Malaysia Star, 21 Apr 2012
A study by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) has found that government policies to draw in foreign talent had likely helped widen the income gap.
“The rising tide of foreign workers almost certainly impacted wage growth at parts of the income distribution and thereby worsened inequality,” said Manu Bhaskaran, the adjunct senior research fellow at IPS.
It is not known when or why the 1979-1981 restructuring towards a higher value-added economy had to make way – as trade union leader Lim said – to one where workers must be “cheaper, better and faster”.
In 1979 Lee had decided to move away from a cheap economy with low salaries because Singapore had grown too affluent for that.
As Prof Lim said, when that happened, Singapore’s per capita income was US$4,071 (RM12,457); today it is US$50,123 (RM153,376) one of the highest in the world.
And the government had imported 1.157 million foreign workers, which the city did not have 33 years ago. Full story
