan and Australia, according to data from the Department of Commerce. Singapore was the first Asian nation to sign a free-trade agreement with the U.S. in 2003.
Shake-up looms in Singapore banking, wealth managers warn FT 28 Aug 2013
Intense competition, a tendency for wealthy Asians to use multiple private bankers and high staff costs are likely to force consolidation in the wealth management business in Singapore and could push operators out of business, top private bankers have warned. ...
Singapore Stocks Worst in Developed World: Southeast Asia Bloomberg 2 Sep 2013
Singapore stocks tumbled by the most among developed markets last month as investors pulled cash from Southeast Asia on concern about the future of global stimulus. Singapore’s Straits Times Index, the benchmark gauge for the region’s biggest market, dropped 7.5 percent in the 10 days through Aug. 28, its longest losing streak since 2002. The gauge slumped 6 percent in August, the worst performance among the world’s developed equity markets. Jardine Cycle & Carriage Ltd., the largest shareholder of Indonesia’s PT Astra International (ASII), and commodities trader Olam International Ltd. led declines. Stocks in Southeast Asia sank faster than global equities on signs regional economic growth is slowing and as Federal Reserve policy makers prepare to reduce U.S. bond buying that had prompted investors to buy riskier assets. Investors pulled $2.2 billion from Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines in August, after plowing $6.8 billion into the markets in 2012, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Singapore Overtakes Japan as Asia’s Top Foreign-Exchange Hub Bloomberg 6 Sep 2013
Singapore overtook Japan as Asia’s biggest foreign-exchange center for the first time as trading surged in the past three years, the city’s central bank said, citing a survey by the Bank for International Settlements. The city’s average daily foreign-exchange volume increased 44 percent to $383 billion as of April from $266 billion in the same month in 2010, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said in a statement yesterday. The average interest-rate derivatives volume climbed 6 percent to $37 billion over the same period, the highest in the region after Japan, it said.“Singapore has definitely established itself as a hub for foreign-exchange trading,” Khoon Goh, a senior currency strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZ) in Singapore, said before the release of the statement.
Singapore commercial banks named as World's Top 10 safest SBR 10 Sep 2013
DBS Bank highest-placing at 3rd spot. Global Finance magazine has named the World's Top 10 Safest Commercial Banks, and three Singapore banks -- DBS Bank (3rd), Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (4th) and United Overseas Bank (5th) -- made it to the prestigious list.
Singapore may suffer from its neighbors' currency perils CNBC 10 Sep 2013
Singapore, a hot spot for tourism in Southeast Asia, may begin to feel the heat of the currency turmoil afflicting neighboring economies as the cost for regional visitors to vacation in the island nation skyrockets. The Indonesian rupiah, Malaysian ringgit and Indian rupee have tumbled between 4 and 14 percent against the Singapore dollar over the past two months, translating into higher holiday costs – from accommodation to food and entertainment – for inbound tourists.
Health & Life Sciences
Medisave Accounts in Singapore Psychology Today 5 Sep 2013
In 1984, Richard Rahn and I wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal in which we proposed a savings account for health care. We called it a Medical IRA. That same year, Singapore instituted a related idea: a system of compulsory Medisave accounts. Through the years, my colleagues and I at the National Center for Policy Analysis have kept track of the Singapore experience, including publishing a general study of Singapore’s social welfare system in 1995 and a study of its health care system in 1996. It’s taken about almost three decades, but all of a sudden Singapore has come to the attention of a lot of other policy wonks, including a book by Brookings, a whole slew of posts by Austin Frakt and Aaron Carroll, a good overview by Tyler Cowen, and lots of links in all of this to other studies and comments.
ICT
Singapore to stage iconic electronics trade show CNA 4 Sep 2013
Singapore's leading media company, MediaCorp, is teaming up with the Singapore infocomm Technology Federation to hold an iconic electronics trade show in 2015. Called "the Stage", the event is slated to be the first-of-its-kind in the region where the industry's newest innovations will be showcased. The three-day show is targeting over 250 exhibitors in various sectors and will be opened to the public on the final day. The event will feature a headline concert with celebrities to jazz up the event. While the United States has its Consumer Electronics Show, Singapore's "the Stage" will offer Asia's version of a marquee technology showcase. MediaCorp's chief executive officer, Shaun Seow, said: "We like to think of ourselves as dream-makers who engage, entertain and enrich audiences by harnessing the power of creativity. "So you can imagine that 'the Stage' that we're creating will be quite different from all the other consumer electronics shows."
Singapore’s Alternative Media: Fighting for Freedom The Diplomat 29 Aug 2013
At the beginning of each work day, Terry Xu schedules new articles to be published on his socio-political website The Online Citizen (TOC), sharing fresh material on various social media platforms. He also checks the group’s constantly overflowing email inbox, dealing with requests to publicize events or investigate issues in Singapore. There’s no shortage of work to be done, and Xu can often be found online checking for news updates until late in the night. Laws and regulations such as the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act and the Broadcasting Act have ensured the PAP government has a dominant voice in Singapore’s mainstream media. The internet, though, is an entirely different ballgame. With high internet and smartphone penetration levels, Singaporeans share, converse, debate and quarrel with one another online every day. It is incredibly difficult to predict whether something will or will not go viral, but once it happens there’s no stopping it.
Singaporean kickstarts wafer-thin wireless battery booster for your smartphone Tech in Asia 9 Sep 2013
Battery packs for your phone usually come in the form of bulky cases or are attached perilously to your phone by a USB cable. But new battery technology should make all that heft disappear. A Singaporean startup is offering you a glimpse of the future with a wafer-thin battery booster that can charge any phone wirelessly, and the project is now going after crowdfunding. Called the WiFlux, it uses lithium polymer (li-po) battery tech – not the lithium ion (li-ion) of old – to keep its 1.2mm profile, and utilizes inductive charging so no cables are involved. Raffi Ismail tells us that he’s seeking $100,000 in funding on IndieGogo in order to start preproduction. Using a li-po battery, which has its electrolytes on a thin film, allows the WiFlux to be about the size and thickness of a credit card. He opted for the newest battery tech because he doesn’t want something that changes the profile of your device.
Xyec Picks Singapore Over Japan for Historic IPO: Southeast Asia Bloomberg 8 Sep 2013
Xyec Holdings Co. (XYEC), the first Japanese company to debut only in Singapore, plans to expand its information technology business in Southeast Asia through acquisitions and by hiring local talent The company plans to raise a couple of million dollars in an initial public offering and start trading on Singapore’s Catalist board for smaller enterprises on Sept. 18, Chief Executive Officer Manabu Kobayashi said. Tokyo-based Xyec is in talks with two Singaporean companies in the information technology industry about possible deals, he said, declining to elaborate because the talks are private.
NEC sets up research lab in Singapore Straits Times 10 Sep 2013
Japanese information technology giant NEC Corp has established a new research centre here called NEC Laboratories Singapore (NLS). Staff at the research centre, launched yesterday, will work on the latest safety and big data technologies to provide social infrastructure solutions to global markets. The centre will conduct joint research with local government agencies, organisations and businesses.
Singapore Government asked Yahoo for details of 189 accounts Straits Times 9 Sep 2013
Following the footsteps of tech giants Google and Facebook, Yahoo has published its first report detailing the requests it gets from Governments to reveal user information. The Singapore Government made requests on 189 individual accounts in the first six months of this year, said Yahoo in a report published over the weekend. Yahoo added that Government data requests were generally made in connection with criminal investigations. The company complied with 59 per cent of these requests. It also revealed that of all the Government requests received, it disclosed "non-content data" in 73 or 53 per cent of the requests. Such data consists of items such as information captured at the time of registration and includes name, location, and IP address, login details and billing information. Other transactional information such as who e-mails are being sent to and received from are also included.
Singapore's MediaCorp eyes greater visibility in Asean The Nation 9 Sep 2013
Singapore is playing a leading role in Asean's creative economy while building a regional brand by distributing its own cultural and entertainment content as well as collaborating with local production houses. Singapore's leading media company, Media Corporation, sees huge opportunities in the rise of pay-TV and the transitioning to digital terrestrial TV in many ASEAN countries including Thailand. "Thailand is our new entry market. I think there are several business opportunities. The first is content licensing. We want to sell more content for the Thai audience," Doreen Neo, managing director of MediaCorp Studios, told The Nation last week. "The second is the area of co-production. If we have an opportunity to co-produce, we will," she said.
Infrastructure
Singapore Adds Infrastructure to Remain Major Asian Energy Hub RIGZONE 29 Aug 2013
Singapore takes its role as an Asian energy hub seriously and constantly upgrades its infrastructure to support its status as the regional oil and gas center. Two projects currently undertaken by the government are an offshore hydrocarbons storage facility and an expansion in the capacity of the Singapore’s new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, which received its first commercial LNG cargo May 7 – marking the start of operations and completion of the $1.33 billion (SGD 1.7 billion) Main Terminal Project.
Landlord Foresees Singapore Office Rents Rising Modestly WSJ 4 Sep 2013
Hongkong Land, a Singapore-listed developer of high-end offices and homes, expects a modest increase in the island nation’s prime-office rents in the coming months. “For landlords with modern, well-located stock, I think you’re going to see flat rentals or maybe some small gains” in the coming months, Robert Garman, the company’s executive director for South Asia, said in an interview. Eventually, “we will see a steady pace of growth, though more moderate than seen in the late 2000s,” said Mr. Garman, whose company owns a third of Singapore’s Marina Bay Financial Center development. He declined to give specific projections.
Singapore Changi Airport to operate three runways and five terminals by mid-2020s CAPA 3 Sep 2013
Singapore's Minister of State for Finance and Transport and Changi 2036 Steering Committee chairperson Josephine Teo stated (30-Aug-2013) Singapore Changi Airport terminal five is scheduled to be operational in the mid 2020s and have initial capacity for 50 million passengers p/a. The terminal will increase the airport's total capacity to 135 million passengers p/a and will be linked to the other terminals, allowing the airport to be operated as an integrated facility to maximise passenger convenience and operational efficiency. Land will be set aside for airfreight and MRO facilities to the north of the terminal. The airport also plans to connect terminal five to the city's mass rapid transit system, improve road infrastructure to provide convenient access to the facility and review the adequacy of bus services at the airport. The concept plan for the terminal is expected to be finalised in 1H2014.
Singapore's (costly) underground ambitions Straits Times 10 Sep 2013
As Singapore developers start gearing up for a subterranean future, experts have warned of the pitfalls of going underground. They say plans for a possible network of tunnels, malls and research labs could fall foul of the island's patchy soil formations and built-up landscape. These factors could push up costs and make life difficult for planners, who would need to get even more businesses on board. On the other hand, burrowing into the earth could provide valuable room to build in space-scarce Singapore."Our land boundary is finite," said Professor Yong Kwet Yew of the National University of Singapore's civil and environment engineering department.
Malaysia mulls third link bridge to Singapore Yahoo! 10 Sep 2013
Malaysia is studying the possibility of a new bridge between Johor and Singapore, said Malaysia’s Works Minister Datuk Fadillah Yusof. According to the New Straits Times, the proposed bridge will link the eastern side of Johor, from Desaru and Pengerang, to Changi in Singapore. If it becomes reality, it will be the third link between the countries, after the Causeway and the Tanjung Kupang-Tuas Second Link. Both existing bridges see heavy traffic flow. The feasibility of the third bridge was one of the key bilateral issues Malaysia’s Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong discussed in May 2009.