Commentary

Business competitiveness in the age of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and ASEAN Economic Community

What a difference 48 years makes. It was 1967 when Singapore was among the founding members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Its GDP was around US$1.2 billion then; by Q1 2016 it is forecast to grow to US$331 billion, an increase of around 275 times – adjusted for inflation, about eight times. And as we enter into 2016 – when the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) are about to become political and economic realities, a collective ASEAN’s growth narrative is only just beginning.

Commentary

Business competitiveness in the age of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and ASEAN Economic Community

Commentary

Why aren't more small businesses going digital?

This is the age of disruption. The changes in markets, consumer psychology, and the Internet have caused major changes in how business works. Cycles of booms and crises come more often. New industries and companies can rise overnight, and established names can topple as fast.

Commentary

Impact of rising US interest rates to property investments in Singapore

The US economy is doing well and the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates for the first time in almost a decade in a bid to tighten money supply.

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Can graduates still get good jobs?

In MOM's Labour Market Report, it was reported that only 100 new jobs were created for locals whereas over 31,600 jobs were created for foreigners.

Commentary

MediShield Life and employee healthcare

Now that Medishield Life is well entrenched, do we still need to offer employees an Employee Benefit package?

Commentary

Income tax tips for new expats in Singapore

Singapore is a reputed international financial centre. However, it is not a tax haven and it has tightly regulated tax policies for companies and individual taxpayers. This piece will lay out the salient features of Singapore's taxation system for new expats.

Commentary

The impact of yuan devaluation to the Singapore dollar

Most analysts are bearish on the short-term prospects of the Singapore dollar. A number of factors have combined to lead to a situation where further depreciation is expected in the SGD's value on top of the slide that has already taken place.

Commentary

Employment Pass quotas – good or bad?

The latest Ministry of Manpower's Labour Market Report 2015, which revealed that local employment growth was a mere 100 (compared to foreign employment growth of 31,600), fueled unhappiness among some Singaporeans that companies have been able to bring in foreigners en masse for managerial and executive jobs without considering if Singaporeans could have filled the jobs in the first place.

Commentary

Here's how fitness will improve performance management

I have been thinking and contemplating how performance reviews are done in companies annually or monthly. Some companies are even getting rid of it completely. Then it occurred to me that performance management should really move to "just-in-time performance management."

Commentary

What Singaporean investors should NOT do in 2016

To make their money grow, Singaporean investors should keep an eye on the headlines, but avoid knee-jerk reactions.

Commentary

What is in it for SMEs with the current economic outlook

According to flash estimates, Singapore's economy grew at a respectable rate of 2.1 percent in 2015, close to the official government estimate of 2 percent. While this is a reasonable achievement, it is much lower than the 2014 figure of 2.9 percent.

Commentary

On the Singapore-USA trade relation and the TPP

According to 2014 data, the goods trade relation between Singapore and the USA stands at US$30.2 billion for the exports to Singapore and US$16.4 billion for the imports from Singapore, basically in line with data for the past five years from 2010 onward.

Commentary

Can globalising without going global help Singapore businesses in a downbeat economy?

I guess you have heard about it. The various news reports about banks axing their employees, a sluggish stock market worldwide, or a slow property market in 2016. By connecting the dots together, it may seem like we are facing a potential downbeat economy in Singapore and perhaps worldwide. So, how can our businesses sustain or be profitable in the face of an incoming downbeat economy?

Commentary

The uphill task of securing high-skilled HR managers in a candidate-short market

Singapore’s rising status as a hub for multinationals’ regional headquarters is set to create a substantial number of new jobs for human resources professionals.

Commentary

Making Singapore ASEAN's data hub

On 31 December, ten Asean member-states gave birth to a common market, the Asean Economic Community (AEC), a boost to Southeast Asia's combined economic clout as the world's seventh largest economy. AEC has an estimated economic value of US$2.5 trillion annually, powered by a fast-growing market of more than 600 million people.

Commentary

Compliance awakens

Last November I wrote that Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) was just the beginning. For those who are unfamiliar, FATCA was enacted by the United States Congress back in 2010 to encourage tax compliance by US persons using non-US financial accounts. The stated purpose of the law was "to clamp down on tax evasion and improve taxpayer compliance by giving the IRS new administrative tools to detect, deter, and discourage offshore tax abuses."

Commentary

The future of work after SG50

Two new statutory boards, SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) will be established and overseen by the Ministry of Education while Workforce Singapore (currently WDA) will be overseen by the Ministry of Manpower. The overarching objective is to help Singaporeans continually possess relevant skills to find the jobs they want.

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