Singapore must build up critical mass of labour to compete well

Channel NewsAsia 2 Feb 08;

Singapore needs to build up a critical mass of people in the workforce so that the country can continue to compete for good investments and good jobs.

Minister in Prime Minister's Office and Labour Chief, Lim Swee Say, said this is why Singapore needs to grow its population to 5.5 million.

Mr Lim was one of four ministers who engaged some 900 participants at the plenary session of a conference organised by the Institute of Policy Studies on Friday.

Singapore is the only economy in the world with unemployment rate of 1.7 percent yet it is able to grow its economy at 7.9 percent.

And participants at the conference were told that Singapore managed to do this because of a strong workforce.

Mr Lim added: "The point here is this: every economy, if you want to keep growing faster than the rest of the world, have to build a look ahead. Where are the bottlenecks? How we can break the bottleneck and solve that bottleneck before it chokes our growth? Therefore (it) comes back to manpower. I am very sure that for us to continue to compete for good investments, for good jobs, we must have good manpower in sufficient number."

He was replying to a question on why Singapore needs to grow its population to 5.5 million.

Also giving their take on this were three other Cabinet Ministers who explained how this number will affect their respective ministries.

Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan said that in attracting such numbers, demand for healthcare services will also go up.

And he has managed to catch a glimpse of what it would be like to cater to such demand.

Mr Khaw says: "Tan Tock Seng Hospital, there was a day, for don't know what reason, January 14, was 98 percent (full) and it's almost like Hotel 81 occupancy rate. The last decade, the entry of foreign population, expats and so on (have resulted in) very sharp growth, very good for the economy."

And also good for Singapore is attracting new residents to ensure that there's enough young people in the labour force.

George Yeo, Foreign Affairs Minister, said: "Is it possible that we may need that many people if we do not want to age too much or if we need suddenly to tap upon new sources of growth. We check all types of constraints - shorelines for the ports, runways for Changi, water resources, car park space, road space - so our department tests all the limits. If we push that, how far can we go, before we become non-linear and the cost becomes too much to bear? As far as we can, do not put artificial constraints on ourselves so that we will have maximum flexibility to grow, and the opportunities to grow will come to us."

Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Environment and Water Resources Minister, said with more people in Singapore a balance needs to be found to maintain the environment.

He added: "The environment is an important issue. Clearly providing the necessary resources will become an important issue. But at the same time going forward, I think there will be issues of tradeoffs and compromises because resources are limited. The environment that we have build in the past 14 years painstakingly...has been noticed by international community. (This) is not something that we should give away easily."

It was a lively and candid one and a half hours of discussion with active participation from the audience, who asked questions which range from good governance to what lies ahead for Singapore.

In fact, the session was extended to cater to more questions from the floor.

Questions posed also include the issue of dual citizenship and what the leaders wish to see in 2030. - CNA/ch

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Don't call them ugly: The not-so-cute critters that are facing extinction

Simon Swift, The Independent 31 Jan 08;

We're all moved by the plight of polar bears and pandas. But shouldn't we care about the more unlovely creatures that are endangered, too?

Last year on the Zoological Society of London's Edge website, which raises funds for animals on the verge of extinction, visitors could choose to donate cash to any of 10 individual species.

Coming top in this endangered beauty pageant was the slender loris – a small, endearing primate with oversized eyes, like a character straight out of a Disney film. Bottom of the pile was the solenodon – a scruffy, ancient mammal with the front of a shrew and the back-end of a rat. Some animals, even ones on the brink of being wiped out, are apparently just too ugly to love.

This month the Zoological Society of London, prompted by news that 85 per cent of amphibians threatened with extinction were receiving almost no conservation, released a top 10 of cosmetically challenged salamanders and frogs. The list aimed to raise awareness of strange but unique creatures often overlooked in favour of the cute and the cuddly.

"Traditionally, species have gotten noticed because we're innately attracted to them, like pandas, elephants and gorillas, which means we're more likely to get involved in their conservation," says Dr Jonathan Baillie, a scientist at ZSL.

The good news is that ugly is now set to be seriously fashionable in the animal kingdom. "I think we're now in an era where people want to be exposed to things that are different, new and often extreme," Baillie says. There's an appetite for [ugly] creatures."

The ZSL's aim is simple: to get would-be conservationists to overlook the fact that certain creatures have been tapped with the ugly stick and love them instead for their weird and wonderful attributes. "The transformation from ugly to cute can be amazing," says Baillie. "The film Shrek has done that beautifully, where you start with a creature that people think is repellent and by the end of the film they're in love. And that's the process we're going through with some species – we're Shrek-ing them."

Solenodon

The solenodon can be traced back to more than 70 million years ago to the age of the dinosaurs. Time, however, has done little to improve its looks. There are two types, the Hispaniolan and the Cuban, with the latter being the uglier owing to a pronounced rat-like appearance and scruffy, patchy fur.

"The Cuban solenodon looks like a giant dishevelled shrew," says Baillie. "We associate animals that are symmetrical and well-groomed as beautiful. So if something looks dishevelled we might think it has an association with disease."

The solenodon, which feasts on insects and can inject poisonous saliva into its prey, has been considered extinct at various times in the past century and is now classified as endangered. "In terms of ugly animals this one's a hero," says Baillie.

Aye-Aye

Look away now. The aye-aye is thought so frightening that it is killed on the spot in Madagascar. Locals there believe the primate is an evil omen.

"The aye-aye has these ominous eyes and long, bony fingers," says Baillie. "It really gives people a scare, plus it's nocturnal which means the aye-aye is seen as a stereotypical witch-like creature."

The aye-aye has an oversized middle finger, which is used to chip away bark, dig into trees and hunt for grubs. It is the largest nocturnal primate on the planet and is losing its forest habitat to agricultural development – as well as being hunted for its looks.

"The aye-aye is so unusual and wonderful," says Baillie. "The ugliness could really help the creature get noticed and raise its profile in terms of conservation."

Giant Salamander

A heavyweight amphibian which can grow up to 1.8 metres long and weigh in at 11kg, the Giant Chinese salamander's origins go back 170 million years. "Some have described the Giant salamander as a large, slug-like creature," says Baillie, "owing to the beady little eyes and stubby little fingers."

The population has dropped by 80 per cent since the 1960s and is considered critically endangered. The Giant salamander depends on freshwater systems in the Yangtze but has been threatened by pollution and intensifying industry along the river. There is also a lucrative industry in breeding the salamander and selling the meat.

"The Giant salamander looks like something that has come from the depths. But to think they were around before the dinosaurs!" says Baillie. "These things that we call odd and ugly are really the cornerstones of biodiversity."

Saiga Antelope

"I would put this in the unusual, almost cute category. You're not repulsed when you look at it. You think more of Star Wars," says Baillie of the saiga antelope's distinctive swollen proboscis.

The antelope's horns, which look like carrots, are highly prized in the medicinal trade. Hunters chase the antelopes in vehicles and either shoot them or run them over.

"If they die when they are excited and the blood is pumping then they are worth more. In the past, poachers collected them in thousands," says Baillie.

Found in Kazakhstan, with a sub-population in Mongolia, the saiga antelope population has had an "extreme crash" due to poaching. Cold winters and dry summers in Mongolia have also affected the species – it has now dropped from more than one million to just 50,000 in 10 years and considered critically endangered.

Myers' Surinam Toad

"It's got a sunken body and most people's first reaction is that it looks putrefied," says Baillie of the Myers' Surinam toad. The naturalist Gerald Durrell agreed, describing the toad as: "Looking... as though [it] had been dead for some weeks and was already partially decomposed."

Despite being perfectly healthy, the toad, found in Panama, has a habit of looking close to death. It can't sit up, lying, instead, pancake-flat. Its reputation isn't enhanced any further by its habitat – which is a swamp.

Numbers of the toads have been falling as deforestation threatens its habitat.

Long-beaked echidna

The echidna looks like a hedgehog, only bigger. It also has a long, pointy snout, small, beady eyes and no teeth; instead the tongue is covered in spikes. Its reptilian motion further enhances its strangeness. It is one of the few mammals to lay eggs and has a pouch to keep its young in. "It's one of the most evolutionary distinct animals on the planet," says Baillie.

Found in Papua New Guinea, locals hunt down the echidna with dogs for food. Edge is focusing on the Attenborough's long-beaked echidna, found on one peak in the Cyclops Mountains of Papua. It hasn't been seen since 1961. "When we recently went to look for it in the mountains where it was thought to be extinct, we found signs that it was still in the area and people had recently eaten them," says Baillie.

Northern hairy-nosed Wombat

A big, heavy marsupial, the Northern hairy-nosed wombat is critically endangered, with not many more than 100 left, in one fenced-off colony in Queensland, Australia. The largest of all wombat species, it has lost its home to farming and has been threatened by introduced animals such as the dingo. "This wombat has a really blunt head and stocky features," says Baillie. "It looks strange because people won't be familiar with seeing one before. It's got a great name, though."

Phoenix Fly

"The phoenix fly is not really ugly, it's just a rather dull-looking fly. A big, brown one at that," says Matt Shardlow, director of Buglife, a charity for conserving invertebrates. "Anyone would think it was a housefly."

The use of pesticides and fertilisers has driven the phoenix fly out of the British countryside and on to brown field sites as it prefers rough habitats, such as quarries, that aren't intensively managed and where there's plenty of bare ground to lay eggs.

The fly is dubbed "phoenix" after rising from the ashes of scrap-filled, unkempt locations. Now the redevelopment of brown field sites is threatening the phoenix fly again. "There are about 40 important species that all live on brown field sites, places that we don't think are attractive," says Shardlow. "They look messy but it doesn't mean they are not important for conserving biodiversity."

Mole Cricket

"It's weird – it looks halfway between a cricket and a mole," says Shardlow of the mole cricket. At six centimetres long, it's one of the biggest invertebrates in the UK, and has a velvety head and clawed feet like a mole.

The mole cricket spends most of its time underground, coming out at night. They were usually discovered when ploughing fields but the use of fertilisers and pesticides has seen the population plummet dramatically. Buglife reckons the UK population may now be extinct. "It hasn't been confirmed in the wild recently – there have been a few possible records. But the UK contingent has probably gone."

Glutinous snail

The glutinous snail is extremely rare in the UK and is in decline across Europe. Having previously been found in lakes in Oxfordshire and Snowdonia, it is now down to just one site, at Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake) in Wales. Although smaller than a garden snail, the glutinous snail gets its name for being extra slippery and slimy.

"It has a mantle which spreads out over the shell so it is encased in glutinous stuff," says Shardlow. "It's supposed to be an anti-predator device." The snail likes clear, isolated lakes but pollution has seen the population decline in the past 50 years.

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Big business says addressing climate change 'rates very low on agenda'

Tricia Holly Davis, Geoffrey Lean and Susie Mesure
The Independent 27 Jan 08;

Poll of 500 major firms reveals that only one in 10 regard global warming as a priority

Nearly nine in 10 of them do not rate it as a priority, says the study, which canvassed more than 500 big businesses in Britain, the US, Germany, Japan, India and China.

Nearly twice as many see climate change as imposing costs on their business as those who believe it presents an opportunity to make money.

And the report's publishers believe that big business will concentrate even less on climate change as the world economy deteriorates.

The survey demolishes George Bush's insistence that global warming is best addressed through voluntary measures undertaken by business – and does so at the most embarrassing juncture for the embattled President. For this week he is convening a meeting of the world's largest economies to try to persuade them to agree with him.

The meeting – in Hawaii on Wednesday and Thursday – follows the US's refusal to accept binding targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, the main cause of global warming, in international negotiations in Bali last month, and is seen as an attempt to develop a less rigorous approach to the crisis.

But the new report shows that even business does not support this, with four out of the five companies surveyed wanting governments to take a central role in tackling climate change.

The survey, carried out by the consulting firm Accenture, found that only 5 per cent of the companies questioned – and not one in China – regarded global warming as their top priority. And only 11 per cent put it in second or third place.

Overall it ranked eighth in business leaders' concerns, below increasing sales, reducing costs, developing new products and services, competing for talented staff, securing growth in emerging markets, innovation and technology. Although most are taking limited action to reduce their own emissions, almost one in five had done nothing.

Mark Spelman, global head of strategy at Accenture, told The Independent on Sunday at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week: "Climate change is not going to get nearly the same degree of attention here as it would have achieved if the economic outlook were brighter. Whenever there are underlying economic concerns, people will focus on them."

The report makes it clear that – in contradiction of the Bush administration's position – business is waiting for governments to take the lead. Nearly half of all the companies worldwide said that climate change was already a major issue for them and three in five expected it to be so within five years. But more than half confessed to be struggling to understand its implications.

Matthew Farrow, head of environment for the Confederation of British Industry, agreed that companies are having a hard time digesting climate change, but added: "The core financials need to be right, but business also needs to understand how climate change will affect the marketplace and realise those business opportunities."

Some 67 per cent of the businesses surveyed agreed they have a role to play in tackling global warming, but only four out of 10 felt in a position to fulfil it. In China only 14 per cent of those questioned felt in a strong position.

The report concludes: "Businesses clearly are seeking long-term signals about where and how to invest. They are reluctant to make big investments in climate change-related initiatives until the scope of future regulation becomes clearer".

This point has been made to US and European governments by businesses in their own countries. The European Corporate Leaders on Climate Change group, made up of the heads of major companies – which persuaded both Tony Blair and EU President José Manuel Barroso to make climate change a priority – has called for "a strong and clear policy framework" to enable cuts in emissions.

And the US Climate Action Partnership – which includes the heads of blue-chip companies such as General Electric, DuPont, and Alcoa – has urged Mr Bush to "establish a mandatory emissions pathway" leading to a reduction of up to 30 per cent in US emissions within 15 years.

Yesterday, Mark Kenber, policy director at the Climate Group, said: "These disappointing findings highlight the fact that carbon pricing mechanisms are not yet strong enough for businesses to incorporate climate change risks and opportunities into traditional business strategy".

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2 Feb is World Wetlands Day: Healthy Wetlands, Healthy People

World Wetlands Day marks the date of the signing of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. It is run by The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.

What do wetlands do for us?
Why should Singaporeans care?

Destruction of wetlands around us affect us too.

Here's an extract from the World Wetlands Day website

Wetland food

Adequate, good quality food is a prerequisite for healthy people, and wetlands are key contributors, supplying us with, for example, fish (including shellfish), and plants (including fruits, seeds, as well as the vegetative parts). One billion people rely on fish as their main or sole source of protein and many more consume fish regularly. In terms of cultivated wetland plants, rice is the most important at a global level, providing 20% of the world's dietary energy supply. Other wetland plants, such as seaweeds, although not harvested on the same scale as fish, are still an important source of food for local use and for international markets. Indirectly, wetland plants often play a vital role as a food for livestock on which the health of billions of people depend.

Well managed, our wetlands will continue to provide food to keep us healthy - but there are many human actions that negatively affect the capacity of wetlands to continue to provide for us. Pollution, excessive water abstraction, poor sanitation, overharvesting and, of course, wetland destruction, all reduce or destroy the capacity of wetlands to provide food for human consumption.

Clean water

We've been saying it for years - inland wetlands (rivers, lakes, ponds, marshes, etc.) perform a vital function in filtering and purifying freshwater, rendering it 'clean' for human consumption. And never has it been a more valuable service for human populations than today when over one billion people lack access to clean water supplies. But wetlands can only provide us with clean water if we keep them healthy through effective management. What happens when we destroy our wetlands is obvious - we lose this source of clean water, as well as all the other ecosystem services they provide. And what happens to our clean water supply when we add too many human by-products to wetlands? . . . Find out more in our section on pollution.

Water pollution

Despite the capacity of freshwater wetlands in purifying water, they do have their limits. They can only deal with so much agricultural runoff, so much inflow from domestic and industrial wastes. And of course the human species is capable of adding much more - toxic chemicals (such as PCBs, DDT and dioxins), antibiotics from animal husbandry, untreated human sewage, pesticides that act as 'endocrine disrupters' . . . and more. We can, and do, readily move beyond the purifying powers of wetlands so that these sources of freshwater, and the food they supply, are rendered unfit for consumption and a danger to human health.

Of particular concern are the 2.6 billion people today who lack access to adequate sanitation. Poor sanitation adds to the microbial contamination of drinking water provided by wetlands - and then to sickness and sometimes loss of life.

Wetlands act as filters or traps for many pathogens - when the passage of water through wetlands is long enough, pathogens lose their viability or are consumed by other organisms. Human-made wetlands are being constructed in urban and rural areas to perform just this function and thus prevent untreated sewage reaching natural wetlands that are used as an immediate source of drinking water.

Water-related diseases

In many parts of the world, human health is closely linked to water-related diseases. Malaria, because mosquitoes breed in wetlands, and diarrheal infections (including cholera) because of sewage contamination are globally the worst in terms of their severity of impact, accounting for 1.3 and 1.8 million deaths respectively in 2002, and affecting the health of many, many more. Fatalities are almost entirely in children under 5 years of age. Diarrheal diseases affect both African and south Asian countries, whereas malaria's impact is largely in Africa but also significant in many parts of Asia and the Americas.

While malaria and diarrheal diseases are the two worst in terms of human impact, we might add to this the debilitating effects of other wetland-related diseases such as schistosomiases, Japanese encephalitis, filariases, onchocerciasis and others.

Diarrheal diseases can be controlled through provision of clean water, good sanitation practices and hygiene education. Poorly treated human sewage contains pathogens that are a key cause of diarrheal infections - and wetlands (both inland and coastal) can be an important transport mechanism for such pathogens where sanitation is poor.

Controlling malaria was one of the driving forces for wetland destruction in the past, especially in Europe, but this has led to the loss of vital ecosystem services such as water and food and is not considered an option today. Solutions that are working, at least in some areas, range from the use of fish that consume the mosquito larvae and bacterial larvicides that kill them without affecting other organisms, to better design, management, and regulation of dams and irrigation schemes and water drainage systems that can reduce breeding sites.

Floods

Floods and storms have affected human lives since the beginning of civilization, but all types of floods - riverine and coastal floods and storms, sudden snow melts, floods after intense rainfall - have become more destructive in recent decades, because increasingly human infrastructure is being built in flood-prone areas, and they are likely to be even more pronounced in the future. This we are all aware of from the international media, from statisticians, and perhaps from our own personal experiences.

The direct and immediate impacts on human health include loss of life, injuries, and, within a very short period of time, the lack of clean water and destruction of sewage systems, which result in another set of threats to human health - diarrhea, cholera, and other life-threatening, water-related ailments. Receding floods in some countries also provide the perfect environment for malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Finally, there are the longer term effects on mental health, such as anxiety and depression that often follow a major flooding event.

While we cannot easily prevent major floods, we can ensure that we benefit from the flood protection services that wetlands supply free of charge. Rivers, lakes and marshes slow down and retain floodwaters but only if we do not build our urban centres on natural floodplains and are more thoughtful about the broader implications of channellising our rivers and draining our marshes.

Burning peatlands

Controlled burning has been used effectively in peatland management in various parts of the world, but events in recent years in southeast Asia have highlighted the fact that extensive and uncontrolled burning can have serious direct effects on human health. For example, the largely deliberate burning for land-clearing in 1997-1998 in southeast Asian peatlands affected around 70 million people with around 12 million people requiring health care for respiratory problems. Significant burning events since then have continued to affect the health of large numbers of people.

In the longer term, peatland burning and drainage activities have led to massive increases in the emissions of greenhouse gases, contributing to climate change, and these activities have often destroyed local livelihoods as well.

Water availability

If water is extracted more rapidly than it is naturally replenished, wetland ecosystems will, in extreme cases, collapse, with a complete loss of ecosystem services. The effect of such extreme cases is costly in terms of human health. A well-documented example is the Aral Sea where water abstraction for irrigating crops reduced a vibrant wetland to dust - causing loss of livelihoods in the short term and, in the longer term, seriously impairing the health of communities that lived around the sea through the health effects of dust storms, erosion, and poor water quality for drinking and other purposes.

While this may be an extreme example, there are many cases where a dramatic reduction in water availability results in significant negative effects on human health. In Lake Chad, a lake shared by Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria and Niger, climate change, the demand for irrigation water upstream, and poor management decisions in the basin have reduced the size of the lake by 90% over the past 40 years. The net effect on the 20 million people, mainly fishers and farmers, who rely directly on the lake is rising levels of malnutrition, in turn leading to a much increased vulnerability to diseases. A major project is underway to reverse this situation.

Wetland medicines

Many wetland plants and a number of animal species have been used in traditional medicines for millennia and this continues today. They are also used in homeopathic medicines, an ever-growing industry in the developed world, and have a role in the development and production of modern medicines. Over-collection, destructive harvesting techniques, and habitat loss and alteration all challenge the capacity of wetland species to continue to fulfill these roles.

Mental well-being

The world's population is becoming concentrated in urban areas, particularly along coasts, and our urban populations are becoming more and more physically inactive. The World Health Organisation estimates that depression and depression-related illness will become the greatest source of ill-health by 2020, and the effects on health of physical inactivity in urban populations is becoming ever more costly in terms of medical treatment. We use urban green spaces, including rivers, lakes and reservoirs, for recreation, for education, and for relaxation. The value of green spaces in improving the mental and physical health of urban populations is gaining greater recognition and current studies indicate measurable physical and psychological benefits from regular contact with urban green spaces. Urban wetlands have a key role to play here.

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Best of our wild blogs: 2 Feb 08

Wetlands and floods and rising sea levels
from the singapore celebrates our reefs blog

Looking forward to Semakau walks in 2008
on the manta blog

Himalayan Swiflet sighting
on the bird ecology blog

Video: Extreme poverty and climate crisis
Three of our favourite heroes (Thomas Friedman, Al Gore and Bono) on the same stage at the World Economic Forum, discussing the need to have solutions that address both extreme poverty and climate change, on the AsiaIsGreen blog

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Dutch to explore new ways to defend coastline

Reuters 1 Feb 08;

The government also said it would invest in a project studying how best to use the ecosystem, such as natural sand flows, for flood protection.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Dutch government said on Friday it would explore new ways of protecting its coastline from the effects of climate change, including the use of ground-breaking sensor technology.

The Netherlands, which has a quarter of its territory below sea level, will spend 22 million euros ($32.7 million) on anti-flooding projects. Companies and research organizations will contribute an additional 23 million euros.

One project aims to equip all flood defenses with sensors and electronics to monitor sudden changes in water levels.

"The climate changes. It is therefore of great importance to be able to predict flooding at an early stage," the Dutch cabinet said in a statement.

Water has long been a threat to the Netherlands, which translates as "Low Countries," while global warming has contributed to a rise in sea levels, adding to flood concerns.

The world's largest computer services company IBM, one of the firms involved in the project, said on Friday it planned to set up a centre for water management which would use data and forecasting models to give earlier flood warnings.

Djeevan Schiferli, Business Development Executive Climate & Energy at IBM, said a number of different suppliers were developing sensor networks to measure the stability of dikes for example, but there were no standards for exchanging the data.

"You need to combine all that knowledge and information if you want to be able to know when a situation will become potentially dangerous. All the different components are there, but they are in some cases too simplistic and they're not connected," Schiferli said.

The Dutch have a long history of pioneering technology to help claw back land in the sea and fight flooding. In 1953 a massive North Sea storm breached the country's dikes and killed about 1,800.

The government also said it would invest in a project studying how best to use the ecosystem, such as natural sand flows, for flood protection.

U.S. officials sought advice from Dutch experts on water management after floods devastated New Orleans in 2005, and Dutch firms have been central in major coastal developments worldwide.

The Dutch government said any new technology would be available for export.

(Reporting by Harro ten Wolde and Niclas Mika; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)

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6.5 million people = A better Singapore?

Nazry Bahrawi, Today Online 2 Feb 08;

TWO decades from now, Singapore will be a hive of even greater activity — an exciting place to live and work in, according to a scenario painted by demographic, healthcare and urban planning experts at a discussion forum organised by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) on Friday.

Panellist Dr Vernon Lee, a public health physician who works for an international institution, envisages Singapore developing into a leading research centre on tropical diseases and selling its healthcare expertise to others in the region.

With further progress — built on the bedrock of order and rationality — the management of waste will reach levels that will allow it to be put back into the system, said Dr Malone-Lee Lai Choo of National University of Singapore's (NUS) Department of Real Estate.

But one worrying thought persisted: Will it become a mite too packed once Singapore hits a targeted population of 6.5 million?

Do we really need 6.5 million people when even a population of 5.5 million seems a staggering crowd, asked one concerned participant.

Another asked: Instead of continuing to depend on imported foreign talent, why not encourage the return of our own local talents who are now living and working overseas?

Responding to that, IPS Senior Research Fellow Dr Yap Mui Teng said that while one preferred enhancing the fertility rate to arrest the decline in population, a faster resolution of the problem in the short term would be to rely on migrants to make up the shortfall.

Explaining the government's rationale, consultant demographer G Shantakumar, a panellist, added: "These migrants are people who bring with them a lot of talent and perhaps money. Who does not want money?"

But despite the rapid inflow of migrants over the last few years, Singapore's social fabric has not been threatened.

Dr Malone-Lee agreed that Singapore should not "overly push" for a bigger foreign population. Providing a fresh perspective into an issue, she said: "More people means we can look after the environment better.

"We are stewards of the environment and we should also know how to look after it and make it productive. Our city will not grow unless we open up and generate more production capacity," she said.

Worker migration 'better way to boost population' in Singapore
Raising fertility is a much slower method: academics
Matthew Phan, Business Times 2 Feb 08;

IMMIGRATION of foreign workers is essential if Singapore wants its population to grow, said academics at a session on population and urban planning at the Singapore Perspectives 2008 conference yesterday.

Assuming fertility rises but there is no net immigration into Singapore, the country's population would be about 4.77 million in 2030, according to projections by Yap Mui Teng and G Shantakumar of the Institute of Policy Studies.

It is only by assuming net immigration of 30,000 workers per annum or more by which Singapore will manage to increase its population to over six million by then.

'Raising fertility is a much slower way of increasing the population than net migration,' said Dr Yap.

Migration will mitigate the burden on the working population, which will have to support a higher number of children and elderly dependants.

By 2030, some 66 per cent of Singapore's population could be aged between 15 and 64, the so-called 'working ages', down from over 70 per cent in 2010, said Dr Yap.

About 19 per cent of the population could be over 65 years of age, and another 15 per cent could be below the age of 15.

This means that the number of workers per elderly person would fall from 8.3 in 2010 to 3.5 in 2030, she said.

However, a larger proportion of migrants will lead to other issues. Singapore's future population base will not be homogenous, said Malone-Lee Lai Choo from the National University of Singapore.

Urban planners will have to deal not only with 'quantitative' issues, like how many homes or roads the country needs, but will also need to accommodate different values, lifestyles and choices.

With more migrants, there may also be a more transient population, with some owning homes here even if they work elsewhere. The question will be how to provide for them without wasting resources or land, Dr Malone-Lee said.

While a few in the audience questioned the need to even grow the population to over six million, Dr Malone-Lee said the key issue was not the actual number of people but how to manage 'excessive consumerism' and 'waste'.

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MM 'not quite sold' on idea of 6.5m population for Singapore

Li Xueying, Straits Times 2 Feb 08;

He projects optimum size of 5.5m to preserve open spaces and sense of comfort

MINISTER Mentor Lee Kuan Yew 'has not quite been sold' on the idea of a 6.5 million population size in Singapore.

Instead, he projects for Singapore an optimum population size of five to 5.5 million for Singapore.

He said yesterday: 'I have not quite been sold on the idea that we should have 6.5 million.

'I think there's an optimum size for the land that we have, to preserve the open spaces and the sense of comfort.'

Mr Lee was speaking at think-tank Institute of Policy Studies' conference 'Scenarios for the Next Generation' which seeks to gaze into the crystal ball and discuss what Singapore will look like come 2030.

Speakers, including Cabinet ministers, academics and journalists, held forth on subjects such as how the economy should evolve, cultural trends, and the Singapore identity.

Over an hour-long dialogue with some 900 participants, MM Lee touched on issues ranging from whether Singapore has the talent pool to sustain a two-party political system to the widening income divide.

One question, posed by the moderator, diplomat Tommy Koh, was whether Singapore is guilty of overbuilding.

A year ago, the Government had announced that it is making plans to accommodate a population of 6.5 million people - up from the current 4.5 million - in the next 40 to 50 years.

This sparked off worries about overcrowding.

Speaking yesterday, Mr Lee said he does not believe that Singapore should go the way of Hong Kong - 'just solid buildings, one blocking the sunlight of the other'.

The Chinese territory has a population of about seven million.

But while Hong Kong had no choice because it is 'as they put it so aptly, a borrowed place on borrowed time', Singapore does, Mr Lee said.

'We are building on freehold and we are owners, we are sovereign. Therefore, my projection would be for somewhere around five to 5.5 million.'

Coupled with further reclamation, Singapore can then retain its space, the greenery, and 'the sense of not being crammed, our parks, our connectors, our park connectors, birds, trees, water, canals into streams and so on'.

This is key to how Singapore can be unique, he stressed.

'What we have done with the Singapore River and the Kallang River from two sewers into recreational areas, we must do with every canal in Singapore. And it will be done within the next 10 years,' he promised.

This, he added, does not go with 'a terrific density of population'.

Read more!

Singapore population growth 'not at expense of quality of life'

Lee Hui Chieh, Straits Times 2 Feb 08;

Ministers say health care, the environment will be taken care of even as country grows

GROWTH - whether in the population or economy - is not to be feared but should be prepared for, four ministers took pains to assure Singaporeans yesterday.

They were speaking at a dialogue where the audience raised concerns ranging from why Singapore was preparing for a 6.5 million population, to why a galloping economy was such a high priority.

Mr Christophe Inglin, chairman of Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore's renewable energy panel, pointed out that many developed countries were content with 1 to 3 per cent growth rates.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Lim Swee Say said that growth cannot be artificially controlled.

What the Government is doing is to create an optimum climate for investors to sink their roots, from ensuring enough land to talent, and allow the growth process to take on a life of its own.

In fact, its worry is not that Singapore is growing too fast but that the future will be tough and Singapore would stagnate.

Added Foreign Minister George Yeo: 'When a child is growing, you feed it. One day it will stop growing, and one day there will be other problems. But when it is growing, don't stunt it.'

This policy of growth was to ensure that Singapore can compete in the constellation of cities of the future that includes Mumbai and Shanghai, he said.

The two were among four Singapore ministers taking part in a dialogue at the Institute of Policy Studies conference on Singapore's future. Also present were Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan and Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim.

The ministers acknowledged that concerns remained over whether Singapore could support 6.5 million people, which planners here are catering for in the next 40 to 50 years.

In an earlier session, Associate Professor Lye Lin Heng, deputy director of the National University of Singapore's Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law, had asked: 'Do we really need an influx of population to make life better for us? Or is it adding to the stress of our children and future generations?

Mr Lim underscored the necessity of bulking up during the dialogue at the end of the conference.

He said importing foreign talent was necessary to supplement the labour pool, even as the skills of the existing 4.8 million population was being upgraded.

"Even if you were to educate every Singaporean, retrain every older Singaporean, at the end of the day, you must still recognise there is a limit,' he said.

The need to import foreigners was also raised by demographers G. Shantakumar and Yap Mui Teng.

But they acknowledged it would not be the silver bullet that would arrest the decline in Singapore's working population.

In fact, by 2030, even an improved fertility rate and 100,000 immigrants a year would not help Singapore keep its current 72 per cent employment rate among the resident population here, said Dr Yap.

Mr Khaw and Dr Yaacob assured Singaporeans that they would find ways to ensure growth would not be at the expense of their health care, or their environment.

Said Mr Khaw: 'Although Singapore is a little red dot, if you plan properly, you can still enjoy the same quality of life. But if you just leave things to chance, just develop randomly, then even 3.5 million may create difficulties.'

Dr Yaacob added: 'If we need a certain quantum of people... then we jolly well must find a way to maintain that population, within the same standard of living that we are used to.'

Singapore: move with growth while it lasts
Chen Huifen, Business Times 2 Feb 08;

IT is very difficult for Singapore to control its growth to an extent that the pace may be slower but more manageable because in the country's efforts to draw investments, 'either you take the whole bite or not at all'.

In response to a question on whether Singapore is growing too fast for a sustainable future, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Lim Swee Sway explained that it would be tough to tell investors to stifle their expansion plans, just because the country's existing infrastructure resources cannot support that growth. Rather, the solution is to think of ways to overcome those inherent contraints so that growth can happen.

'At the end of the day, each company, each investor, would want to pursue their business objectives to the fullest,' he said. 'And it is the job of the government at the macro level to identify what the bottlenecks are and to break those bottlenecks. And when you try not to break the bottlenecks by managing growth, I think sometimes it is going to be difficult.'

Mr Lim was one of the four Cabinet ministers taking part in 'Dialogue on the Future', the closing plenary at the Singapore Perspectives 2008 conference yesterday. He described how a lack of clean water was once an obstacle to the growth of the wafer fab industry, but that constraint was overcome by the creation of Newater.

Similarly, Singapore will not let its shortage of labour resources choke its growth. And the solution is to grow its population to a sufficient size.

'When a child is growing, you feed it,' added Foreign Minister George Yeo. 'One day, it will stop growing and one day, there'll be other problems. But when it is growing, don't stunt it.'

The strategy is to push the limits, until the growth becomes 'non-linear and the cost becomes too much to bear,' said Mr Yeo. 'And while it lasts, let us move it,' he added. 'That must be our thinking, that must be our organising philosophy.'

Read more!

Singapore can be Asia's global city

Alvin Foo, Straits Times 2 Feb 08;

SINGAPORE has the edge over key regional cities in its drive to become Asia's global city, according to speakers at yesterday's Singapore Perspective 2008 conference.

They identified three key ingredients in winning this crown: being very cosmopolitan, having world-class amenities, and possessing good government support.

One of the speakers, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, said: 'I am not sure that we can compete with New York or London but in the Asian context, I think we can compete with Tokyo, with Shanghai, with Hong Kong, with Sydney. I'll tell you why.

'First, Sydney's too far away ... it is the antipodes. We are in the middle of Asia, straddling the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.

'Tokyo is too Japanese. Shanghai is still too Chinese. Shanghai will try very hard to go back to the kind of cosmopolitanism they had when it was a treaty port and I think the Chinese government will say 'Go' because they want it to be a vibrant city.

'But I do not believe they can produce the kind of cosmopolitan atmosphere, a cosmopolitan climate, environment that we have in Singapore.'

Deutsche Bank's regional chief economist Sanjeev Sanyal also cited Singapore's increasingly cosmopolitan nature as a key strength in its push to be a global city.

'There's no doubt that Singapore is Asia's most cosmopolitan city,' he said.

'Just look around you, every nationality, every ethnic group. No other Asian city comes close.'

Another factor: excellent amenities here such as good schools and hospitals - which aid in attracting human talent.

Then, there is good governance fuelled by strong government support, he said.

Another speaker - Dr Gillian Koh, senior research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies - painted two possible long-term scenarios for Singapore as she touched on the drivers for change.

The first is a market-driven model named 'F1 Singapore', in which the nation aims for 'high octane growth'. This will see the country aiming to be a magnet for talent and having global firms emerge from Singapore.

The second sees Singapore becoming more closely tied to regional neighbours, in which it focuses on building bridges through the region and tapping resources there.

Earlier, scenario-planning guru Peter Schwartz, the Global Business Network chairman, identified several themes and challenges which are likely to affect Singapore in the future. These included the need for sustained innovation, dealing with the issue of climate change, and a regional disease outbreak.

The mix-and-match city
Why mega cities will be the norm and where Singapore's edge is
Loh Chee Kong, Today Online 2 Feb 08;

IF the futurists have read the cards right, come 2030, the New World Order will be one dominated by a few elite mega-cities, rather than by nations.

And Singapore, judging by the Government's policies and pronouncements, wants to be in that select group, mixing with the likes of London and New York at the pinnacle nodes of global cities.

Deutsche Bank's chief economist, Mr Sanjeev Sanyal, believes that Singapore, more than any other Asian city, has what it takes to achieve this "worthy ambition". After all, once a "human cluster" has been assembled in the form of a mega-city, it will become very difficult to "throw off" such a structure. He pointed to London, which has "bad weather, bad infrastructure, terrorist strikes" — yet still well-regarded as a global city.

Speaking at the Singapore Perspectives 2008 seminar organised by the Institute of Policy Studies on Friday, Mr Sanyal said there is room for just one or two global cities in each region.

The model of a global city, he said, "plays to some of Singapore's best strengths". They include good governance, a cosmopolitan environment and well-developed infrastructures and amenities.

Take the integrated resorts, for instance. "If you really want to gamble, this is not the place. You will still go to Macau. But it's the mix and match that really matters. Again, this is an area that Singapore does very well."

But while the payoffs for being a global city are spectacular, there will also be thorny issues for Singapore to navigate: The lack of a hinterland; congestion; social tensions caused by an influx of immigrants and the "biggest risk of over-building".

Said Mr Sanyal: "In the process of creating a more attractive city, you keep building but the problem is that it actually pushes people out. It's much better to have one really lively, swinging bar than have half-a-dozen half-empty ones. So, it's optimal to build just right, or maybe short of just right."

During the Q&A session, Singapore Institute of International Affairs chairman Simon Tay asked if Singapore under such a "global city" model would be a "home or hotel".

Adding that it was a "tricky balance", Mr Sanyal said: "Eventually, all great global cities are part-home and part-hotel because of the nature of how global citizens live. The problem is if you want to create a sense of community, you need a rooted population."

Apart from a "Formula 1 Singapore" going all out to achieve "high octane growth" as a global city, IPS' senior research fellow Dr Gillian Koh painted the other possible scenario where Singapore taps on the hinterland of Asia for resources.

And even in the latter scenario, Singapore needs to create an affiliation — or a "mind share" — among its people.

Said Dr Koh: "If we are unable to coalesce and work together and project ourselves as a community, we will be lost in the rise of China and India."

While Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew was confident that Singapore could vie against other prominent Asia-Pacific cities such as Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong to be the top regional city, he was "not sure if we can compete with New York or London".

"Sydney is too far away. Tokyo is too Japanese. Shanghai is still too Chinese. Shanghai will try very hard to be cosmopolitan but I do not believe they can produce a cosmopolitan climate we have here," said Mr Lee, who was asked for his views in a subsequent dialogue at the seminar.

But rather than going it alone, Mr Lee told reporters on the sidelines that he wants Malaysian leaders to know that Singapore is ready to work with them to grow together.

He added that Malaysia should view Singapore in the spirit of cooperation and acceptance instead of competition and antipathy.

Singapore's future role remains an 'open question'
Uma Shankari, Business Times 2 Feb 08;

(SINGAPORE) It is difficult enough to say what will happen next week - just ask a weather forecaster or a stock market analyst - but one group has been trying to work out what Singapore might be like 22 years from now, in 2030.

Prospects appear good enough, but there will be problems along the way. The role Singapore will play on the global stage in 2030 remains an 'open question', a conference heard yesterday.

Speakers at the Singapore Perspectives 2008 conference said that Singapore could well succeed in its quest to be a global city but it has challenges aplenty to face. They were discussing scenarios for the next generation.

'Singapore's role is an open question, as is the region's,' said Peter Schwartz, chairman of Global Business Network and a renowned 'futurist' and business strategist.

Singapore could become either a minor or major economic player. It could also become a global capital, a regional capital, or neither.

Sanjeev Sanyal, chief economist for the region at Deutsche Bank, said that there is room for just one or two global cities in Asia. Singapore, he said, could be one such city, but there are issues that need to be addressed.

'Is it reasonable for Singapore to want to be this city? Yes,' Mr Sanyal said. 'I think Singapore has a very good chance of making it.'

But there will not be room for many such cities in one region, he said. For example, the emergence of London as a major global city means that there are no other comparable cities in all of Europe.

Singapore's strengths, Mr Sanyal said, lies in the fact that it is Asia's most cosmopolitan city, has excellent amenities, a financial and business cluster and good communications and transportation links. It also has a government 'that has consciously decided to go for it', he said.

However, Singapore faces challenges such as a small population and the absence of a supporting hinterland. '(Singapore's) hinterland lies in other countries,' Mr Sanyal observed.

In the same vein, Gillian Koh, senior research fellow at Singapore's Institute of Policy Studies, said that Singapore could either become a 'global node in a global economy' or it could choose to increase its ties to the hinterland and tap on South-east Asia's growth. Either way, the country will face stumbling blocks, she said.

To become a 'global node', Singapore will have to take its government-linked companies global and make a political transition, among other things, Dr Koh said. But by increasing its ties to the hinterland, the city-state could see a spillover of the identity politics and governance incapabilities seen in the region.

But change is definitely on the way, driven by factors such as climate change, scientific and technological innovation, the expected decline in the working populations of developed countries and the increased power of Asian countries after they emerge as lenders in the sub-prime fallout, the speakers said.

And there will still be surprises in store for Singapore and challenges such as the 'inevitable' outbreak of disease to be overcome, Mr Schwartz said.

He also said that going forward, other countries in Asia could well catch up with Singapore, whose remarkable success over its first 40 years could be attributed largely to knowledge-driven growth and good government.

But now, others are learning this lesson. Soon, China, India and maybe even Indonesia will be able to undercut Singapore's competitive advantages. Staying ahead of this curve will be critical for Singapore, Mr Schwartz said.

One way to do this is to position Singapore to benefit from the forces of change, such as the climate. 'Singapore could be a winner of climate change if it develops the technology that others need,' Mr Schwartz said.

Singapore should also become a more knowledge-intensive city and expand its external wing to grow its investment income further, said Teh Kok Peng, president of GIC Special Investments.

Read more!

Singaporeans just want a team that delivers results: Swee Say

Lynn Lee, Straits Times 2 Feb 08;

A SPARKLING economy and jobs for almost everyone saw Singapore come out tops in a study on how 56 countries fared last year.

'There was this little red star - not little red dot - Singapore,' Minister (Prime Minister's Office) Lim Swee Say said yesterday, citing a survey reported in The Economist, which included economic powerhouses such as China, India and the United States.

It showed that last year, Singapore was the only country to have achieved both high economic growth and full employment.

The economy expanded by 7.5 per cent and the unemployment rate was 2.1 per cent - a 10-year low.

Explaining what these numbers meant for workers, Mr Lim, the secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), said retrenchments hit a 14-year- low, while unionised firms paid out the fattest bonuses in 18 years.

Mr Lim, who said this at a discussion wrapping up the day-long Institute of Policy Studies conference, was not just delivering another report card on Singapore.

Rather, he was making this point: that these results matter to Singaporeans and they want a high-performing government that can continue to deliver them.

For that matter, they are not fussy about whether there is a one-party or multi-party system. 'If the single party turns out to be the best government...then so be it.'

'But if this one party turns out to be a bad government, obviously as NTUC chief, I will mobilise my workers to vote for a better government,' he said, as the audience chuckled and applauded.

Mr Lim's comments were in response to a question on whether there was a cost to continuing one-party dominance in politics.

The discussion's moderator, Professor Kishore Mahbubhani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, posed it as it had come up in an earlier session on what Singapore politics would be like in 2030.

There, Straits Times Associate Editor Zuraidah Ibrahim and political correspondent Peh Shing Huei envisaged a variety of possibilities for Singapore's political system in an era without Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.

One scenario: Values like the primacy of economic development over political freedom could change.

This could be a result of new ideas and mindsets that the waves of immigrants bring in, they said in a presentation.

But going by current trends, both were doubtful that a two-party state would emerge in the next 20 years.

At most, it would be a '1.5 party system', said Mr Peh.

'This is simply because... the opposition is not strong enough, and Singaporeans have a high comfort level with the PAP. Also, the PAP has shown that it is determined to maintain an overwhelming majority in Parliament,' he added.

How different in 2030?
Ministers say changes may be necessary, but should not be rushed
Nazry Bahrawi, Today Online 2 Feb 08;

AS FOUR Ministers fielded a slew of questions about the nation's future at a dialogue session organised by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) on Friday, change was the hot topic.

Be it economy, foreign policy, socio-cultural or politics, the questions that emerged reflected one sentiment: How different will Singapore in 2030 be from what it is today?

With politics, for instance, what is the cost of continued single party domination to Singapore?

Said Mr Lim Swee Say, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office: "The question is not so much what is the cost of a single party but rather, what is the cost of a poor government or a bad government?"

Speaking as National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) chief, he added: "If that single party turns out to be the best government which we can have for the Singapore workers, so be it."

But not ruling out the possibility of change, Mr Lim said to applause: "But if this single party turns out to be a bad government, then obviously as NTUC chief, I will mobilise my workers to vote for a better government."

Responding to a question about succession planning within the People's Action Party (PAP), Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister of Environment and Water Resources and also Minister in Charge of Muslim Affairs said: "Strategies have not changed ... we have to invite them to tea sessions, and sometimes we even have to cajole them."

While acknowledging that people could contribute to society other than joining political parties, he added: "There is no other solution at this point in time other than the fact that we should continue to invite good people to join and contribute."

A question was asked about the nature of the top-down role that the government here has played in stimulating the economy given the increasing complexity of our own economy and the growing unpredictability of global economic trends.

Taking this question on was Foreign Minister George Yeo, formerly Minister for Trade and Industry, described the Government's philosophy as "practical".

Allaying fears that the government are only concerned about big companies and not small ones, he told the gathering: "I don't think we are committed to whether the investments or the company should be big or small, so long as they generate wealth to the people and create employment opportunities."

Looking out for all
Straits Times 2 Feb 08;

'I've heard this phrase - the middle class, the sandwich class - a lot, especially the last three weeks because I'm trying to explain what a means test is all about, and to assure them it will not be 'mean' for all Singaporeans whether it is low income, middle income or upper income...

Government policies have always looked after all income groups. We have to because...if you just purely look after the low income - which means 10 or 20 per cent - and make it difficult for the rest of society, say 60, 70 or 80 per cent, how do you carry the votes come election time?'

HEALTH MINISTER KHAW BOON WAN, responding to a question on whether the middle class has been neglected

A PRACTICAL MINDSET

'There is a certain practical cast of mind among Singaporeans: You don't work, you don't eat.

And parents are constantly telling their children: 'You better study hard, so you can get good jobs, then you make something of your lives'.

The reason why we have been able to achieve fairly efficient and simple governance is because Singaporeans want this. And they want this not because they think in abstract it is a good thing, but because they know that life is merciless, that unless you contribute, your family suffers.'

FOREIGN MINISTER GEORGE YEO, on what has shaped the political culture in Singapore

LONG-TERM SURVIVAL

'As a young country, a small country, we cannot help but have a sense of insecurity.

We only have 3.6 million Singaporeans. And for us to say we want to share this 3.6 million with the rest of the world, with America, Europe and China ... China has the Great Wall, America has the Big Apple, UK has Manchester United, all these things, they are so irresistible.

Singapore, small little country, we don't have anything. What we are trying to do is create this Singapore for ourselves, try to secure long-term survival.'

MINISTER IN THE PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE LIM SWEE SAY, on why Singapore is not ready for dual citizenship

CASTING THE NET WIDE

'I'll be very candid, I've been involved in the process for two elections, there are good people that we have invited and they declined.

It is something which we have to continue to strive (for). There's no other solution other than the fact that we have to continue to invite good people to join and contribute...

We have to try and cast the net as wide as possible. Strategies have not changed, frankly speaking.

We have to go invite them to tea sessions, talk to them, we have to tell them the bigger picture.'

ENVIRONMENT AND WATER RESOURCES MINISTER YAACOB IBRAHIM, on efforts to ensure political succession

Read more!

What exactly is a green business?

And does being one really add to the bottom line?
Danesh Daryanani, Today Online 2 Feb 08;

AL GORE has almost single-handedly raised the awareness of, and for, green.

Not too long ago, talk of being a green business was met with a degree of scepticism. Initial impressions of green talk were that it was the domain of hippie-type, tree-huggers.

However, over the years, it started to be taken seriously and today, green business is a reality and a strategic imperative for governments and corporations alike.

As a result, consumers' attitudes towards green businesses have changed. The results of the 2007 ImagePower Green Brands Survey conducted by Landor in the United States showed that green awareness is no longer just marginal. It has moved into the collective consciousness of the American consumer.

This trend is also catching on in Singapore — consumers are now looking not only at the products that a company sells but how it does its business.

Mr Thomas Thomas, executive director of the Singapore Compact, a national society that functions to further corporate social responsibility in Singapore, said: "There has been heightened interest over the last three years because companies realise they will no longer just be measured on making profits but how they make them."

According to a recent McKinsey study, 95 per cent of CEOs surveyed believe that society has a higher expectation than it did five years ago that companies will assume public responsibilities. This means that organisational behaviour is being watched more closely, and brands are being held to their promises.

Businesses can no longer adopt green as a "marginal" strategy but instead need to ensure that it is embedded into general company propaganda. One may question the motives behind some companies' decision to embrace green, but the bottom line is, it's a good thing.

Defining a green brand or a green business is not easy. There are no clear ways to define one brand from being more "green" than another. Some standards include measuring the "carbon footprint" of a company — how much recycling a company engages in, the level of involvement by employees in green activities or any number of other measures. However, the definitions of what makes a green company vary greatly.

The United Nations Global Compact suggests 10 principles for businesses in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption.

Out of these, three concern the environment:

Principle 7 states that "businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges";

Principle 8 encourages businesses to "undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility" and;

Principle 9 asks businesses to "encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally-friendly technologies".

These are fairly broad principles and companies can do much, or little, within them.

However, to position an entity as green also involves adopting an active and proactive approach in communicating what the company does in the area of the environment in general.

As companies find it increasingly worth their while to go green, the question arises: Does green, as a business strategy, have any brand benefits?

There are some industries which have come under heavier scrutiny due to the nature of their businesses. Take, for example, the energy, automotive, paper or the airline industry. Due to the direct impact their businesses have on the environment, the level of scrutiny from both the public and state regulators is very high.

As a result, some companies, such as Shell and GE, have long had in place well-developed strategies and actions to ensure that while they conduct business, they do so with minimum impact on the environment. Indeed, these companies have also gone out of their way to make a positive impact on the environment. (See box).

However, for other companies — unless they are, say, manufacturing energy-saving devices — developing a green brand is not much use from a brand differentiating point of view.

Ultimately, the company sells what it is out to sell. That is where its brand-building efforts need to focus on. Positioning a company as "green" where green is not relevant will not add much value to the value proposition of the company.

For example, there may be value in having a "green" car but to be a "green" bank will add no value to the brand. But even for the bank, not being green these days can have a negative impact among its customers.

This is because green is here to stay and ultimately, being green has become a matter of collective responsibility — the "cost" for the privilege of conducting business.

For a company, going green should be a table-stake item; similar to keeping within the law of the country where it is operating. Just like keeping accurate accounting is a prerequisite, considering the impact of a company's operations on the environment should be mandatory.

In other words, while there are no real benefits to being green, there would be a real disadvantage for not being "green".

The writer has spent more than 20 years in marketing and held senior Asia-Pacific roles in Nokia, Shell and Samsung.

Read more!

Shell's profits 'obscene'?

$39b in profits driven by high cost of oil
The Daily Telegraph, Today Online 2 Feb 08;

LONDON — Royal Dutch Shell has been forced onto the defensive after its announcement of record profits of US$27.6 billion ($39 billion) sparked calls for a windfall tax and complaints about soaring pump prices.

The world's second largest non-government oil company received a barrage of complaints that its earnings were "obscene".

The annual profits, which were up 9 per cent, are a record for a European listed company and were driven by last year's soaring oil price, which averaged US$90 ($128) a barrel for the last three months of last year.

The company's chief executive, Mr Jeroen van der Veer, said the figures were "satisfactory", but the Unite union and the Automobile Association (AA) said the government should skim off some of the profits.

Unite joint general secretary Tony Woodley called the profits "obscene", adding: "Greedy oil companies should be asked to contribute for the common good." The AA said some of the windfall profits should be used to improve conditions for motorists.

Mr Van der Veer said UK Treasury taxes account for well over 50 per cent of the price of petrol at the pump, and that the vast bulk of the Anglo-Dutch company's profits were made outside Britain. Most of its earnings come from exploration and production, not from UK petrol sales.

The chief executive said big profits were needed to match big investment plans. "Additional taxation means you can invest less. The money has to come from somewhere and over time it will impact production."

"I think that you should not only look at the profits size, but at the size of the companies and the huge investment tasks we have to do for the future of our companies," he said.

One billion barrels of resources were added last year, down from more than 2 billion in 2006, said Shell.

Read more!

Chicken off the menu as bird flu scare spreads to New Delhi

P. Jayaram, Straits Times 2 Feb 08;

Poultry prices and demand drop after rumour of infection in nearby states

NEW DELHI - THE bird flu scare has spread to the Indian capital, with chicken and egg prices tumbling and chicken dishes being taken off menus in some New Delhi restaurants, following fears of outbreaks in two neighbouring states.

Chicken was selling at 35 rupees (S$1.25) yesterday - about half the usual price - while boards with the words 'chicken not served' appeared outside some restaurants.

It is a scene that is becoming increasingly common in many states in India.

In Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal - the worst-hit state - the demand for poultry has dropped so much that some poultry sellers are giving away vegetables to encourage people to buy their chicken.

Egg consumption there has dropped from five million a day to negligible levels.

Prices and demand have dropped in places as far as Mumbai, and concerns over India's eggs have hit its exports, which suffered a 50 per cent drop in the past two weeks.

While there has been no report of the bird flu having spread to humans in India, the fear of contracting the disease has prompted many to give up chicken temporarily.

'We are off chicken. You just can't afford to take a risk,' said Dr Yadu Raj, an agricultural scientist.

The scare in New Delhi was set off by reports of scores of chickens dying in a farm in nearby Haryana state.

Though the state government has informed the federal authorities that samples from the farm, tested locally, were negative for the virus, it has been advised to send the samples to the main testing facility in Bhopal, in central India.

There were also reports that 2,500 chickens had been illegally transported by rail from West Bengal to Uttar Pradesh, another state adjacent to New Delhi.

In West Bengal, nearly 2.8 million chickens in 14 affected districts - out of a total of 19 - have been slaughtered since an H5N1 outbreak was first reported there last month.

West Bengal's Health Minister Suryakanta Mishra said door-to-door surveillance was being carried out in all the affected areas to check if any person had been infected by the virus.

Senior officials said the Indian government is planning to create a 'protective ring' around West Bengal to check the spread of the disease, by culling poultry in four neighbouring states. It has so far identified border areas in the states of Jharkand, Orissa, Bihar and Assam that fall within a 5km radius of West Bengal.

The region is still fighting to control the spread, with Indonesia yesterday reporting its 102nd death from bird flu.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FROM XINHUA

Read more!

Rising vegetable prices in Singapore: Higher transport costs to blame

Liew Hanqing, The New Paper 2 Feb 08;

YOUR shopping basket will be a little more expensive this year, no thanks to a rise in vegetable prices.

Prices are up between 5 and 10 per cent because higher oil prices have made importing vegetables more expensive.

The good news is there will be ample supply of vegetables for the Chinese New Year festivities.

Mr Law Song Nam, vice-chairman of the Singapore Fruits and Vegetables Importers and Exporters Association, told Lianhe Wanbao that the higher prices were not related to the poor harvests in China caused by cold weather.

He said: 'The vegetable supply for the Chinese New Year period is adequate and a shortage is unlikely.

MANY SOURCES

'We import vegetables from 34 countries, so consumers need not worry about not being able to buy vegetables during this period.'

Mr Law added the main reason for the price hike is the higher cost of importing vegetables.

'A 20-tonne crate of vegetables now costs $280 to ship, compared to $140 previously.'

But good harvests in China prior to the onset of cold weather have helped to moderate the price rise, he said.

'There probably won't be much of a change in the prices during the festive season.'

Other industry sources say that the effects of poor harvests in southern China will probably only occur after the festive season.

They anticipate poor harvests will affect the supply of vegetable imports from Guangzhou and Kunming, which are likely to fall by at least 5 per cent.

Prices are also unlikely to fall after the festive season. In fact, they may even rise further, Lianhe Wanbao quoted industry sources as saying.

Housewife Eunice Yeo, 50, was concerned about the price hikes.

She said: 'It's not just the price of vegetables that has gone up. The price of nearly everything has gone up.

'It's also getting much more expensive to eat out, even at the hawker centres.'

Agreeing, Madam Chua Fwan, 54, a housewife, said: 'Everything is getting more expensive. But there's no choice because we can't just go without vegetables.

'I don't notice it that much when I eat out, but my grocery bill is definitely much higher than it used to be.'

But Mr Michael Loh, 42, who runs a seafood supply business, said he isn't too concerned about the price increase.

He said: 'My wife and I don't usually cook at home - we eat out most of the time, so we don't really feel the immediate effects of the price increases.

'We're not too affected by it.'

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Indonesia to curb rising prices of staple items

Devi Asmarani, Straits Times 2 Feb 08;

Poor people, small businesses to get subsidies; import duties to be cut

JAKARTA - INDONESIA yesterday unveiled a slew of measures to curb rising food prices, giving new subsidies to poor households and small businesses, and slashing taxes and levies to ensure enough food supplies in the country.

The measures - mainly applicable to rice, cooking oil, soya beans and wheat - came amid concerns over an imminent food crisis in the country, which has seen prices of staple commodities rocket in the past few months.

'We made this decision to stabilise prices so as not to burden the people,' President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at a press briefing yesterday.

'There will be consequences to the 2008 state budget, but we will make some adjustments.'

Earlier in the day, he made an unannounced visit to West Java, where he checked prices at traditional markets, visited soya-bean cake factories and spoke to rice farmers.

The policy package had been in the making since Sunday, said the President, after the government consulted state-owned companies, exporters, small-scale businesses and consumers.

Over the past week, street rallies were staged, calling for the government to keep food prices down.

Last month, the rising price of soya beans drove producers of tofu and tempeh (fermented beancurd), which are the main sources of protein for most Indonesians, to hold a strike and massive demonstrations in the capital.

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Budiono said yesterday that the government will sell the basic commodities to the market at subsidised prices.

Poor households will get 15kg of rice a month as well as a supply of kerosene, used by many for cooking, while import duties for rice will be reduced from 550 rupiah (0.08 Singapore cents) to 450 rupiah per kilogramme.

Following the lifting of a 10 per cent import duty on soya beans earlier, a further tax cut was made for imported soya beans, from 2.5 per cent to 0.5 per cent.

Import duties and value- added taxes for wheat and wheat flour will also be lifted.

Mr Budiono said that about 50,000 street vendors selling snacks such as murtabak tofu and tempeh fritters will be entitled to soft loans amounting to 2 million rupiah.

To ensure enough domestic supplies of cooking oil, Indonesia will also raise its export tax on crude palm oil to 15 per cent if international palm oil prices exceed US$1,100 (S$1,600) a tonne, said the minister.

The current export tax is 10 per cent, and current price US$1,020 per tonne.

Mr Budiono said the government is also planning to boost the domestic production of food by giving out supplies of rice and soya bean seeds.

Indonesia, once an agricultural economy, has drawn criticism from some quarters for relying heavily on imports and neglecting to protect its agricultural sector.

'The agricultural sector used to be a priority under the late president Suharto,' said economist Fadhil Hasan of the Institute for the Development of Economics and Finance Indonesia.

'There was construction of infrastructure like irrigation systems, price intervention and R&D on seed varieties and farm equipment.'

After Indonesia agreed to liberalise its agricultural sector in exchange for financial aid from the International Monetary Fund in the wake of the 1998 economic crisis, farmers could not cope with the flood of cheap food imports, the economist noted.

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Torrential rain shuts down Jakarta airport

Salim Osman, Straits Times 2 Feb 08;

JAKARTA - HEAVY rain yesterday forced the six-hour closure of Jakarta's airport due to poor visibility, disrupting more than 100 flights.

Three Singapore Airlines aircraft had to return to Changi Airport after they were unable to land.

This was the first time in the airport's 25-year history that it had to be closed due to poor visibility, said Jakarta airport spokesman Muhammad Wasfan.

For about six hours from 10am, the chaos in the air traffic at the Sukarno-Hatta Airport in Cengkaring forced more than 50 incoming flights to be diverted to Jakarta's Halim Perdanakusuma, and airports in Surabaya, East Java, Palembang and Pekan Baru in Sumatra.

Some 50 other outgoing flights, including an unknown number of international flights, were delayed. Thousands of passengers were stranded at the airport terminals.

Thousands of people could not even reach the airport due to widespread flooding on the road leading to the terminals.

There was also massive flooding in the capital.

The equivalent of a month's rain, or 300mm, fell in the intense downpour near the airport yesterday, Mr Achmad Zakir, head of meteorology information, was quoted by Bloomberg as saying.

Mr Wasfan told The Straits Times yesterday: 'We had to close the airport for several hours because the visibility was less than 300m, while it should be more than 500m.

'The runway was fine, not inundated by water, but the rain and fog had so blurred visibility that we decided to close the airport.'

SIA spokesman Stephen Forshaw said that three SIA aircraft heading for Jakarta - SQ954, SQ956 and SQ958 - were unable to land and returned to Singapore.

An SIA official in Jakarta told The Straits Times that two SIA planes flying from Jakarta to Singapore were able to take off before the airport was closed.

Jakarta airport closed, cars stranded after torrential rains
Business Times 2 Feb 08;

(JAKARTA) Indonesia's main airport was closed yesterday as more than 40 flights were delayed and some forced to return after takeoff due to low visibility following torrential rains.

Several cars were stranded and people waded through nearly knee-high water as flood waters swamped roads and strong winds battered the city of 14 million, which is hit by massive floods at this time almost every year.

'The runway is fine, it is not inundated by water but the rain and fog have blurred visibility. Visibility is less than 300 metres while it should be more than 500 metres,' said Hariyanto, an official at Soekarno Hatta airport. 'The airport has been closed since 10am and 43 flights have been delayed. There are 12 flights from outside Jakarta that cannot land.'

He said later that 15 flights had been diverted to Jakarta's smaller Halim airport, while several planes coming to the capital were forced to return to Singapore.

Scores of cars were left abandoned in the streets of the capital as people had to wade through muddy brown flood water.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was forced to abandon his bullet-proof presidential car after his motorcade tried to pass through knee-high flood waters.

The president's security escort had to usher Mr Yudhoyono into a sport utility vehicle after his Mercedes Benz got stuck on a main road about two kilometres from the presidential palace.

Indonesia's capital is regularly hit by floods and last year about 50 people died, many due to electrocution, and more than 400,000 were displaced after days of heavy rain. There were no reports of deaths in Jakarta yesterday.

After the 2007 floods, the then governor of Jakarta said the city administration needed more help from the central government to deal with the annual hazard\. \-- Reuters

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China's big chill exposes other problems

Straits Times 2 Feb 08;

UNTIL quite recently, China's government-controlled media either ignored or played down reports about disasters.

Not this week, however, as China was lashed by its worst snow blizzards in half a century. The media provided constant coverage of what the state news agency Xinhua called 'an all-out war'.

Almost half a million soldiers and policemen fanned out across the nation to clear snow and render assistance. And, in a remarkable gesture, Premier Wen Jiabao appeared at Guangzhou's main train station to offer his personal apologies to some of the 600,000 travellers stranded.

The timing of the storms could not have been worse: just as the country is preparing for the Chinese New Year, during which hundreds of millions are on the move.

And since many of these are migrant workers desperate to rejoin their families in the countryside, the danger was clear: their misery could have transformed a logistical difficulty into a first-rate political disaster.

In the age of Internet chatrooms and mobile phones, it is no longer possible to hide disasters. China's rulers are aware that if they are to retain power, they must be seen to be exercising it effectively.

The snow blizzards also started a deeper national debate about China's environmental challenges.

Both local and foreign scientists dismiss claims that the blizzards, which killed more than 60 people, are linked to climate change.

But they accept that weather conditions are becoming more unpredictable as a result of global warming, and they do forecast much more frequent snow storms in northern China as a result.

The Chinese authorities admit the level of carbon emissions is soaring and the country's water, soil and air are heavily polluted. Yet despite all the talk, little has been done to contain the damage. This may be about to change.

The Chinese government has promised to publish a 'census' of the country's chief polluters later this month. And after the latest weather havoc, it now seems virtually certain that China's State Environmental Protection Administration, hitherto a largely toothless watchdog, will be elevated to a full government ministry.

But if the Chinese government wants to avoid a repetition of this week's problems, it will have to tackle its root causes.

Up to 80 per cent of the country's electricity is generated by coal-fired power stations. China's main coal-producing regions were largely unaffected by the freak weather, but the distribution system was, and existing coal stockpiles were clearly insufficient.

Desperate to get the trains running again, China's government simply shut off electricity supplies to steel and smelting industries.

But this is hardly a long-term solution. A longer-

term solution must involve an overall increase in power generation, a more robust electricity grid and better crisis-management procedures overall.

It is not beyond China's ability to accomplish all these tasks. For even the popular Premier Wen probably does not relish the prospect of apologising to his people every winter.

China's deep freeze
Dark days for 4.6 million people in Chenzhou
Chua Chin Hon, Straits Times 2 Feb 08;

BEIJING - NO WATER, no electricity, and practically cut off from the outside world.

Chenzhou city, ground zero of China's worst snowstorm in 50 years, has plunged into deep freeze.

For at least a week now, the 4.6 million residents of Chenzhou city, in central Hunan province, have had to live in miserably cold and dark conditions after unusually heavy snowfall cut off power supply and telecommunications links.

The residents say their mobile phones are barely working after the frigid weather crippled dozens of base stations in and around the city. The lack of power also means shops have been shuttered and automated-teller machines can no longer dispense cash.

Not that there is much to buy. State broadcaster CCTV reported that the city has only seven days' worth of diesel fuel supply and enough rice to last just five days. Emergency supplies are said to be on the way.

'We feel miserable,' said Chenzhou resident Li Lilan in an interview broadcast on China National Radio. 'This kind of living conditions is just inhumane.'

Also suffering are 3,000 residents on Liangzi Island in neighbouring Hubei province.

They had been trapped without fresh fuel, rice and vegetables for a week after the waters surrounding the island froze over.

The residents finally found an old icebreaker, and used the ship to navigate through the ice-crusted waters, the New Express daily reported yesterday.

Nearly three weeks of relentless snow and rain have turned daily life into a nightmare for people in the central, southern and eastern parts of the country.

Millions of migrant workers have been prevented from returning home for the coming Chinese New Year holiday after the snow- storms caused large swathes of the country's power grid and transportation network to be shut down.

In southern Guangzhou city, where tens of thousands of workers are packed like sardines in train and bus stations, waiting for a ride home, tempers flared on Wednesday night when the workers mistakenly thought railway services had resumed and tried to charge into the train station.

They were eventually stopped by thousands of riot policemen, media reports said, adding that no violent clashes erupted.

There are concerns, however, that emotions could run high the nearer it gets to the Chinese New Year, which falls on Feb 7.

When asked if the Chinese government could guarantee that every traveller would get home in time for the festivities, Mr Zhu Hongren, a senior official with the country's top economic planning agency, would only say that Beijing was trying its best.

He told reporters at a press conference yesterday that the disaster had taken a toll on China's economy but gave the assurance that any impact would be short-term.

'The economic fundamentals of the Chinese economy are still sound, and I believe the momentum of the fairly rapid and steady growth of the Chinese economy will continue,' he said.

Meanwhile, Ms Li, the Chenzhou resident, and millions of other residents in the snow-hit regions are digging in for a cold, dark and miserable Chinese New Year as the weathermen predict more snow and rain in the days ahead.

The fierce winter storm has already killed some 60 people, destroyed 223,000 houses and damaged another 862,000 homes, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Direct economic damages are estimated at 53.8 billion yuan (S$10.5 billion).

The ministry's deputy director-general for disaster relief, Mr Zou Ming, sidestepped a question on whether the snow-hit regions had enough energy and food reserves to tide them over the crisis, saying merely that the 'situation would improve as more supplies reach them'.

Asked if China planned to ask for assistance from other countries or the United Nations, he told The Straits Times: 'We have not considered this.'

Read more!

EU shrimp fishermen 'greening' their catch

BBC News 1 Feb 08;

About 400 vessels from six European nations catch brown shrimp in the North Sea's Crangon fishery, off the coast of Holland.

Because the rate of catches has been too high, the fishermen have been blamed for the demise of the area's shrimp stocks by retailers.

This has prompted the fishermen to look at becoming accredited under the Marine Stewardship Council's (MSC) eco-labelling scheme.

Mattijs Van der Ploeg owns of a fleet of 40 shrimp boats, which sails from ports in Holland, Germany and Britain.

These boats land about 4,000 tonnes of the shellfish each year - about 12-15% of the North Sea's entire catch.

"In my opinion, when you take a tree from the wood, you have to plant a minimum of one tree back into the wood," he tells Television Trust for the Environment's Earth Report programme.

He says the same philosophy applies to fishing: "If we want to survive, our companies have to do something that keep it sound and well, and that the nature stays how it is."

Dead sea

While there is no limit on the volume of brown shrimp that can be landed, the way it is caught does have an impact on other marine life.

Techniques used to catch shrimp also result in other marine life being caught by the shrimpers.

So-called by-catch is dead by the time it is thrown back into the sea.

To address some of the impacts of shrimp fishing, a group of industry representatives and environmentalists have teamed up to look at ways to improve its methods; enough to win certification by the MSC.

"To get its certificate, a fishery has to ensure by-catch is minimised and very, very small," explains Rupert Howes, MSC's chief executive.

"Fisheries are assessed, perhaps to the highest sustainability standard anywhere in the world, by independent third-party scientists.

"Stakeholders are engaged in the process throughout and, in addition, there is a separate peer review by a separate set of scientists of all fishery assessments."

Escape route

One way to reduce by-catch is by preventing the trawl nets dragging along the sea bed, which is known as bottom-trawling.

However, the first priority identified during a meeting with the MSC was to reduce the catch of "sigsel" - baby shrimp that are too small to eat.

Johan Rispens - a fisherman of 20 years - has made two changes to his boat.

Firstly, he has fitted a new sieve net that allows larger fish to escape to minimise by-catch.

And he has also fitted a new pipe that has an outlet deeper in the water. This pipe returns live fish back into the water, and the outlet means the fish are returned well beneath the reach of sea birds following the boat.

Mark Nijhof, project manager for Heiploeg, one of two massive Dutch shrimp processing plants, says the MSC label adds a new dimension to his role as quality assurance manager.

"It does not relate to quality as we used to know it," he reveals. "Quality as we used to know it is how it smells, tastes and if it's free of pesticides, heavy metals or dioxins.

"This time, it's not quality that you can measure in a laboratory. It's about the integrity behind the process; the MSC label stands for ecologically sustainable fisheries."

Drip, drip

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, half of the world's fisheries are fully exploited, and another quarter is overexploited.

This has led to growing pressure from environmental groups for the situation to be turned round.

"Pressures are both environmental and commercial," says Pim Wisser, director of Den Oever Fish Auction.

"It's the NGOs that start the debate and it's the NGOs that put pressure on supermarkets at the end of the chain; the supermarkets put pressure on the traders, and the traders then put pressure on the fishermen, so it drips down that way."

Rupert Howes says taking the effort to improve fishing practices can make financial sense.

"Some fisheries are actually attracting premiums in the market place for certified seafood over non-certified seafood as global buyers of sea food around the world are paying increasing attention to the environmental provenance and sustainability of the seafood they are buying."

Net value

Marc Jansen, head of consumer affairs for the Dutch Retail Association, warns that the costs of improving standards will be passed on to consumers.

"If you go in that direction, the cost in the chain will increase because you have to certify it and people have to look after it and I think the cost will increase and will eventually land with the consumer.

"A lot of consumers are on an average salary and have to take care about where they spend their money and are price-driven."

Johan Nooitgedart, chairman of the Dutch Fishermen's Union, is also concerned: "I don't think that consumers are really looking for sustainable products compared to the price.

"When something is cheap they like it; then the taste and how it looks are more important than the label, whether or not it is sustainable."

Bart Van Olphen, owner of four fishmonger stores in Holland, begs to differ.

"I get all sorts of customers, and it surprises me because you might think that people with sustainable food wear funny socks, ride funny bicycles and have long hair. But it is all kinds of people that are interested in 'green fish'."

"It is the new generation who are starting to buy quality products - they are very well educated in the ways of sustainability.

"So, I think the new generation is much more informed and they are going to ask for these products."

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