No more dr Oz bloke, just me

aka Dr Charlotte Charlatan

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Singapore is leaking talent

DDU asked "I thought Singapore imports workers from third world countries to do the menial jobs "

Don't know if DDU has read this

Singapore is leaking talent: SM Goh

TEHRAN: As he sat speaking to reporters about his meetings with Iranian leaders, Singapore Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong's thoughts were still focused on home.

Singapore, he said, is leaking talent. Not just ordinary talent, but its best and finest.

The concern bubbled over when he was asked if Singaporeans could ever be as proud as the Iranians.

"If we can last 1,000 years, I think we will be just as proud as the Iranians, probably even more," he said.

But the question bothering him was whether Singapore could continue to do as well over the next 50 years as it had done in the past.

"The issue which we are most concerned with is the loss of our own people at the very top," said Mr Goh. "These are bright young people, children of very well educated Singaporeans."

Some may study overseas, and the best ones were harvested straight away by companies there. And this often starts a spiral that ends up with Singapore losing these talents.

"They do not want to come back to Singapore. They want the experience of working in foreign universities, banks and companies," said the Senior Minister.

And often, two or three years down the road, these talented Singaporeans marry overseas and settle down there.

Even if they were to think of moving back to Singapore later, some find houses here too expensive. Others are put off by Singapore's shortage of space. Still others prefer the lifestyle in America, Europe or Australia.

"They don't come back; we lose them," he said. "This is a very big problem for us because if we lose the top 0.5 per cent from the next generation, Singapore will have a much lower 'peak'. The world is now competing on human resources and talent."

That was why Singapore, too, has had to turn to talented people from other countries, get them to work here and eventually turn them into Singaporeans. That was the only way to ensure that Singapore's population "peak" would remain at a high level, said Mr Goh.

The battle for talent has not just been between various countries. Closer to home, the Government stands to lose civil servants to the private sector.

Mr Goh said that it had been mentioned in Parliament that salaries in the civil service will be reviewed. Ministers' salaries are now pegged to those of civil servants.

"I personally support such a review because I know from my chairmanship of the Monetary Authority of Singapore that there has been a high turnover of staff over the past one or two years," said Mr Goh.

And since the finance industry as a whole expected wages to go up significantly this year, the MAS has a lot of catching up to do, he said.

In fact, the Public Service Division had touched on a similar point earlier.

It had said that 42 per cent of accountants who left Government jobs over the past year had cited better pay and prospects in the private sector.

About 46 per cent of legal service officers who resigned over the same period also expected higher salaries outside.

In Tehran, Mr Goh said: "I understand the need for civil service as a whole to revise the pay for civil servants. Of course that means that ministers' pay will also be revised, but by how much, I do not know. No decision has yet been taken." - TODAY

3 Comments:

At 5:35 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Is Singapore losing its talent just because those people have been exposed to better future and prospects in other countries?
After working for the 2nd month in this xx organisation, no one (include my boss) bothers to ask if I am doing ok. No one shows any concerns about my progress at all. On the positive note, I can do whatever I like without answering to anybody. hohoho.
When they employed the previous ang moh podiatrist, they even took him out for lunch. Making sure he is well taken care of...etc.
WTF.
Obvious bias shown from the Human resource management. I've never like them in the first place.
Maybe it's too early to judge.Basically the quality of local staffs are not being appreciated at all.
Coming from a delicate profession like mine,if the management don't learn to 'love' me, it's their loss anyway!

Now I can't wait for Aust-Singapore dual citizenship to happen. ; )

Regards,
Flatfeet

 
At 3:00 AM, Blogger Dentist Down Under said...

Flatfeet:

You don't talk, I don't talk, no one will know you've dual citizenship. Hurhur

 
At 3:12 AM, Blogger Dentist Down Under said...

dr oz bloke:

Brain drain is not a Singapore problem, it's a worldwide problem. You gain some, you lose some. Even Australia is losing our smarties to the US and the UK.

Personally I think Singapore employers have double standards. I noticed that the ang moh staff always get paid more than local staff with the same if not better qualifications, and they also get treated better. I still remember when I was doing high school in Singapore my high school teacher always kbkp about the Aussie teacher who get paid 50% more and gets free accommodation. The only thing about him that's different from the local teacher was that he has an ang moh accent and he's white, qualification wise, I don't see a UQ degree better than a Cambridge degree. So why would talented Singaporeans want to stay in Singapore when they get treated like dirt and not appreciated by the employers?

Flatfeet's case is a perfect example. Better qualification but lower pay than ang moh working in the same hospital. How do you justify that?

 

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