Million Dollar Salaried Minister Grace Fu urges Singapore companies to take advantage of Vietnam and threw a back-handed compliment against Singaporeans and said that Vietnam had "Labour cost is very low, (they have a) very hardworking population, very eager to learn"
Given that she is paid million dollars of taxpayers annually, I feel that it is inappropriate to make such comments. Is she pro low wages? Does she encourage rich Singapore businessmen to exploit Vietnamese?
If Vietnamese is very hardworking, does she indirectly mean that Singaporeans are very lazy? Don't forget that Singaporeans are already working very hard but other countries in Europe are working less but their quality of work is still maintained.
Ms Fu was also pro-foreigner when the White Paper 6.9 million was passed in Parliament. Her arguments were it would harm SMEs and businesses.
Ms Grace Fu should not be thinking from the point of SMEs only.
It might be a blessing in disguise that these SME business fail as it will sieve out the good quality SMEs than having SMEs that struggle to stay afloat due to poor management.
Most SMEs in Singapore survive by depressing workers salaries with hardly a good solid business practices in place. Their survival is price wars with no technology advantage.
Already, the SME market is overcrowded and very competitive.
By artificially helping SMEs stay afloat, it will give the false impression that SMEs are surviving but in essence, they will rely more heavily on government incentives and subsidies from the annual Budget to stay afloat. It is a vicious cycle that needs to be corrected and encourage Singapore to take advantage of low costs in Vietnam will only fuel it.
CJ
TRS Contributor
