Prudence to guide rise in local varsity enrolment

PM: Govt must ensure employability even as it encourages personal growth

By Elgin Toh, The Straits Times, 8 Oct 2012

AUCKLAND - Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has indicated that even as the Government moves to increase university enrolment in Singapore, it will do so with prudence to ensure graduates have jobs.

Speaking at a dialogue with New Zealand businessmen, he said countries that wantonly "churned out" graduates simply created a different and worse problem for themselves: graduate unemployment.

He was asked about the city-state's policy on education in science and technology by Kiwi businessman Ken Stevens. Mr Lee said in reply that science and technology would likely transform the way economies produced.

Singapore is preparing itself for these changes by encouraging more students to take up the applied disciplines, such as engineering and the life sciences, and by emphasising the retraining of workers, he said. "We believe that we need to develop our people to the maximum potential in accordance to their abilities," he added.

But the Government needs to strike a balance between that aim and employability, he made clear.

"An unemployed university graduate is a much bigger problem than somebody who's got, say, a polytechnic diploma or some other qualification which is practice-oriented, which enables him to go and find a job and be productive," he said.

Mr Lee announced during his National Day Rally in August that by 2020, 40 per cent of each cohort would go to university, up from 27 per cent now.

He is on an official visit to New Zealand. Last night, he addressed businessmen at a dinner hosted by the non-profit Asia New Zealand Foundation.

Its chairman Philip Burdon praised Mr Lee for his role in boosting bilateral ties, and thanked Singapore especially for helping out in search-and-rescue efforts during the Christchurch earthquake last year.

Mr Lee, for his part, paid tribute to New Zealand's early recognition of the need to engage Asia and the constancy of its commitment since.

Ties with Singapore are warm, he said, both at the official level, in defence and trade, and at the people-to-people level. This stems from the two countries having a common interest in many issues because of their small sizes, such as progress towards an international order based on the rule of law and the push for free trade.

Singapore and New Zealand were among the four founders of the high-quality free trade grouping that has now expanded to become the Trans-Pacific Partnership and to include the United States.

Mr Lee called on New Zealand to continue to expand areas of cooperation with Singapore.

"Singapore can be the hub for New Zealand to connect with Asia and the world," he said, adding that the two could cooperate on developing food for Asian tastes.

They can also take advantage of complementarities in research, he said, noting that Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research was keen on partnering New Zealand institutes like AgResearch and Plant and Food Research on nutrition science.




Regulating tightly 'not always feasible'
Today's markets too complex to separate banking sectors, says PM

By Elgin Toh, The Straits Times, 8 Oct 2012

THE desire to regulate banks more tightly in the aftermath of the global financial crisis is understandable but not always practicable, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last night.

The pressure in the West to separate commercial banking from investment banking, for example, might in reality be impossible, he argued. The latter is "intrinsic to the financial system", he said.

In his response to a question on bank regulation at a dialogue session with Kiwi businessmen last night, Mr Lee weighed in on a debate raging in developed nations, especially ones where taxpayers' money have been used to bail out banks, to the outrage of many.

One argument is that a wall should be built between the safer commercial banking functions - that mainly involve taking deposits and giving out loans - and the more risky sort that hedge funds and investment banks engage in - which Mr Lee said sometimes amounted to "gambling".

The viability of commercial banks is then effectively guaranteed by the government to prevent any possible meltdown of the whole financial system. The latter, however, must be allowed to fail if they make the wrong bets.

Mr Lee expressed his scepticism with this argument yesterday, pointing out that "financial markets have variegated into all kinds of sophisticated activities, products, derivatives, investment activities, trading - and the (commercial banks) are also in these".

"It's very hard to draw a line," he said.

Furthermore, "if all the banks threaten to die at the same time, governments cannot help but go and rescue them", as they did in 2008 and 2009.

The Singapore Government's approach was therefore to accept that mishaps were in the nature of the capitalist system, and to build up the nation's reserves instead, in anticipation of such events.

In the 2008 crisis, said Mr Lee, Singapore could do the "right thing" and protect jobs by helping employers with Central Provident Fund payments because the reserves were there. Singapore was also fortunate that the storm passed relatively quickly, he said.

"Next time, better make sure we have got ammunition and powder dry, ready for a crisis."

PM asks Singaporeans abroad to join the national conversation and offer suggestions
By Elgin Toh, The Straits Times, 8 Oct 2012

PRIME Minister Lee Hsien Loong has called on Singaporeans living abroad to take part in Our Singapore Conversation, since they too have a stake in the country's future.

Speaking to Singaporeans living in Auckland yesterday, he stressed the importance of the Government paying more attention to citizens living overseas - by taking into account their concerns and keeping them updated about developments back home.

"(The national conversation) includes also Singaporeans who are overseas, who keep their links back home and who want to know about the country and its future. In today's world, it's completely possible and reasonable and good that you should also be part of this conversation, and your ideas also should contribute to the process and to the outcome," Mr Lee said.

"I'm sure there will be other opportunities you will get together. We look forward to your inputs because this is our shared future."

The 100 Singaporeans at the reception, including 25 students from the University of Auckland, were keen on contributing their ideas. Overseas Singaporeans, they said, will add to the diversity of perspectives.

Mr Allan Yee, president of the Singapore Club Auckland, which has 400 members, pledged to convert some of the club's regular activities into discussions on Singapore's future. He said the Our Singapore Conversation committee was more than welcome to send representatives to these sessions.

There was no shortage of views at yesterday's event.

Co-founders of the Singapore Students' Association (Auckland) Nicholas Chew and Melissa Tee said Singaporeans studying abroad were often at a disadvantage in looking for jobs in Singapore, because of their lack of networks and internship experience.

They said a government initiative to provide them with more information and links would help.

Mr Yee said the Singapore education system should encourage more spontaneity and creativity through less one-way-street teaching and more self-initiated projects by students.

Chairman of life sciences group NZBIO Paul Tan said firms in both countries would benefit if the regulatory authorities linked the approval process for new drugs, so that applications that got the go-ahead in one country were sped up in the other.