Originally posted by Daddy!!:yes. assemble in Singapore and put a chop "made in Singapore".
That assumes factories want to come. We have seen the denudation of the electronics sector, and the biomedicals are mostly from the EU or US. China has already sucked up most of the world's manufacturing, and we are left with scraps.
As Christina Romer, the new head of the CEA under President Barack Obama, pointed out, we should cut long term taxes which would stimulate saving and investment, thereby helping the economy grow.
Originally posted by AJ Witoslawski:As Christina Romer, the new head of the CEA under President Barack Obama, pointed out, we should cut long term taxes which would stimulate saving and investment, thereby helping the economy grow.
That's a bad choice in my opinion. The problem is that the whole model of economic growth currently is based on ignores the fact that natural resources are not replenishing at the rate at which it is being consumed.
Cutting long term taxes only benefits the corporations that are propagating the problem and giving them less incentive to change with the time. Even if the economy does grow, it would only crash harder in the future without changes to the fundamental idea of what economic growth is.
More funding for small business startups and more embracing of such by general Singaporians. As someone running a new company believe me when I tell you it's hard to find people willing to come and work for a small company.
Everyone in singapore is looking for big company with benefits and job security. Much more conservative lot than I've worked with in other countries.
Originally posted by mjallday:More funding for small business startups and more embracing of such by general Singaporians. As someone running a new company believe me when I tell you it's hard to find people willing to come and work for a small company.
Everyone in singapore is looking for big company with benefits and job security. Much more conservative lot than I've worked with in other countries.
Salute to you . I admire and respect people who start their own businesses. I have a few friends doing it , some starting , some failed , some still in it .
What does your business deal with anyway ?
Originally posted by mjallday:More funding for small business startups and more embracing of such by general Singaporians. As someone running a new company believe me when I tell you it's hard to find people willing to come and work for a small company.
Everyone in singapore is looking for big company with benefits and job security. Much more conservative lot than I've worked with in other countries.
Small businesses have a bad rep in Singapore for having poor benefits, working conditions and no clear route of advancement. You can't compare people here with those in the region because those in the region are just happy to get what ever scraps they can lay their hands on and cost of living isn't as high.
Originally posted by Fingolfin_Noldor:The main premise of the trade agreements is to cut back on tarrifs to near zero on exports and imports on both sides of the agreement, and the opening of markets. This in turn means that companies involved in the trade benefit from reduced costs.
However, how does it stimulate more trade? Costs is only one factor in the overall decision matrix. The first question is what we have to offer. The next is what the other side offers. The final is whether we are a large enough market worth caring about. All of the above vary from trade agreement to trade agreement, because for example, in the case of the Singapore-US FTA, the actual benefit is at best mostly limited to the banking sector, because that's the only sector that is most appealing to foreigners. And even so, HK has long benefited from its willingness to open up the gates of its financial sector. We were merely playing catch up. For the India/Singapore FTA, I'm not sure how to quantify that. On one hand, we can go offer services in India, on the other, the legendary Indian byzantine bureaucracy is sure to put a damper on anything.
In the case of the banking sector, it expanded quite a lot over the last 5 years because of government liberalisation. Let's face it, the local banks suck monkey balls when compared against their larger European and US counterparts. So letting more sophisticated competition in meant that our local banks had to reform considerably to fight back. But note, that banking sector is the main sector that actually saw considerable benefits. Even the telecommunications sector is still dominated by a triad of government linked companies.
Another thing to note, for companies who have no choice but to deal with middle men, given the small size of our economy and the lack of competition, the benefit is low or neglible. Why? Simple. Just because costs have gone down, does not mean the middle men are willing to cut back on prices. They won't. So the actual tangible benefit is going to be hard to analyse and quantify.
Well said ... So at least you do agree that there is some benefit for trade agreement then. And cost is in the matrix, it will depend on the value of the transaction to see the weightage of cost in the formula.
I think there is lots of chicken and egg sceraino in businesses, you cant wait for all the things to be in place in order to start businesses. Part of the work of a business is to set the things in place which if the government is taking up to do it, isn't that the best.
Taking competition into consideration, if 2 companies in different countries are trying to setup business venture in the same foreign land, it will definately give a better advantage if something is in place.
I do agree on your point on middlemen but the work of the middleman is also to find more opportunities for you. Of cos there are various pros and cons for using middleman instead of setting up a sales office directly ( I think that is not relevant here and I do not have much experience except common sense to share ).
Originally posted by Fingolfin_Noldor:Small businesses have a bad rep in Singapore for having poor benefits, working conditions and no clear route of advancement. You can't compare people here with those in the region because those in the region are just happy to get what ever scraps they can lay their hands on and cost of living isn't as high.
You mean ebay business?
Originally posted by Beautiful951:
You mean ebay business?
Er no, business in general. Very few Singapore companies actually use ebay for anything.
Originally posted by Ice Dive:
Salute to you . I admire and respect people who start their own businesses. I have a few friends doing it , some starting , some failed , some still in it .What does your business deal with anyway ?
Me and some friends are trying to take on eBay and all the other online selling sites with a company called Cannla.
We've just launched and are now turning to the task of marketing. Getting a good response so far but I'm sure it'll get harder as time goes on.