School bus operators may hire more foreigners to ease driver shortage: MOE
SINGAPORE: Selected school bus operators will be allowed to hire more foreign drivers to ease the manpower crunch that has forced some companies to terminate their contracts.
This was among the measures announced by the Ministry of Education (MOE) on Monday (Jun 12) to address issues faced by school bus operators.
They can submit their applications to MOE to request a higher foreign worker quota for school bus drivers on a “time-limited basis”.
“We will work closely with operators to phase in more foreign workers based on their needs, taking into consideration the extent of their participation in serving our schools, as well as their demonstrated continued efforts to actively recruit local school bus drivers,” the ministry said in a media release.
The school bus contract template will also be revised to allow operators to submit two sets of bus fares for both the initial contract and option periods. This would allow them to take expected cost increases into account, instead of being contractually bound to the same fares for the whole contract period.
Schools select school bus operators through a competitive bidding process using a contract template provided by MOE.
A typical school bus operator contract lasts four years, with a two-year initial contract period and an option period of another two years.
The revised template will take effect for new contracts awarded to operators for their services from 2024, said MOE.
The ministry noted that the recent shortage of drivers and rising cost pressures have made it more challenging for school bus operators to sustain their operations.
It said it received “persistent feedback” in the past year from operators about losing their school bus drivers and the difficulties in recruiting local drivers.
“To ensure the viability of the school bus sector, the Ministry of Education has engaged bus associations and operators on measures to alleviate their operational constraints,” it added.
Singapore’s refreshed social compact could see new approach to success, skills: Lawrence Wong
SOCIAL SUPPORT AND SOLIDARITY
Singapore will do more to assure those in the broad middle group and the vulnerable so that they can meet their needs and not be left behind, Mr Wong said on Monday.
He highlighted some key areas that are currently looked at such as support for the unemployed, lower-income families, vulnerable groups and seniors.
Those who are unemployed will receive help with their day-to-day needs, as they go about skills training and job search, while the support for lower-income families will enable and empower them to move forward, uplift their wages and close the early gaps in their children’s lives.
There will also be support for vulnerable groups including persons with disabilities as well as seniors in terms of their long-term care, living arrangements and retirement needs.
A renewed sense of solidarity is also needed to underpin Singapore’s refreshed social compact, Mr Wong added.
While surveys conducted suggest that overall trust in Singapore remains high, there is still scope for improvement at the local and neighbourhood levels, the Deputy Prime Minister said.
The country must continue to find ways to strengthen this sense of trust between people in Singapore, said Mr Wong.
“We want every group to celebrate their own cultures and traditions, as these are part of their roots and identity.
“At the same time, we encourage everyone to look beyond your own communities, to come together, and to expand the common ground we share as Singaporeans.”
This must be done “deliberately and purposely” to facilitate more inter-group interactions, he said.
“Such interactions are deeply personal decisions. The government cannot force it to happen. Therefore there are no easy policy interventions,” he added.
In his speech, Mr Wong said Singapore’s social compact is “not forged by confrontation or coercion or asserting the rights of one group over another”, but rather built through regular interactions, accommodation and compromise, as well as mutual respect and fellowship.
“The Singapore way is not insular, it’s not tribal. It’s always open, inclusive and big-hearted,” added Mr Wong.
Malaysian victims of job scam syndicates overseas easily swayed by online campaigns: Minister
According to the Bangkok Post, citing official sources, Ms Chong had gone to a river pier in Mae Sai before her family lost contact with her. The sources said that Ms Chong checked in to a hotel near the Mae Sai border checkpoint on May 29. Ms Chong was reportedlyContinue Reading
Death toll in Vietnam shootings climbs to nine
An earlier report by the MPS said two people being held hostage by the attackers were freed, while another person being held managed to free himself. The Central Highlands, home to a number of ethnic minorities, is considered a sensitive area for Vietnam’s authoritarian government and has long been aContinue Reading
A flat to live in or for investment? Panellists weigh in on how Singapore balances the two objectives
SINGAPORE: Should Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats be allowed to be used as an investment?
This was one of the main topics during a panel discussion on housing at the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) 35th anniversary conference on Monday (Jun 12).
During the panel, Associate Professor Walter Theseira from the Singapore University of Social Sciences’ School of Business noted that housing was a favourable method of accumulating wealth among Singapore households, given the relatively low cost and risk involved.
Over the last 60 years, he said generations of Singaporeans have experienced a huge upgrade in the quality of housing, and enjoyed significant wealth accumulation through ownership of HDB flats and private property.
However, this has set up expectations which are not sustainable, he said.
“Singaporeans want affordable and accessible housing, but they want housing to be … their aspiration to wealth accumulation,” he said.
“Policy cannot actually meet both of these objectives simultaneously and arguably, because of this as well, housing wealth is increasingly a source of inequality and it’s also very hard to monetise for retirement.”
To “de-link” housing and investment, he gave a few suggestions, which include de-emphasising housing wealth accumulation through adjusting the tax system.
Pointing out that the current tax system favours housing investment, he said the government could consider reducing tax privileges for housing, or taxing housing capital gains.
Other suggestions include shifting away from a capital purchase subsidy system to subsidising the use of housing and broadening access to desirable public housing.
While the Prime Location Public Housing (PLH) model, which was launched in 2021 to build HDB flats in central locations, shows “great promise” in dealing with some of these thorny issues, Assoc Prof Theseira said more needs to be done.
Meanwhile, Senior Minister of State for National Development and Foreign Affairs Sim Ann reiterated that home ownership remains a key focus for public housing but added that there is some flexibility such as using flats as home offices or renting out rooms to tenants.
“The government sees no reason to prevent flat prices from appreciating in line with general economic conditions, because the benefits accrue to home owners but we consider volatile price fluctuations to be undesirable,” she said.
“We need to minimise distortions, such as windfall effects and, very importantly, subsidies and grants must be at a level that Singaporean taxpayers can afford over the long term,” she added.
The false and failed logic of Western sanctions
In February 2022, a war began between Russia and Ukraine. On paper, the odds were lopsided. Russia had the second most powerful military in the world, while Ukraine ranked between Vietnam and Thailand.
Many analysts expected a short, brutal war and Russian annexation. What we got was a long, bloody war, with the sides much more evenly matched.
It is not out of the realm of possibility that Ukraine will end up reclaiming control over not just the Donbas but perhaps even Crimea.
The United States and its allies in Europe and Asia leaned heavily on non-military forms of pressure. They instituted one of the most comprehensive packages of economic sanctions in history.
These included freezing Russian assets — such as the foreign exchange reserves held by the Russian central bank in foreign central banks — and the expulsion of Russian banks from the SWIFT interbank payment network.
Major restrictions on goods and services trade were also imposed. The sanctions, obviously, did not stop the war, but they have evened the odds.
The days when a middle-income power like Russia could hope to be self-sufficient in military production are long gone, particularly given the technological requirements for modern weaponry. Western sanctions crippled Russia’s ability to replenish its arsenal. This has made a real difference for Ukraine.
It is now likely that Russia will have to limit operations to conserve ammunitions that it cannot replace at the rate it needs. The medium-term impact of the sanctions regime on technology-intensive sectors like aviation is also starting to tell.
The long-run consequences of Russia being unplugged from the global exchange of technology can be seen in the estimates of potential GDP growth.
A country of its income level — per capita income is roughly on a par with China — ought to be able to manage respectable rates in the mid–single digits. Instead, Russia has a gloomy future of 1% growth, while its population is both aging and shrinking.
The turmoil in global commodity markets, as Russian gas has been withheld, revealed that disconnecting a large country from the world economy comes with serious consequences.
A sober analysis would show that these consequences could be contemplated in the event of armed conflict — a Chinese invasion of Taiwan for example — but should not become a regular tool of statecraft.
Unfortunately, that is precisely what policymakers are now putting into practice. Export controls are often considered an entirely separate phenomenon from sanctions, but economically speaking they are very similar.
Controls on “sensitive” products — like extreme ultraviolet lithography machines necessary to produce semiconductor chips — have been put in place to prevent “Western” technology from reaching China.
Washington, not content to impose its own bans, is strong-arming its allies into complying with a far-reaching set of restrictions. Beijing’s response is to speed up plans to develop a relatively autonomous semiconductor industry.
It is sometimes argued that it might be possible to devise a regularized system of sanctions to deter perceived as bad behavior that would not necessarily need to be put in place: a financial nuclear deterrent. But a resurrected Cold War logic of mutually assured destruction does not translate neatly to the logic of economic sanctions.
If a would-be antagonist of the United States is aware of the likely actions that Washington might take in the event of a conflict — like seizing its financial reserves held overseas — the antagonist nation will do everything to avoid facing these penalties prior to the outbreak of conflict. Some costs are unavoidable, but many can be minimized with preparation.
A world in which sanctions are routinely expected is one in which sanctions will become ineffective.
If sanctions and export controls become a banal tool of interstate competition, they will not only lose their potency; they will damage the global order they are supposed to protect.
The Biden administration suggests its new approach that combines aggressive industrial policy at home with strong economically coercive measures abroad will, in the words of the US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, “build a fairer, more durable global economic order.”
While it is legitimate to contemplate the use of sanctions in a scenario in which China turns to military means to resolve the Taiwan question, the export controls imposed by the West have little deterrent value.
The region with the most to lose from this scenario is Asia, which lies at the heart of a global economy built on the free movement of goods and capital, following economic rather than political logic.
Some countries might gain from the relocation of foreign investment away from China towards more politically friendly territory. But an economic order that is ruled by geopolitics will make the region, which depends on a production model characterized by complex international value chains, poorer.
The great and under-appreciated achievement of Bretton Woods was to divorce security concerns from economic ones. Japan was incorporated into the global economy through a system of clear rules that were in the mutual interests of both Japan, as a rising economic power, and the established powers of Europe and the United States.
The endeavor to incorporate Japan into the rules-based order was so successful that it is easy to forget that it was not inevitable.
The challenge of finding a durable modus vivendi between China and the United States is admittedly of another order of magnitude. But the catastrophe of the interwar years is a reminder of what happens when a rules-based order breaks down.
No set of institutional rules can prevent a country from behaving irrationally, as Russia did. But the economic order can be organized around principles that maximize the benefits of peaceful engagement.
Resurrecting and strengthening that order is the most important task facing Asia and the world.
Tom Westland is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Wageningen University and a Non-Resident Fellow at the East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
This article was originally published by East Asia Forum and is republished under a Creative Commons license.
SAF regular found dead at Changi Naval Base
SINGAPORE: A Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) regular serviceman was found dead at Changi Naval Base on Monday (Jun 12), the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) said. His body was found at about 8.50am and the Singapore Police Force and Singapore Civil Defence Force were activated. MINDEF said that his death wasContinue Reading
One-third of ethnic integration housing policy appeals succeeded in 2022, up from 21% in 2020
Mr Shanmugam said that the side effect of the EIP is that, over time, if someone is of a minority race living in a place where the Chinese EIP has been reached, they have to sell to a minority. This could mean taking a longer time to sell, and thereContinue Reading
Supply of temporary HDB flats for families to double to 4,000 over next 2 years: Sim Ann
SINGAPORE: More flats will be set aside to temporarily house families, with the supply doubling to 4,000 units over the next two years, announced Senior Minister of State for National Development Sim Ann on Monday (Jun 12).
Speaking at the Institute of Policy Studies’ 35th anniversary conference, Ms Sim said the Housing and Development Board (HDB) has achieved its target of increasing the supply of flats under the Parenthood Provisional Housing Scheme (PPHS) from 800 units in 2021 to 1,800 units in 2023.
She added there will be close to 2,000 flats under the scheme by the end of this year.
The scheme helps to temporarily house families as they await the completion of their new flats.
Ms Sim also said the PPHS application rates have “come down significantly” from more than 20 times in 2021, to around three times now.
“But we understand that buyers who booked their flats in the past two years have experienced longer waiting times because of the delays caused by COVID-19. So, HDB is hard at work to increase the PPHS supply further, doubling it again to 4,000 units over the next two years,” added Ms Sim.
“We hope these efforts will bring about some relief to the young families and to support their parenthood journeys.”
During her speech, Ms Sim also said HDB is studying ways to further maximise the available pool of PPHS flats, as there is sustained demand for such flats while supply remains limited.
This includes requiring flat sharing for the larger PPHS units.
“This will allow more homebuyers awaiting their HDB flats to benefit from subsidised market rental,” added Ms Sim.
‘Aem Cyanide’ cases will go to prosecutors on Friday
Investigators will present their case reports against accused serial killer Sararat “Aem Cyanide” Rangsiwuthaporn to prosecutors on Friday, deputy national police chief Pol Gen Surachate Hakparn said on Monday.
Pol Gen Surachate was speaking at the Correctional Institution for Women in Bang Khen area of Bangkok, where Ms Sararat is beng detained.
The deputy police chief filed additional charges against Ms Sararat during his visit. She was earlier charged with premeditated murder and forgery in the case of Siriporn “Koy” Khanwong, one of her 15 alleged poisoning victims.
Pol Gen Surachate said Ms Sararat faced similar charges in all cases – including premeditated murder, poisoning, forgery and theft.
He said the police reports on the 15 cases were complete. He had consulted prosecutors before wrapping them up.
All charges against Ms Sararat were supported with strong evidence, he said. If found guilty she could face the death penalty, but the court could reduce this to life if she confessed. For now, she was still regarded as innocent.
The deputy national police chief said investigation reports on the cases against her former husband, Pol Lt Col Withoon Rangsiwuthaporn, and her lawyer, Thanicha Aeksuwannawat, would also be forwarded to the prosecutors on Friday.
Pol Lt Col Withoon, former deputy superintendent of Suan Phueng police station in Ratchaburi province, was charged with receiving stolen property and forging and using official documents. Ms Thannicha was charged with assisting her client destroy or conceal evidence of a crime.
Pol Gen Surachate was full of praise for all police investigators handling the cases, saying they had worked hard and carefully.
The 15 cases spread over seven provinces – Nakhon Pathom, Samut Sakhon, Kanchanaburi, Phetchaburi, Ratchaburi, Udon Thani and Mukdahan.
Ms Sararat was arrested on April 25 following a complaint filed by the mother and elder sister of Siriporn “Koy” Khanwong, 32, of Kanchanaburi, one of her 15 alleged victims.
Most victims were linked to the suspect through private savings schemes and car financing deals. All the deceased were found to have been with Ms Sararat shortly before they died.