CECA benefitted SG huh OYK and Dr Tan/ FUCKING BULLSHIT.

[myfoot123]

It's a fact that oppie voters are daft. CECA has been very good for sinkies and yet oppies keep saying otherwise.

Wait till your daughter married one of those.

 

[TerrexLee]

How could oppies ever take this seriously? The author provided no evidence that our banks and financial corporations have been swamped by CECA. For all you know, the article could have been written by a Grab delivery rider.

How could anyone even take you John tan seriously for starters?

 

[Leepotism]

Singapore CECA tests Indias patience​

Written by Subhomoy Bhattacharjee | Ronojoy Banerjee | Ronojoy Banerjee | New Delhi | Updated: May 26 2010, 05:03am hrs
India has told Singapore that allowing immediate free movement of skilled people and substantially higher investment in Indias capital markets are essential for the survival of the five-year old Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) with the island state.
India plans to wrap up the review of this flagship trade treaty within a year, far less than the time usually allotted for such talks to conclude. The short span is an indication of its unhappiness over the pace of the opening up of services and capital investment, despite five years of the operation of the agreement.
According to official sources, when Singapore trade minister Lim Hng Kiang visited India last week for talks with commerce minister Anand Sharma to review the progress of CECA, New Delhi stressed on ways to step up liberalisation in services. Trade between India and Singapore in merchandise goods has increased multi-fold. However, services still lag behind and thats an area of concern, said an official, on condition of anonymity. He said the synchronisation between professional institutes in India and their counterparts in Singapore has not happened so far, and India has taken serious note of this.

India is keen to position the CECA as an entry point to the lucrative Asean markets. Singapore allowing free movement of skilled Indian personnel is expected to be a force multiplier for Indias employment market.

So, the stakes for India are high in the run-up to CECAs with Asean and Japan. If Singapore agrees to the new terms of revision, it will be flagged by India at every negotiation.
The Indian government is also peeved at the fact that of the 1,780 foreign institutional investors registered with Sebi, very few are of Singapore origin. This is an asymmetry which the government feels can be rectified if the Singapore government leans on the investors to correct their Shanghai market bias. The CECA was designed to bring in financial sector investment to exploit opportunities as India liberalised the sector. But this too has not happened, said a commerce ministry official.
If services liberalisation is fully achieved as we hope, then India will have a lot more to gain than Singapore. It (Singapore) is a developed economy. Why would a Singaporean doctor want to come to India at literally one-fourth the income However, there would be many Indian doctors, architects, engineers and nurses wanting to go to that part of the world, he said.
A senior trade official with an industry chamber said that there has been no progress between the two countries especially in mutual recognition agreements (MRA). Even after five years, MRA liberalisation has not been achievedthis is an area where India has much to gain, he said. He added that some incremental progress has been made in banking.
SK Mohanty, Fellow at Research Information Systems (RIS) who worked on the joint-study group on India-Singapore CECA said there has been no headway in MRA, and it is a cause for concern for India. When the feasibility study was conducted, we realised that India is not going to get enough from liberalisation in goodsit is in services where we hold a key which has made no progress, he said.
Mohanty added that Singapore is reluctant to open its borders for Indians because it fears that it is going to result in an influx of Indian professionals. Mathew Linu Philip, executive director of Centre for Trade and Development (Centad), a Delhi-based think tank said that it is not in Singapores interest to allow Indian working professionals to enter the country because of its close proximity to China. Singapore imports mostly from China therefore, it does not make sense for them to liberalise services with India, he said.
The CECA between India and Singapore was signed in August 2005. According to the agreement in services, the two countries agreed to allow free movement of IT professionals, chartered accountants, architects, engineers and doctors.

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Netizen shares personal experience of massive hiring of Indian professionals in Singapore from 2007​

by The Online Citizen
08/07/2021
in Labour
Reading Time: 6 mins read
78



On Tuesday (6 July), Facebook page The Alternative View shared one of its readers’ personal experience on how the India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) has resulted in an influx of individuals from India being hired in a foreign bank here.
This is, however, contrary to what People’s Action Party’s (PAP) ministers Ong Ye Kung and Tan See Leng said in their ministerial statement in Parliament on Tuesday.
In the post, the netizen, who is addressed as a concerned Singaporean, expressed his anger after reading what Mr Ong and Dr Tan said in their ministerial statements.
“This bunch of idiots and their MOM minions dare say the CECA has not allowed a free movement of Indian nationals in S’pore’s PMET segment? I want to call out their bullshit based on my personal experience,” said the netizen.


















He explained that he had worked in the financial industry for 15 years and witnessed himself how Indian ‘professionals’ began entering the industry from around 2007. In just a few years, the numbers grew and became a “flood”, said the netizen.
CECA between Singapore and India was signed in 2005.
The netizen went on to that while he was working in this foreign bank (which was not named in the post), he saw certain departments were filled with just Indian nationals.
For example, one of the departments had 23 staff, out of which 22 were from India and the remaining one was a Chinese who is based in Hong Kong, he said.
“The investment and retail side were also dominated by Indian nationals. Not surprising because the heads of both divisions were also from India. And on top of them, there was an overall Chief Executive of Asia who was also from India.

“This certainly validates the anecdotal observation that these people hire their own and what better place than S’pore to do this, with the CECA allowing them to transfer their compatriots in under the Intra-Corporate Transfer route,” the Singaporean expressed.
As such, he stressed that it is not a “joke” when people refer Marina Bay Financial Centre (MBFC) as Mumbai Financial Centre or Changi Business Park (CBF) as Chennai Business Park.
Over time, the Singaporean was so “dismayed” at this situation that he decided to leave the workplace.

“Nothing much has changed since I left. You just need to go LinkedIn to look through the employees of many foreign banks to see for yourself,” he said.
He added, “Given tonight’s rhetoric by the PAP ministers, I really doubt things will change for the better. The real solution to this is to have a stronger Opposition presence in the Parliament to force the PAP to account for their policies and decisions. We can’t afford to let them have even half a blank cheque now.”

CECA doesn’t allow Indian nationals free entry to Singapore​

While speaking in Parliament on Tuesday, Mr Ong said that Free Trade Agreements (FTA) and CECA have not curtailed the power of immigration authorities to regulate the entry of foreign professionals, managers, executives, and technicians (PMETs) into Singapore under such agreements.
The Health Minister, who delivered his ministerial statement on the issues of FTAs and CECA in the context of his background as a former trade negotiator in the civil service, said that the Government “retains full rights” to determine who can enter, live, work, and obtain permanent resident status in Singapore.
He also dismissed Progress Singapore Party’s claim that the 127 categories of professionals listed in CECA allow Indian nationals to flock to Singapore to work freely, saying that all foreign PMETs have to meet all of the relevant criteria set by the government to enter for employment purposes.
Further, allowing foreign PMETs to apply does not indicate automatic approval by the Singapore authorities.
FTAs, said Mr Ong, has enabled the Economic Development Board to utilise such agreements to attract greater foreign investment into Singapore.
Mr Ong also stressed that Singapore’s reliance on trade and related agreements is a question of survival, given the city-state’s small size and lack of natural resources.
As for the presence of foreign PMETs, Mr Ong said it cushions the negative impact on the local workforce during an economic downturn, other than becoming a complementary segment of Singapore’s manpower landscape.
Local employment, he added, has been stable.
Acknowledging that certain sectors have a high concentration of PMETs of certain countries of origin, such as Indian national tech professionals in Changi Business Park, Mr Ong said that the government is “taking this seriously and seeing what we can do to lessen the problem”.
However, he stressed that it is not a straightforward matter of axing their companies’ operations, fearing that such a move would drive away current and potential future foreign investments.

Manpower Minister only reveals data of ICT for 2020​

In his Ministerial Statement, Dr Tan only revealed the number of intra-corporate transferees (ICTs) from India last year, which was a COVID-19 year. According to Dr Tan, there were 4,200 ICTs working in Singapore last year, of which 500 were brought in from India.
ICTs are overseas employees at an MNC transferred to their Singapore’s office to work. Companies that want to fill a role with an ICT are exempted from the Fair Consideration Framework requirement that requires firms to advertise jobs on the National Jobs Bank.
But they must meet the prevailing work pass criteria before they are allowed to work here, Mr Tan said. “None of our FTAs, including the India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (Ceca), gives intra-corporate transferees unfettered access to our labour market,” he added.
“If they have brought in dependants, the dependants do not have automatic rights to work here. They can only do so if they qualify for a work pass on their own merits,” he said.
Mr Tan’s speech was made in response to questions filed by the two Non-Constituency Member of Parliament from the Progress Singapore Party (PSP). In particular, Mr Leong Mun Wai had filed questions in this Parliament sitting in preparation for the Motion that he will be filing in due time, a challenge he took up from Minister K Shanmugam.
Mr Leong had asked the Minister the exact numbers of nationals from countries under Singapore’s free trade agreements who have entered and worked in Singapore using intra-corporate transferee visas, professional visas and dependant passes for each year from 2005 to 2020.
From Mr Tan’s answer, it seems Mr Leong’s questions were hardly answered.
Furthermore, Tan also forgot to add that the rule was changed only recently several months ago. ICTs now can no longer bring their family members with them via dependant’s passes or long-term visit passes, something which was permitted all along. And in the past, dependants were allowed to work in Singapore.
According to the Population White Paper, around 30,000 Permanent Residents and 20,000 new citizens are granted each year on average for the past couple of years. It is unknown how many of these Work Pass holders were converted and whether they are included in the figures provided by the Minister.

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Minister Tan See Leng: Increase in Indian EP holders to 25% last year not due to CECA​

India ranked 31st in world in terms of IT talent​

by Correspondent
08/07/2021
in Labour, Politics
Reading Time: 3 mins read
25



On Tue (6 Jul), Manpower Minister Tan See Leng told Parliament in his Ministerial Statement on the India–Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), that about 25 percent of the 177,100 employment pass (EP) holders in Singapore were Indian nationals.
Dr Tan did not disclose the proportion for S Pass holders.
As of Dec last year, there were 177,100 EP and 174,000 S Pass holders. That is to say there were 351,100 foreign PMETs in total working in Singapore last year.
An EP requires the candidate to be paid a minimum salary of $4,500 in order to qualify for the work pass meant for managerial, executive or specialised jobs. A S Pass on the other hand — for mid-skilled foreign employees, requires the candidate to be paid a minimum salary in order to qualify.


















Revealing the proportion only for EP holders, Tan said, “The proportion of EP holders from India has increased from about one seventh (14%) in 2005 to about a quarter (25%) in 2020.”
“Now, is this the result of more favourable treatment for Indian EP holders due to CECA? The answer is no,” he added.
He stressed that there is no differentiation based on nationality: all work pass holders in Singapore have to meet the same criteria before they are allowed to enter the local labour market. “Rather, these numbers reflect trends in the global demand and supply of tech talent.”
He said that Singapore does not publish detailed statistics on its foreign workforce, especially by nationality. However, the government has decided to reveal some figures in order to allay the damage from “misconceptions”.
And indeed, some figures were revealed but not the answers that Mr Leong Mun Wai, Non-Constituency Member of Parliament from Progress Singapore Party, was looking for.

Mr Leong had asked about the number of nationals from countries under Singapore’s Free Trade Agreements—namely China, India, US, and Australia—who have entered and worked in Singapore using Intra-Corporate Transferee (ICT) visas, professional visas, and dependent passes for each year from 2005 until last year.
However, Dr Tan barely answered the questions filed.
The larger increase in Indian EP holders compared with other nationalities, said Dr Tan, is driven by rapid growth in the digital economy and finance, as every sector seeks tech talent in order to be digitally enabled, Tan explained.

“We don’t have enough locals to fill the jobs available. In the infocomm sector alone today, 6,000 jobs currently remain unfilled,” said Tan.
However, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung did acknowledge with regard to the concentration of foreign nationals from a certain nationality working at Changi Business Park.
“Some may feel that we have lost a part of Singapore. Members of the House have raised this concern. We are taking this seriously and studying what we can do to lessen the problem,” Ong said.
In any case, speaking of “tech talent”, HackerRank, a global technology hiring platform for assessing IT developer skills, conducted a study some time ago to see which country has the best IT programmers and developers.
As part of the study, HackerRank ranked more than 1.5 million IT developers who took part in solving challenging coding problems on its site. The ranking was based on factors such as accuracy and speed.
It found that despite India had one of the most number of competitors on HackerRank, they were ranked at a lowly 31st position in terms of talent. Meanwhile, Singapore was ranked 13th in the world.

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[Hypocrite-The]

Ministers give “motherhood statements” with half stats, rather than providing specific figures requested by PSP NCMPs​

by The Online Citizen
08/07/2021
in Editorial, Parliament, Politics
Reading Time: 9 mins read
22



Ministerial statements on Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation (CECA) have been delivered in Parliament on Tuesday (6 July), but the ministers appear to have given more “motherhood statements”, rather than providing specific figures as requested by the Progress Singapore Party’s (PSP) Non-Constituency Members of Parliament (NCMPs).
Earlier, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung announced that he and Manpower Minister Dr Tan See Leng will deliver ministerial statements on the matter at this month’s Parliament sitting. This was prompted by PSP’s NCMP Leong Mun Wai accepting Law Minister K Shanmugam’s challenge to seek “further clarification” on foreign employment policies and CECA.
In a Facebook post on 1 July, the Health Minister noted that the duo will explain how important FTAs are to Singaporeans and how they work. They will also address the “false allegations” that FTAs permit foreign professionals a free hand to live and work in Singapore.
“We will also move to open our Ministerial Statements for debate. This will allow members of the PSP to respond to our statements if they wish to,” he added.


















Mr Ong also claimed that the unhappiness towards Indian immigrants in Singapore is fuelled largely by false allegations made by PSP on how the CECA has allowed Indian professionals to come here easily for work.
He went on to note that while there are concerns about racist behaviours in Singapore that need to be addressed, PSP’s “false allegations” on CECA had made it worse here.
Not long after Mr Ong made the announcement, PSP’s secretary-general Francis Yuen issued a statement on the party’s Facebook page saying that PSP refutes the “false allegations” put forth by the Minister.
“We are bewildered by Mr Ong’s baseless allegations that we have contributed in no small part to the undercurrent of sentiment against immigrant Indians through PSP that CECA has given Indian PMETs a free hand to work here,” the statement read.
It also pointed out that Mr Ong’s “serious allegations” were made without facts pointing to where or when PSP made such alleged false statements in the first place.

Leong Mun Wai’s first question was barely half answered​

In particular, NCMP Leong Mun Wai had filed questions in Parliament on the number of nationals from countries under Singapore’s FTAs—namely China, India, US, and Australia—who have entered and worked in Singapore using Intra-Corporate Transferee (ICT) visas, professional visas, and dependent passes for each year from 2005 until last year.
In response, Dr Tan told the House on Tuesday that the total number of ICTs have “consistently been very small” as there were only about 4,200 ICTs working in Singapore last year, of which 500 were brought in from India.
This is out of 177,000 Employment Pass (EP) holders in Singapore, said the Minister.

“None of our FTAs, including CECA, gives ICTs unfettered access to our labour market, they all have to meet the Ministry of Manpower’s work pass criteria,” he said.
Dr Tan went on to explain that such employees are subject to additional checks on their seniority, employment history and work experience. They are also subject to “more conditions” on their eligibility to bring in dependants, and apply for permanent residency or future employment in Singapore.
Dr Tan also clarified that there is no such category as “professional visas”, adding that all 127 categories of professionals under CECA currently come in under the regular work pass framework.
“The PSP has made Indian Nationals coming in through CECA a focus of contention but I’m afraid they’ve been barking up the wrong tree.
“The number of ICTs coming in under our FTAs, and in particular CECA, is a very small number relative to the total numbers of EPs. So I suggest we set aside this red herring and move on,” he added.
Shifting away from the question, Dr Tan asked to focus on the “heart of the matter” instead, which is how Singapore can remain open to global talent to create opportunities for Singaporeans while managing the attendance of social repercussions.
“Singaporeans are pragmatic and understand that we need to remain open to global talent. However, they also face real challenges,” he said, acknowledging that the growth in EP holders has come at the expense of local professionals.
He noted Singaporeans concerns that some workplaces have become more concentrated with a single nationality, and that there may be discrimination against local job seekers and workers.
“I’m not suggesting that all of our approaches are perfect and obviously, we are always a work in progress. But we will continue to refine them in the light of experiences, always with a focused view to having a system that can deliver good jobs, livelihood and a thriving economy for Singaporeans,” he noted.
We note that Dr Tan only provided figured for various passes issued under the FTA for 2020, instead of every year since 2005 as requested by Mr Leong. There was also no breakdown of the figures by country.

Leong Mun Wai’s second question was hardly answered​

In his second Parliamentary question on the FTAs and CECA, Mr Leong asked the number of nationals from China, India, USA, and Australia, holding EPs or S Passes who are currently working in companies with fewer than 10 employees.
This question, however, was hardly even answered by the Ministers.
Mr Ong revealed that the number of EP holders has increased from 65,000 in 2005 to 177,000 in 2020—an increase over 15 years of 112,000 or an annual growth rate of just under 7 per cent—but the increase in the number of local professionals is much higher by over 380,000.
“These numbers underline an important point: that competition between foreign and local PMEs is not a zero-sum game,” he remarked.
Meanwhile, Dr Tan told the House that about a quarter of the 177,100 EP holders in Singapore hail from India last year, which has increased from about one-seventh in 2005, but he did not provide any specific numbers to this.
“The top nationalities that comprise around two-thirds of our EP holders has been consistent since 2005 – namely, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, and the UK. The interest is really in Indian EP holders,” he explained.
The Minister noted that by comparison, the proportion of EP holders from China has remained “relatively stable” across the same period.
“Now, is this the result of more favourable treatment for Indian EP holders due to the CECA? The answer is no,” he remarked.
Dr Tan reiterated that all work pass holders have to meet the same criteria before they are allowed to enter the labour market in Singapore, and that there is “no differentiation based on nationality”.
“Rather, these numbers reflect trends in the global demand and supply of tech talent,” he said, adding that the larger increase in Indian EP holders is driven by the rapid growth of Singapore’s digital economy.
“We do not have enough locals to fill the jobs available. In the Infocomm sector alone, 6,000 jobs currently remain unfulfilled,” said Dr Tan.
Dr Tan also noted that China and India have been “two of the largest suppliers of tech talent”, but while Chinese talents decide to stay in their own country—because China has “sprouted so many unicorns” and has a huge demand—India’s talent continued to “look outwards”. Again, he did not provide specific numbers.
“Our companies are both creators of technology as well as adopters of tech talent. Given our shortage of manpower, even if the workers don’t come from India, they will come from somewhere else,” he added.
Furthermore, around 30,000 Permanent Residents and 20,000 new citizens are granted each year on average for the past couple of years. However, it remains unknown how many of these Work Pass holders were converted into PRs and citizenships and whether they are included in the figures provided by the Minister.
Again, we note that Mr Leong’s specific question was hardly answered.

No answer given to Hazel Poa’s question​

Besides Mr Leong, PSP’s NCMP Hazel Poa also posed questions on the numbers of Dependant Passes and Long-Term Visit Passes that have been issued to relatives of nationals from China, India, USA, and Australia who are EP and S Pass holders, respectively, for each year from 2005 to last year.
Dr Tan answered: “Ms Hazel Poa has asked for numbers on dependants in Singapore. This is relevant, insofar as they are competing with locals for jobs. But as shared previously, the vast majority of dependants do not work during their stay in Singapore.”
He noted that the number of Dependant Pass holders who have sought employment in Singapore via a Letter of Consent (LOC) constitute only about one per cent of all Work Pass holders.
“In fact, Members would remember that we regularised the work arrangements of DP holders in May this year – DP holders who wish to work in Singapore can no longer obtain an LOC. Instead, they will have to qualify for a relevant work pass on their own merit, and go through normal work pass routes,” he added.
Dr Tan continued: “There will always be calls from workers to tighten our foreign workforce policies further, just as there will always be calls from businesses to relax them. It is the constant tightrope that MOM and MTI have to navigate delicately amidst highly competitive global markets for both investments and talent.”
Once again, we note that both the ministers did not quite address the question posed by Ms Poa.

Statistics cannot be revealed due to foreign policy reasons, says Dr Tan​

At one point during his speech, Dr Tan highlighted that the Government is unable to provide detailed statistics on Singapore’s foreign workforce, especially by nationality, due to foreign policy reasons.
“We are not aware of any country that reports at the level of granularity requested,” he remarked.
Ms Poa questioned if there would be more data being released as the Ministers had not provided all of the information that PSP had requested. To this, Mr Ong answered that they have “tried best” to do so.
Mr Ong went on to clarify that he had not promised that they would tabulate and provide all data, but that Dr Tan would only provide more detailed answers to the specific questions, including “providing the data which will be useful for our subsequent debate and putting that data in context”.
“We try to provide as much as we can, but I think there’s a limit to what we can do,” he added.

Unlikely to see a motion filed without transparency from Government on labour statistics​

Earlier on 22 June, Mr Leong shared that PSP will seek “further information” on foreign employment policies and CECA from the Government at the Parliament sitting in July.
This was following his acceptance of the challenge from Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam in May to file a motion to debate the CECA in Parliament, to which he responded that PSP is interested in taking up the issue of CECA at “some point in time”.
Mr Leong wrote in a Facebook post that the PSP has accepted the challenge to have “a thorough debate” on Singapore’s employment policies and the CECA, in the spirit of “protecting our domestic economy and our people”.
“The Progress Singapore Party (PSP) feels strongly that the time to rebalance the interests of the Singaporeans vis-à-vis Foreign PMETs (defined as all the work pass holders) in the job market is long overdue,” he wrote, adding that this is necessary to create a “win-win” situation for Singaporeans and foreign nationals.
The first step to this, he stressed, is by obtaining “prompt and complete information so as to promote transparency”.
However, based on the response and the data provided from the two Ministers, it may still be months before PSP is able to dig out the information that it requires to engage in a meaningful debate with the Government.
Without the information sought by the NCMPs, any motion filed by PSP on the matter of CECA will digress into a m&d fight of ideology and rhetoric.

 

[Hypocrite-The]

S’porean working in the finance sector for 15 years says he quit because in a department with ‘23 staff, 22 were from India and 1 was a Chinese based in HK’​

Nothing much has changed since I left. You just need to go LinkedIn to look through the employees of many foreign banks to see for yourself, said the netizen.
Photo: Google maps / Marina Bay Financial Centre



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AUTHOR
Obbana Rajah
DATE
July 8, 2021
CATEGORY
Home NewsFeatured NewsSG PoliticsUncategorized

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Singapore — A concerned Singaporean wrote and shared his experience working in a foreign bank in Singapore where he saw how there was widespread hiring of foreigners, leading to him eventually leaving the company.
In a letter to popular Facebook page ‘The Alternative View’ on Tuesday (Jul 6), the netizen said that after hearing the ministerial speeches by Health Minister Ong Ye Kung and Manpower Minister Tan See Leng on Tuesday (Jul 6), they were “filled with so much anger I have to write this”.

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“This bunch of idiots and their MOM minions dare say the CECA has not allowed a free movement of Indian nationals in S’pore’s PMET segment? I want to call out their bullshit based on my personal experience”, the netizen penned.
Adding that they were working in the financial sector for 15 years, the netizen wrote that they saw that Indian professionals began coming in from 2007.
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The India–Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, also known as the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement or simply CECA, is a free trade agreement between Singapore and India to strengthen bilateral trade. It was signed on 29 June 2005.
In the letter, the Singaporean wrote that in a particular department, out of a total of 23 staff members, 22 were from India, and the remaining one was a Chinese person who was based in Hong Kong.
“The investment and retail side were also dominated by Indian nationals. Not surprising because the heads of both divisions were also from India. And on top of them, there was an overall Chief Executive of Asia who was also from India”, the netizen wrote.
Eventually, because of the state of affairs in the bank, the netizen decided to leave.
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“Nothing much has changed since I left. You just need to go LinkedIn to look through the employees of many foreign banks to see for yourself”, the netizen added.

The full letter:

Dear TAV

I read the so-called ministerial statements of both Tan See Leng and Ong Ye Kung on the CECA and am filled with so much anger I have to write this.
This bunch of idiots and their MOM minions dare say the CECA has not allowed a free movement of Indian nationals in S’pore’s PMET segment? I want to call out their bullshit based on my personal experience.

I have been working in the financial sector for 15 years and saw for myself how the sector was inundated by Indian “professionals” who started streaming in from around 2007. In a matter of years, this became a flood.

This happened right before my eyes in the bank where I worked. During my time, you could see certain departments filled with just Indian nationals. In 1 such department, there were 23 staff. Of the 23 staff, 22 were from India and the remaining 1 was a Chinese but based in HK.
The investment and retail side were also dominated by Indian nationals. Not surprising because the heads of both divisions were also from India. And on top of them, there was an overall Chief Executive of Asia who was also from India.This certainly validates the anecdotal observation that these people hire their own and what better place than S’pore to do this, with the CECA allowing them to transfer their compatriots in under the Intra-Corporate Transfer route.
Hence, when people refer MBFC as Mumbai Financial Centre or CBP as Chennai Business Park, it’s really not a joke. You just have to go there during lunch time or tea-break at around 4 pm to see for yourself.
Eventually, I was so dismayed by this state of affairs that I decided to leave that place.Nothing much has changed since I left. Y
ou just need to go LinkedIn to look through the employees of many foreign banks to see for yourself.
Given tonight’s rhetoric by the PAP ministers, I really doubt things will change for the better. The real solution to this is to have a stronger Opposition presence in the Parliament to force the PAP to account for their policies and decisions. We can’t afford to let them have even half a blank cheque now.
Regards
A Concerned S’porean

During the parliamentary session on Tuesday (Jul 6), Mr Ong pointed to Chapter 9 under CECA, titled “Movement of Natural Persons”.
The chapter, he said, “makes it clear that the Government’s ability to regulate immigration and foreign manpower is not affected” by the trade pact.
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The Government also “retains full rights to decide who can enter the country to live, to work or become permanent residents or citizens, he added, citing the second and third paragraphs found within the chapter.
In addition, the obligations relating to the chapter are “not broad principles with wide applications, but highly specific”, like all FTAs.
He added: “Nothing in this agreement implies Singapore must unconditionally let in PMEs from India.”
Mr Ong also said that it was untrue that intra-corporate transferees from India are able to freely enter Singapore to work.
He went on to say that the total number of intra-corporate transferees from all over the world, not just India, that have come to Singapore to work is “very small”.
Last year, there were only about 500 intra-corporate transferees from India in Singapore, less than 0.3 per cent of all Employment Pass (EP) holders. /TISG

 

[3_M]

Pap hopes to clarify things once and for all but seems like they just open a can of worms. Hopefully for pap, it will die down before next GE

 

[myfoot123]

When is CECA agreement expiring? This is an important question to ask.

 

[Hypocrite-The]

The main question is why was there a 25% increase in the midst of lockdowns and travel bans? Singkieland soo short of labour in the PMET category?
And if the increase in shitskins in singkieland is not due to SHITCA,,,,than how come got a 25% increase from shitskin land ? the more these pappies talk,,the bigger the hole they dig for themselves





Minister Tan See Leng: Increase in Indian EP holders to 25% last year not due to CECA
India ranked 31st in world in terms of IT talent
by Correspondent 08/07/2021in Labour, PoliticsReading Time: 3 mins read 51
Minister Tan See Leng only reveals 500 intra-corporate transferees from India for last year – a Covid year
On Tue (6 Jul), Manpower Minister Tan See Leng told Parliament in his Ministerial Statement on the India–Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), that about 25 percent of the 177,100 employment pass (EP) holders in Singapore were Indian nationals.

Dr Tan did not disclose the proportion for S Pass holders.

As of Dec last year, there were 177,100 EP and 174,000 S Pass holders. That is to say there were 351,100 foreign PMETs in total working in Singapore last year.

An EP requires the candidate to be paid a minimum salary of $4,500 in order to qualify for the work pass meant for managerial, executive or specialised jobs. A S Pass on the other hand — for mid-skilled foreign employees, requires the candidate to be paid a minimum salary in order to qualify.



Revealing the proportion only for EP holders, Tan said, “The proportion of EP holders from India has increased from about one seventh (14%) in 2005 to about a quarter (25%) in 2020.”

“Now, is this the result of more favourable treatment for Indian EP holders due to CECA? The answer is no,” he added.

He stressed that there is no differentiation based on nationality: all work pass holders in Singapore have to meet the same criteria before they are allowed to enter the local labour market. “Rather, these numbers reflect trends in the global demand and supply of tech talent.”

He said that Singapore does not publish detailed statistics on its foreign workforce, especially by nationality. However, the government has decided to reveal some figures in order to allay the damage from “misconceptions”.

And indeed, some figures were revealed but not the answers that Mr Leong Mun Wai, Non-Constituency Member of Parliament from Progress Singapore Party, was looking for.


Mr Leong had asked about the number of nationals from countries under Singapore’s Free Trade Agreements—namely China, India, US, and Australia—who have entered and worked in Singapore using Intra-Corporate Transferee (ICT) visas, professional visas, and dependent passes for each year from 2005 until last year.

However, Dr Tan barely answered the questions filed.

The larger increase in Indian EP holders compared with other nationalities, said Dr Tan, is driven by rapid growth in the digital economy and finance, as every sector seeks tech talent in order to be digitally enabled, Tan explained.


“We don’t have enough locals to fill the jobs available. In the infocomm sector alone today, 6,000 jobs currently remain unfilled,” said Tan.

However, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung did acknowledge with regard to the concentration of foreign nationals from a certain nationality working at Changi Business Park.

“Some may feel that we have lost a part of Singapore. Members of the House have raised this concern. We are taking this seriously and studying what we can do to lessen the problem,” Ong said.

In any case, speaking of “tech talent”, HackerRank, a global technology hiring platform for assessing IT developer skills, conducted a study some time ago to see which country has the best IT programmers and developers.

As part of the study, HackerRank ranked more than 1.5 million IT developers who took part in solving challenging coding problems on its site. The ranking was based on factors such as accuracy and speed.

It found that despite India had one of the most number of competitors on HackerRank, they were ranked at a lowly 31st position in terms of talent. Meanwhile, Singapore was ranked 13th in the world.

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Lee Hsien Yang and Hazel Poa ask why data was not provided for certain Parliamentary Questions of PSP​

We were told that these Parliamentary Questions would be answered via the Ministerial Statement, but unfortunately the government did not provide the data requested, she said.
Photo: YouTube screengrab - Lee Hsien Yang, Hazel Poa



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Obbana Rajah
DATE
July 9, 2021
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Singapore — Two days after Ministerial Statements on CECA and FTAs were read in Parliament, NCMP Hazel Poa asked why some questions she asked were not answered.
Her Jul 8 Facebook post with the questions was shared by Progress Singapore Party (PSP) member Lee Hsien Yang.
In her post, Ms Poa shared that she raised the following queries:
– From 2005 – 2020 how many DPs and LTVPs were issued to relatives of China, India, USA, Australia that are E-Pass and S-Pass holders
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– From 2005 – 2020, how many nationals were issued E-Pass, S-Pass, Work Permits and LOC from China, India, USA and Australia
– Proportion of Nationals from China, India, USA, Australia by industries and the types of jobs that are commonly held by them
– Breakdown of number of E-Pass, S-Pass and Work Permit Holders by industry
Ms Poa then wrote: “We were told that these Parliamentary Questions would be answered via the Ministerial Statement, but unfortunately the government did not provide the data requested”.
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After the PSP has accepted the challenge to debate employment policies and the Singapore-India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (Ceca), they sought further information from the Government to prepare for the debate. Subsequently, they would decide on a suitable time to file a motion.
In Parliament last month, Mr Shanmugam said there have been “several canards” about Ceca.
“If anyone here believes that Ceca is a problem, put it up for a motion, debate it openly and let’s hear whether Singaporeans benefit or lose from it.
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“I’m looking at you, Mr Leong,” he added then. “I invite you to put up a motion to debate Ceca. You know that most of what is said about Ceca is false.” /TISG
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[A Singaporean]

Fuck his mother puki.

 

[batman1]

When is CECA agreement expiring? This is an important question to ask.

CECA Signed in 2005. No answer from PAP on expiry date. So the answer is : Indefinitely. Thanks to the 61% !

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Netizens question accuracy of data provided by Manpower Minister on job creation for local PMEs stronger than EPs in finance, infocomm​

by The Online Citizen
07/07/2021
in Comments, Labour
Reading Time: 6 mins read
92



While the number of Employment Passes (EPs) given out to foreigners in finance and infocomm sectors from 2005 to 2020 stands at 40 percent, but the amount of job created for local professionals, managers and executives (PMEs) in these two sectors are even higher, said Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng in Parliament on Tuesday (6 July).
In infocomm, the number of EPs went up by around 25,000, however, the number of job created for local PMEs was about 35,000.
As for finance, jobs for EPs stand at 20,000 while job creation for locals were at 85,000.
Dr Tan, who is also Second Minister for Trade and Industry, gave out these figures while delivering his ministerial statement in Parliament on foreign workforce policies.






volume is gedempt











He also spent some time in speech refuting questions raised by opposition Progress Singapore Party’s Non-Constituency MPs Leong Mun Wai and Hazel Poa, who wanted to know if the growth in EP holders has negatively affected local PMEs.
“If the competition is not here, it will be outside. The competition will be helping other companies in other countries to beat ours here, and displace our workers,” he said.
As a reply to Ms Poa, Associate Professor Jamus Lim (Sengkang GRC) and Mr Saktiandi Supaat (Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC) on the breakdown of workforce numbers, Dr Tan revealed that out of about 177,000 EPs as of 2020, about 10 percent could be found in manufacturing and construction industries. The remaining are in services sector.
In the services sector, the infocomm and professional services sub-sectors accounted for about 19 percent each, while finance accounted for around 15 percent.
In fact, from 2005 to 2020, the number of EPs rose by around 112,000, while the number of local PMEs went up by more than 380,000 during the same period of time.

As to whether the growth in local PME job include Singaporeans, the Minister highlighted about the low citizen unemployment rate of around 3 percent over the last decade, and said that 87 percent of citizens were born in Singapore.

Foreigners needed to complement local workforce​

Dr Tan also noted that foreign banks and infocomm companies that asked to create jobs in Singapore would still need foreign workers to complement the local workforce.
“The simple point is that while we have a good Singaporean talent pool, our pool is not large enough to fulfil all of the needs, the breath and the depth of these enterprises,” he said.

He added, “The misconception is that if we say ‘no’ to the foreigners coming in… these jobs they would have taken would therefore all go to Singaporeans… Today, even as we speak, we still have about 22,000 PME jobs that are not filled. Companies are desperate to fill these jobs. They would love to take in Singaporeans if they could, because they would be more productive.”
Based on this, Dr Tan then asked Mr Leong to “think deeply”, “deliberate and offer some advice”.
Dr Tan said, “If we tell companies which want to invest in Singapore that they can only employ Singaporeans, or first employ Singaporeans who have been displaced, regardless of skills, I think the answer will be quite stark. They, I think, would opt not to come into Singapore to invest.”
He added that to make sure local employees can compete fairly, work pass controls are in place so foreigners do “not come to Singapore just because they are cheaper to hire than locals”.
He also mentioned about the progressive tightening and raising of quotas and levies at the work permit and S Pass levels, even though businesses had pushed for the rules to be relaxed over the past decade.
Dr Tan expressed that quotas and levies are not implemented on EPs because there is already strong competition for global talent and worldwide scarcity in areas like technology and digital skills.
“A quota would be hard cap that would limit our ability to compete at the high end of the global economy, while for a levy to have any effect at all on EP numbers, it would have to be set very high and would substantially increase business costs.”
Responding to earlier points made by Mr Leong on employers of foreign EP holders not required to make Central Provident Fund (CPF) contribution, Dr Tan said it is not right for the Government to make them responsible for their retirement fund and home ownership needs since they will not be permanently staying in Singapore.
“As foreign PMEs… are not working in Singapore on a permanent basis, I don’t think we should be responsible for their retirement adequacy or home ownership needs. Hence I don’t think it makes sense for us to extend our CPF benefits and coverage to them,” said Dr Tan.
“Instead, when reviewing qualifying salary to maintain a level playing field, we take into account CPF contributions as part of the cost to employers.”

Netizens react​

Over on social media, netizens questioned the accuracy of data provided by Dr Tan that showed that job creation for local PMEs in infocomm and finance sectors are stronger compared to the number of EPs issued for foreigners in these sectors. Penning their thoughts in the Facebook page of The Straits Times, online users asked for the proper data to be released, with full breakdown of how many permanent resident (PR), EP and citizens are included in the figure mentioned by Dr Tan.

Others asked how many of these local PMEs who managed to secure employment (as mentioned by that Dr Tan) include PR, or are EPs who have converted to Singapore citizen.

Others pointed out that as long as EPs are getting paid low, they will always be more favourable for employers. As such, this will again cost local Singaporeans their job as they will not be able to accept such low wage due to the high cost of living here.

A couple of netizens questioned the quality of jobs created for citizens here. They wondered if senior roles were given to local PMEs or the EPs, adding that more data should be given on the number of Singaporeans working in blue-collar jobs like food deliverers, security guards, private hire vehicle drivers, and more.

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[batman1]

For the past 15 years under the CECA agreement, PAP Govt colluded with the S'pore Employers to allow free flow of CECA Indians into S'pore to replace S'pore Employees in the workplaces. The PAP Govt have committed treasonable acts against S'poreans and they must be stopped and be made accountable . The only solution to all these treasonable acts is to vote out the PAP ,then only we can uncover and expose the dark secrets of the CECA.