RESTRICTED
5. An emerging Singapore was a expatriate job problems.
6.
problem in employing expatriates in shortage of school places. Qualified applicants were faced with educational
Singapore is the "swing" oil refining centre of SE Asia, but competition was emerging from the Thais who were constructing their own refinery. Vietnam was the obvious market of the future, but BP Singapore had received a stiff note from the Singaporean MFA warning them not to do anything "too permanent" with the Vietnamese. The Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) had suggested one way out of the dilemma might be for BP to tackle the Vietnam market through their company in Hong Kong!
in rising
Potential problems for Singapore were residential property prices resulting from the situation in Hong Kong. The property market was buoyant but care was needed that prices should not become unacceptably more expensive than in Kuala Lumpur.
8. Mr Robert Walvis. Chairman and CEO of Shell, said operational costs were an important consideration but the oil industry was not as vulnerable in this respect as some other industries. Top people in the industry in Singapore were paid more than their equivalent in the UK. Middle management was cheaper to employ, but salaries were continuing to rise. Workers at the lower level were still in the Third World wage bracket.
9. The growing economies of Singapore's neighbours resulted in eg Japan, Korea, Thailand and Malaysia building up their own refining industries. There was the danger of a "bamboo curtain" being thrown around Singapore and its exports. Singapore will particularly have to watch its neighbours' plans for chemical plants. The region can only support one major chemical complex.
10. How
could Singapore come unstuck? There are increasing tensions affecting the traditional close relationship between government and the TUC. The private sector was also nervous about the advantage government owned corporations had in obtaining contracts, particularly in chemicals and biotechnology.
:
RESTRICTED
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.