Economic Growth May Remain Weak

Singapore's Finance Minister, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, cautioned on Thursday that the country's economic growth may remain weak for some time.

The minister was speaking at ST Aerospace's National Day observance ceremony.

Mr Tharman said that these are challenging times, with growth slowing down around the world, and Singapore should be prepared for weakness in its own economy for several quarters.

Economic planners around the world are closely watching the American economy, Mr Tharman continued to say.

"It is still moving down - the cycle," he said. "Some people say it will take as much as another year before the bottom is reached.

"We have to expect continued weakness in the global economy, which might extend into next year and we won't be able to avoid a slowdown if that happens."

"The situation now is different from what it was three months ago. The American economy is in a much more perilous state now and the risks facing the financial system, which is a global system and not just an American system, are still very substantial."

Mr Tharman also said he expects inflation to ease towards the end of the year, not just because of declining oil prices.

"Food prices have also somewhat levelled off. So our expectation is we should be within our latest inflation forecast of six to seven per cent - lower inflation at the end of the year compared to what we saw in the first half of the year.

"Singaporeans can expect to hear more about the state of the economy in the next few days. The Prime Minister is expected, in his televised National Day message, to give an update on growth forecasts for the year."

Meanwhile, Mr Tharman said he is confident that Singapore still remains a strong and fit economy, with investments still coming into the country.


Image / Article Source CNA.
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Are you Self Employed or Informal worker? Do this before 31st Aug and get up to $1600.

The self-employed and informal workers are due to receive their first payment of Workfare on October 1.

But before that, they have to make Medisave contributions by August 31.

The CPF Board is urging those who have yet to do so to contribute to Medisave.

They can do so with cash or through NETS, or make out a cheque payable to the CPF Board or through an e-payment.

The self employed and informal workers stand to receive up to S$1600 in Workfare for work done for the whole of this year, of which up to S$800 will be paid out during the October 1 payment.

Meanwhile, employees who meet the Workfare Income Supplement criteria will also get their payment on the 1st of October.

Source CNA.
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9 Smart Money Tips To Help You Quit Your Job

Mint, the highly reviewed finance management site, just posted an interesting article on how you can establish your goals and work toward a day when you have enough money or alternative income to quit. Do visit the link above for full article.

Here's an extract:

Tip 1: Diversify your income sources - In addition to increasing your income, diversification can ensure that if one source of money dries up, you haven’t lost everything. Losing your job won’t mean the end of your income, and you will be in a position to ramp up one of the other sources to replace the lost salary.

Tip 2: Develop passive income streams - Even as you diversify your income sources, you’ll realize that there are only so many hours in the day. The beauty of passive, semi-passive and residual income is that these streams continue to generate money even while you are occupied at your regular job, meaning that you can increase your income exponentially without being limited to how much you can actively accomplish during working hours.

Tip 3: Pay yourself first - Make saving money a priority, and set aside a percentage of your income as savings.

Tip 4: Avoid debt and high interest rates - Huge credit card balances and car loans are two of the biggest pitfalls on the way to wealth.

Tip 5: Live like a millionaire - The Millionaire Next Door, that is. Mimic the frugal habits of self-made millionaires if you wish to join their ranks. They spend less than what they earn, research large purchases, avoid debt and pay cash for their vehicles. The very wealthy tend not to have especially expensive taste.

Tip 6: Invest wisely and regularly - Don’t invest in things you don’t understand, and make sure you diversify your investments to minimize your risk. Set up automatic investment contributions, and participate in any employer-matching plans available to you.

Tip 7: Stay married - Divorce is one of the leading destroyers of wealth in American families. The cost of divorce, legal counsel, child support and alimony add up to severely limit your ability to save money and grow wealth.

Tip 8: Track your finances - A written budget, whether it’s in your notebook or online at Mint.com, keeps you on track and gives you a visual representation of your overall financial picture.

Tip 9: Borrow carefully - Look for the lowest interest rates available, and only take out loans that make sense for your financial situation.

Early retirement or the opportunity to pursue your dream job? The choice is yours. Follow these easy tips and pretty soon the millionaire might not just be next door, he or she might just be living in your house.

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Talent Crunch In Asia To Deepen In Next 3-5 Years

Asia's workforce is becoming more individual-focused, with employees changing jobs more frequently and constantly searching for better opportunities, a study has found.

This shifting set of cultural norms and changing value of employees is expected to lead to "a significiant turnover rate" in critical talent roles, especially at the managerial and entry levels in the next three to five years, said the study commissioned by the Ministry of Manpower.

The study, carried out by Hewitt Associates, also showed that organisations have replaced seniority-based employment, with an emphasis on results and performance and identified three critical talent challenges that organisations in the region need to overcome.

The study found that the relatively small talent pool in Asia has resulted in a leadership crisis in many organisations, which may impede its future growth.

The greater emphasis on performance and customer orientation also means that employers will have to provide their staff with greater independence, empowerment, flexibility and challenging work, if they want to attract, motivate and retain the best workers, said the study.

'We are now seeing a 'supercharging' of these issues - shortage of talent and lack of experienced leaders - in environments where companies are trying to grow 10 to 50 per cent," said Mr Andrew Bell, Hewitt Associates, Global Leader for Talent and Organisation Consulting.

"The rapid flow of capital from West to East, where more than a billion dollars a week, for instance, flows in to China to establish new businesses, continues to sustain these challenges.'

Commenting on the Hewitt study findings, Mr Leo Yip, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Manpower, said: 'Companies operating in Asia, the largest emerging market in the world, will face people challenges that are unique to the region.

"Adopting effective people strategies to address these challenges will be critical to leveraging the full potential of the region's workforce, and to sustained corporate competitiveness."

Underscoring the importance of effective people strategies for the growth and success of a company, Mr Ong Ye Kung, Chief Executive, of Singapore Workforce Development Agency, said: 'Many companies have realised that HR work no longer comprise traditional functions like payroll processing and staff welfare. It is much more than that - including talent development, organisational excellence, and moulding the culture of the organisation.

"This also means that HR work is no longer the job of just HR executives, but the job of everyone in the company, especially the bosses.'

The findings of the study will be presented and discussed at the upcoming inaugural Singapore Human Capital Summit (SHCS) on 'People Strategies for Asia', to be held From 22 to 24 Oct.

The summit will bring together global and regional industry and thought leaders, as well as government leaders from the region, to share and deliberate on leading ideas and practices in human capital management, and their application to businesses and organisations operating in Asia.

Source The Straits Times.
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S'pore companies to use single identification number from Jan 1

Come January 1 next year, businesses in Singapore will have a Unique Entity Number (UEN) to identify themselves when dealing with all government agencies.

This single identification number will be issued by the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) to all entities registered in Singapore in a move that is aimed at streamlining processes.

Under the new system, a UEN will be issued by ACRA to all entities that have multiple interactions with government agencies by October this year.

About 330,000 or 85 per cent of companies and businesses here will use their current ACRA company registration number as their UEN, while 55,000 entities or 15 per cent of all companies in Singapore will be issued a new number.

These entities include Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs), foreign companies, societies and management corporations.

Businesses have welcomed the move saying that this would simplify and reduce possible errors caused by the use of multiple numbers. Other government agencies have also echoed the same view.

Source CNA.
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Need help with Resumes? Find some at Scribd.

Jim Stroud has a 2 parts article on how to "mine" resumes from Scribd.com, the User Generated Content - Online document repository site.

Scribd is like a YouTube for documents. on any given month, 17 million people research Scribd for documents of all types. Since Scribd launched in March 2007, it has become one of the top 300 websites on the Internet, receiving over 20 million monthly visitors. It has also accumulated over 17 billion words in its library, making it five times the size of Wikipedia!!!

More after the jump - part 1 and part 2.

Article and Image Source TheRecruitersLounge.com.
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Bogus Job Vacancy Ads

A post on TheStar website highlighted his experience at a job interview in Singapore.

"I see the resurfacing of advertisements for non-existent overseas postings by a foreign company. A very simple job description is given. The salary and job positions seem very attractive.

A few years ago, I attended such an interview with a Singapore company, purportedly for a vacancy in a Pacific island. The interview was held at a hotel room.

The interviewee will be asked to fill up a simple form and to wait for the result. Later, a phone call will inform the interviewee of his success, but he will have pay the air fare to the Pacific island, which cost a few thousand ringgit, to a middleman.

The reason? This is to prove the applicant’s sincerity in wanting the job. It is claimed that in the past, some applicants who were not sincere returned after the company paid their air fare.

Is there some form of vetting or checks in place to weed out bogus job vacancy ads meant to cheat unsuspecting victims?

Just like “Scratch & Win” schemes and bogus pyramid schemes, the job scam has to be exposed.

We do not want foreigners to dupe our people.

PG,
George Town."

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