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pharoah88
Supreme |
11-Aug-2010 10:18
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Errant companies still able to hire foreign workers under different name ESTHER NG estherng@mediacorp.com.sg SINGAPORE Now, there may be another trick up the sleeves of the few errant employers here, according to migrant welfare groups. Some companies who owe wages to their workers are apparently able to continue hiring and advertising for foreign labour under a different name, said Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) and the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (Home). And workers who were owed salaries may get just a portion of their money and be repatriated even as another company is set up by the same employer. Checks with the Ministry of Manpower have found that its taskforce, set up in January last year, has intensified efforts to tackle illegal labour supply syndicates and “shell companies”, among other cases (see box). But some are wondering if more can be done upstream to prevent such practices. Member of Parliament Madam Halimah Yacob, who is also a National Trades Union Congress Deputy Secretary-General suggested that the ministry maintain an alert list of directors and partners who open companies under different names. She said: “MOM could check against this list when companies apply for work permits. Only those with good track records should be given work permits.” Work permit applications are being scrutinised more closely for those “who do not have legitimate or regular work” for their workers, and “suspicious employers” are investigated, MediaCorp’s checks with the ministry have found. An industry source, who declined to be named, said: “Every industry has its black sheep, and these usually tend to be small or shell companies. Big companies have their reputations to maintain and won’t indulge in such shady practices.” But it is not easy to separate the wheat from the chaff, though, as industry players pointed out. Established firms and some condominium developers also open businesses under different names for legitimate reasons, such as to “spread” their risk, said directors at three construction companies who declined to be named because of the “sensitive” nature of the topic. Nishimatsu Construction general manager (commercial) Philip Khoo suggested that workers be paid weekly instead of monthly to weed out financially-suspect companies. Home executive director Jolovan Wham said Singapore could set up a fund much like Hong Kong’s Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund, where, should a company go under, — There have been unpaid salaries, kickbacks and phantom worker scams. |
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pharoah88
Supreme |
11-Aug-2010 10:04
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Companies should make MVC a bigger component in wage structure It would serve as a buffer against future economic SHOCKS, says Manpower Minister Gan
S RAMES H |
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pharoah88
Supreme |
11-Aug-2010 09:34
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Last month, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that about 100,000 foreign workers will be needed this year to sustain the breakneck economic growth. Besides this 100,000 jobs created fOr foreigners in 2010, how many jobs are created fOr SINGAPOREANS in 2010 ? ? ? ? SHOW the TALENT PROFILE of these 100,000 foreign workers. PROVE that nO SINGAPOREANS [WHO are UNemplOyed] are CAPABLE Of dOing these 100,000 jObs ? ? ? ? |
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pharoah88
Supreme |
11-Aug-2010 09:23
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Compared to what’s happening in their home countries, Singapore’s as attractive a place to work as it can get. Ms Peony Lim of Robert Walters Singapore's population did not increase but foreigners have increased by at least one million already. All the investments created jobs for foreigners and nOt for Singaporeans ? ? ? ?
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pharoah88
Supreme |
11-Aug-2010 09:17
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A Western invasion? Recruiters here see surge in job applications from UK , North America Teo Xuanwei xuanwei@mediacorp.com.sg SINGAPORE In the past year, resumes from outside Asia — particularly North America and the United Kingdom — have surged between 20 and 50 per cent, recruiters and headhunters told MediaCorp. The Singapore economy grew by 17.9 per cent between January and June, and while economic growth is expected to moderate in the second half of the year, officials yesterday maintained the full-year growth forecast at 13 to 15 per cent. This outstrips estimates of around 10 per cent growth in regional powerhouse China. In contrast, governments in the West are embarking on austerity programmes to cut budget deficits. “Compared to what’s happening in their home countries, Singapore’s as attractive a place to work as it can get,” said Ms Peony Lim from recruitment consultancy Robert Walters. Ms Lim, who is Robert Walters’ associate director (sales and marketing, engineering and supply chain), said jobs in Singapore — particularly in IT, finance and biomedical sciences — were in higher demand compared to the rest of Asia. “Many multinational corporations base their regional headquarters here, so it’s only logical that many want to workat the hub,” she said. Mr George McFerran, of online job portal eFinancial-Careers, said the number of Singapore job openings posted on his website have shot up by more than 50 per cent in the past year. A Hudson survey in late June also found 57 per cent of companies here saying they intend to hire. Last month, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that about 100,000 foreign workers will be needed this year to sustain the breakneck economic growth. The demand for new hires here “has not gone unnoticed”, said Mr McFerran, who oversees the Asia-Pacific region. On top of Singapore’s abundant job opportunities, headhunters pointed out that job seekers, who often relocate with their families, find Singapore an attractive prospect because of its low crime rate, strong infrastructure and good education system. In particular, banks are looking abroad for people with specific skills to fill their vacancies in back- and middle-office positions, said Mr McFerran. He said: “They need a high volume of people with these particular skills, and it may be difficult to find enough within Singapore.” Still, employers are not blindly taking in jobseekers because of the manpower crunch, recruiters said. Said Ms Lim: “We see many applications from Eastern European countries, too, but they may not make the cut because of the language barrier or other prerequisites prospective employers are looking for.” — As the world’s economic activity shifts from West to East, so too, are the masses of jobseekers — and an increasing number of them are looking for opportunities in Singapore, which has been tipped to be the world’s fastestgrowing economy this year. |
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lawcheemeng
Master |
10-Aug-2010 16:56
Yells: "fly me to the mooon" |
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i got better one hor.........buy budget air ticket at 1cts ( book in advance )fly there once a year ,spent the interest...hehehe....live like king lah....hehehehe.......every thing cheaper over there.............
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pharoah88
Supreme |
10-Aug-2010 16:49
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convert your S$ or USD into INDO Rupiah Remit to JARKARTA and Place FD in INDO bank at 6.5% Collect your annual FD interest at 6.5% in INDO Rupiah convert back INDO Rupiah Interest to S$ or USD you can SPEND your annual FD Interest of 6.5% in S$ or USD. bOth QUALITY and QUANTITY are ACHIEVED
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pharoah88
Supreme |
10-Aug-2010 16:36
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Oil spill costs BP S$8b Energy giant BP said yesterday that it had spent US$6.1 billion (S$8.22 billion) so far to meet costs from the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, days after plugging the damaged well with concrete. LONDON — “The cost of the response to date amounts to approximately US$6.1 billion, including the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, static kill and cementing, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid, and federal costs,” BP said in a statement. An estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil spewed from BP’s ruptured well in the 87 days from the beginning of the disaster until the leak was finally capped on July 15, the United States has said. The company revealed on Thursday that it had finished pumping cement into the damaged well after a five-hour operation. “The MC252 well has been shut-in since July 15; there is currently no oil flowing into the Gulf,” the group said yesterday. It added: “Following the completion of cementing operations on the MC252 well on Aug 5, pressure testing was performed which indicated there is an effective cement plug in the casing. BP believes the static kill and cementing procedures have been successful.” Earlier, President Barack Obama’s top energy adviser, Mr Jason Grumet, warned that BP will pay a “large financial penalty” for the oil disaster but refused to say if criminal negligence charges will be pursued. With the ruptured Macondo well all but dead on the ocean floor as engineers shut the well for good, BP is shifting towards recovery operations including cleaning hundreds of kilometres of shoreline and restoring the economic health of the region.” |
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lawcheemeng
Master |
10-Aug-2010 16:21
Yells: "fly me to the mooon" |
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sori hulumus.......tooo chimp...for me leh.........leh man term can or not......thks.........
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pharoah88
Supreme |
10-Aug-2010 15:44
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Pay more attention to other RISKS: Expert SINGAPORE “Beyond the specific problems of this crisis, we have to deal with major risks that could destabilise our economic systems — currently very little time is allocated for them,” said Mr Patrick Liedtke, secretary-general and managing director of The Geneva Association, a Swiss-based insurance organisation. Mr Liedtke, who was here for the World Risk and Insurance Economic Congress, said Asia’s ageing population and rapid growth meant that government leaders in the region should be vigilant in managing SYSTEMIC RISKS — particularly given Asia’s growing linkages with other nations and the rise in its financial services activities. Discussions from this year’s congress revolved around, among other things, insurance regulations, lessons from the credit crisis, old-age security and climate change. Weather-related RISKS, in particular, have increased the potential for LOSSES and have pushed insurers to re-examine how they address needs arising from these, according to a report by Mr Liedtke’s organisation. “We need to be careful in the way we structure future regulations in financial services because not everything is the same,” Mr Liedtke said, pointing out the need to make DISTINCTIONS between insurance and banking activities. — While most governments have focused on beefing up financial regulations following the recent global crisis, an insurance expert said more attention should be given to other issues such as climate change and old-age security.Millet Enriquez |
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Hulumas
Supreme |
10-Aug-2010 14:51
Yells: "INVEST but not TRADE please!" |
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Quantitative expansion and not qualitative expansion is totally WRONG!
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pharoah88
Supreme |
10-Aug-2010 14:42
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China to SHUT 2,000 energy-wasting factories BEIJING The “backward” facilities produce steel, coke, aluminium, paper and other materials in areas throughout China and must close by late next month, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced yesterday. “Accelerating the elimination of backward production facilities is an important move to change the economic growth pattern, restructure the economy and to improve quality and efficiency of growth,” the ministry said on its website. The authorities said last week that a five-year plan to improve energy efficiency suffered a setback this year as China’s economic rebound and a construction boom boosted demand for steel, cement and other energy-intensive products. The plan calls for a 20 per cent reduction in China’s energy consumption per unit of economic output, or energy intensity, by the end of this year. The government said in March it had cut energy intensity 14.4 per cent by the end of last year but it said last week that energy intensity crept up 0.09 per cent in the first half of this year. China overtook the United States last year as the world’s biggest energy consumer, though with a larger population it still is well behind in consumption per person, according to the International Energy Agency. China’s surging energy demands have alarmed communist leaders, who worry about dependence on imported oil and gas from volatile regions such as the Gulf and pollution damage to scarce water supplies and forests in a densely populated country. The country’s growing presence in international energy markets has prompted complaints that it is pushing up crude prices. In the latest crackdown, the facilities would lose their certification to emit pollutants at the end of September, utilities would cut off power supplies and banks would be ordered to stop dealing with them, the ministry said. Its list included 762 cement factories, 279 paper mills, 175 steel mills, 192 coking plants and an unspecified number of aluminium mills. Provinces with the biggest numbers of affected facilities are Henan in central China and Shaanxi in the north, both traditional centres for heavy industry.
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pharoah88
Supreme |
10-Aug-2010 13:23
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Wen Jiabao not man of the people: Book HONG KONG Chinese dissident author who says he was threatened with imprisonment argues China’s Premier is not a reformist nor a man of the people, as popularly perceived at home, but a mediocre technocrat who rose to power through good acting. — A book by aChina’s Best Actor: Wen Jiabao — seen by excerpts of which wereThe Associated Pressahead of publication here on Aug 16 — is a collection of essays in which the writer Yu Jie (picture) argues that although Mr Wen frequently touts a reformist agenda that promises to improve the lives of the people, it is merely empty rhetoric. The writer says President Hu Jintao and Mr Wen are “two sides of the same coin’’ and their partnership is meant to complement each other’s strengths”. “Hu’s personality is calm and sombre and he likes to give orders from behind the curtain. Acting on the stage is not his expertise. Wen in the meantime supplements Hu’s inadequacy. He likes going down into mines, visiting farmhouses and shedding tears,’’ Yu writes.
Mr Wen often flies around the country to soothe crises and console disaster victims. Yu’s position is controversial even among others punished for exercising freedom of expression. Li Datong, a veteran state newspaper journalist forced from a top editing job for reporting on sensitive subjects, said Yu was being unfairly harsh. “Among the top Chinese leaders, who else speaks about democracy? Who else speaks about universal values and freedom?’’ Li said in a phone interview. “Wen is the only one. He’s just a technocrat who has little power to affect power decisions. What else do you expect from him?”
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lawcheemeng
Master |
10-Aug-2010 13:22
Yells: "fly me to the mooon" |
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change Sing$ to rupiah, become millionaire and get 6.5% interest........wah eat cannot finish liao lor........ | ||||
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pharoah88
Supreme |
10-Aug-2010 13:18
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JAKARTA - INDONESIA said on Thursday its gross domestic product (GDP) grew 6.2 per cent in the second quarter of 2010 from a year earlier as household consumption, exports and investment picked up. South-east Asia's biggest economy grew 2.8 per cent in the April-June period, faster than the 1.9 per cent expansion seen in the first quarter, the Central Statistics Agency said. 'The economic growth was helped by improving domestic and external factors,' agency deputy chairman Slamet Sutomo told reporters. Household consumption rose five percent on-year during the quarter, investment grew eight percent and exports increased 15 per cent, the agency said. The country's Central Bank on Wednesday kept its Key Interest steady at 6.50 per cent despite higher inflation in July, which it blamed on seasonal factors. The annual inflation rate climbed to its highest point this year due to rising food prices, which had put pressure on the central bank to hike rates at Wednesday's meeting. |
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pharoah88
Supreme |
10-Aug-2010 12:35
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Mummies tell the tale of JAPAN’s economy
It began last week when Tokyo’s oldest man turned out to be 30 years dead, his mummified remains sharing the family home with his daughter. A bank account receiving his pension benefits was found to be alive and well. Reports that Tokyo’s oldest woman — 113 if alive — is missing prompted a mad centenarian search. Japan is now checking on the whereabouts of 840 pensioners 85 and older. The 100-plus crowd has more than tripled to 40,399 in the past decade; it may take Japan’s entire police force to locate all of them. This MACABRE TALE got more attention than Toyota Motor’s sudden return to profit. It had 126 million Japanese asking any number of questions. How could we let people vanish? Do we really live the longest? How many others are decomposing in their homes? And hey, where’s granny? Yet there are three ways in which Japan’s missing-elderly scandal sheds light on the nation’s economic plight. First, it’s an analogy for the increasingly mummified state of fast-greying Japan. With firms such as Toyota and Sony raising profit projections, it’s easy to forget deflation is deepening. That would be less of a concern if interest rates weren’t already near zero and public debt weren’t about 200 per cent of gross domestic product. A mummy is a corpse whose skin and organs have been preserved. That’s an apt description of where the economy finds itself. TWENTY YEARS after Japan’s bubble economy burst, corporate executives are still obsessing over exchange rates. Japan needs to increase its global competitiveness, not belly ache about the yen’s 8 per cent increase this year. Corporate Japan’s skin and organs have been preserved to the detriment of its global standing. Only one Japanese name made One reason is the staid nature of Japan’s start-up universe. Another is the “Galapagos syndrome”, whereby Japan makes status quo-shattering gadgets in isolation. Japan’s mobile-phone industry is emblematic of how little regard is given to tapping new markets overseas. The nation makes cutting-edge phones, yet with features and functions that differ markedly from global standards. Hello Kitty offers another cautionary tale. Last week, one of Japan’s most iconic characters rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange to mark creator SANRIO’s 50th anniversary. Yet, the 30-something feline is running out of product lives as domestic sales shrink. It’s a fitting analogy for Japan’s failure to update its global image. Second, Pockets of Poverty [POP] are growing. Japanese cling to the myth that their nation is an egalitarian one. An October 2009 disclosure by the Labour Ministry dramatised the point: About ONE in SIX Japanese was below the POVERTY LINE as of 2007. The RATE at which Japanese are SLIDING into POVERTY surely ACCERATED in the last three years. It has become a media obsession to chronicle the lives of the working poor in a nation that likes to pretend poverty is only a problem for others. Part of the shock surrounding missing centenarians is the lengths to which some go to eke out a living. That someone might leave dad’s corpse in a bedroom for 30 years so they can collect his pension smacks many as more an act of desperation than depravity. It ignited fresh debate about the need for improved social safety nets as the outlook darkens. Third, taxpayer funds are WASTED. Of all the skeletons in Japan’s closet, this is the one that most needs addressing. Pension scandals are common here, be it the government losing files or politicians not paying into the national scheme. Yet perhaps more than ever before, Japanese are miffed about some families bilking the system. The issue of WASTE doesn’t get enough attention. And as a taxpayer in Japan, I have long been OUTRAGED at the number of low level bureaucrats that ministries send to meetings and conferences around the globe. MONEY-RELATED investigations of POLITICIANS become so numerous and broadly based that one’s eyes glaze over. I can’t count the number of times the road in front of my home in Tokyo gets repaved in a year — quite pointlessly, as far as I can tell. Investors everywhere are LOSING TOLERANCE for RUNAWAY PUBLIC DEBT. That means making bold and honest efforts to get control over spending. Japan can no longer allow these challenges to fester away in the basement with grandpa. It sounds more like a plot for a horror film than a legitimate news story.Fast Company magazine’s 2010 list of the world’s most innovative companies, and it was a retailer.The writer is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. William pesek |
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Hulumas
Supreme |
10-Aug-2010 12:22
Yells: "INVEST but not TRADE please!" |
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GOOD? BETTER? BEST?
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pharoah88
Supreme |
10-Aug-2010 12:10
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%%%% WORLD ECONOMIC SUMMIT %%%% | ||||
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