How have we done as an economy, society and nation?
Former NTUC Secretary-General and Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say says he often asks himself these questions in his 23 years as a parliamentarian.
He touched on these three topics in his Budget Debate speech on 26 February 2020.
As an economy, Singapore has always faced the challenge of maximising the upside of globalisation, according to Mr Lim.
“Globalisation has redefined the world of technology and innovation, market and competition.”
However, Mr Lim believes that the implications of globalisation can be either positive or negative – it is positive for those who are “good enough to move up the economic ladder”, while negative for those who are unable to compete as “they will be left further behind.”
Singapore, as a nation, has always tried to take advantage of globalisation.
“We are determined to succeed, to beat those who are cheaper than us. We try to be better than them [global competitors]. And to beat those who are better than us, we try to be cheaper. But the cheaper keeps getting better, and the better keeps getting cheaper. We have also continuously restructured our economy faster than them [global competitors]. In short, we try to be cheaper, better, faster.”
However, Singapore does not try to meet these goals by lowering wages, but by raising skills and productivity and developing new business capabilities, added Mr Lim. These can help command higher wages for workers and higher premiums for businesses.
The approach to the economy applies to both “good times and bad times.” Mr Lim used the Global Financial Crises in 2008 as an example.
“Other countries cut jobs to save costs. With our tripartite partnership, we did the opposite. We cut costs to save jobs. They [other countries] tried to survive the downturn. But we upturned the downturn.”
With this approach, Singapore’s economy recovered much faster than others.
“Many countries took years to recover from the massive job losses … We took just a few months to return to full employment. Not many Singaporeans remember what we did right at a time when so much could have gone wrong for us. But for my Sisters and Brothers in the Labour Movement, we will never forget how much was at stake and how important it was, and always will be, that we get it right all the time, including this time with the Stabilisation and Support Package.”
Singapore has a local workforce of over 2 million people who need jobs to be able to take care of themselves and their families, said Mr Lim. He added that it is never easy to compete globally for good jobs and investments.
“But because we dare to be different, we never say die, we created not just 2 million jobs for our people. We created 3 million jobs in Singapore. Of the three types of growth – Economic Growth, Employment Growth, and Wage Growth – many countries can achieve maybe one of these three. But for Singapore, we’ve achieved three out of three consistently, decade after decade. Indeed, we’ve done well as one Singapore tripartism. We are winners, not losers in globalisation.”
Mr Lim also believes that Singapore’s challenge is to minimise the downside of globalisation, as he has seen how it has widened inequality globally, disunited nations, divided people and broken up societies.
Countries that have been affected most negatively by globalisation have one thing in common, said Mr Lim – they pursue economic growth as the end objective at the expense of social cohesion.
“Not us in Singapore. Our end objective in nation-building has always been social cohesion, not economic growth. Economic growth is just a means for us to generate the resources we need to improve the lives of our people.”
A way to do this is by countering social divides with social transfers, with the Government spending billions in each term, to take care of issues such as healthcare cost, seniors, public housing, and education.
Nation-building is a journey with no end, believes Mr Lim. And Singapore needs to strengthen its sustainability for long term progress.
“If one generation does not worry for the next generation, our future generations will have much to worry about. By then, it could be too late.”
Mr Lim cited water supply as an example, stating that Singapore could have added to its water supply through desalination, but doing so would be energy-intensive, costly, and not environmentally friendly.
“We came up with a same-same but different solution, by not just adding but also multiplying our water supply. We closed our water loop, and we turned every drop of water into two drops of water or more with the advances in membrane technology. With the support of the nation, we achieved something unachievable in other places – the public acceptance of new water … Despite our many limitations as a small country, we have done well as one Singapore unlimited.”
According to Mr Lim, with the downsides of globalisation, some economies may choose to become more inward-looking. But this will make them less competitive.
“For Singapore, our choice is clear. What we want is neither globalisation with a divided society, nor deglobalisation with a less competitive economy. We want the best of both worlds – a globally competitive economy and a locally cohesive society, both at the same time. Globalisation plus Localisation gives us Glocalisation.”
To achieve Glocalisation, Singapore must strive to be pioneers and leaders in innovation, such as in the area of artificial intelligence (AI). AI has come a long way since its early days and is now used in areas such as medicine, banking, engineering and data analytics.
“Together with AI and human intelligence, we can be like a tiger with wings, a powerful force to reshape our future for the better … We must run fast and excel in our ability to combine the complementary strength of AI and human intelligence so we can transform our future Singapore economy into one of the smartest in the world.”
Mr Lim believes that a country’s success is “not judged by how well the people at the top are doing, but how well the people at the bottom are being helped by the Government and treated by the general public.”
Mr Lim said that the widening “income gap can and must be narrow.” This can be done through initiatives such as the Progressive Wage Model (PWM). Mr Lim’s speech also saw him urge Singapore’s 4G leadership to widen and deepen the adoption of the PWM for more jobs and sectors.
“[This is so] that the social divide of high and low can be turned into social unity of high and low, moving up our employment ladder together.
On older workers, Mr Lim says that it is good that the retirement and re-employment ages will be raised progressively.
“But I hope many more jobs will be transformed to be ESS – Easier, Safer, Smarter – for our older workers so they can live more years of H2P2 life as they live longer. H2P2 – Healthy and Happy, Productive and Purposeful.”
Mr Lim also said that the competition for good jobs is global. He hopes that more will be done to transfer new and emerging capabilities from the foreign workforce to Singapore’s local workforce more systematically and collectively.
“This is one best way to reduce a lose-lose mindset of local versus foreign – two-third versus one-third, and grow the two-third plus one-third equals to greater than one.”
In his time as Labour Chief and also Manpower Minister, Mr Lim often used an equation (2/3 + 1/3 = >1), which illustrated how a productive workforce, comprising two-third local workers and one-third foreign workers, can be built by improving skills, jobs and technological capabilities.
