Singapore tightens up on hiring foreigners

SINGAPORE -- Singapore Monday announced tighter rules on the hiring of foreign professional workers, saying companies will from next year have to show proof they first tried to recruit local citizens.

  The change, taking effect in August 2014, follows protests and online complaints about the large number of foreigners in the affluent city-state.

The Ministry of Manpower said companies that discriminate against citizens “will be subject to additional scrutiny” when they apply for employment passes for foreign professionals.

“Even as we remain open to foreign manpower to complement our local workforce, all firms must make an effort to consider Singaporeans fairly,” Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan Jin said in a statement.

“What we are doing is to put in place measures to nudge employers to give Singaporeans -- especially our professionals, managers and executives -- a fair chance at both job and development opportunities.”

About 37% of Singapore’s total workforce of 3.36 million in 2012 were non-resident.

The ministry said companies must first advertise for Singaporeans to fill job vacancies in a national jobs bank administered by the government’s workforce development agency. Foreigners can be hired if no citizens are qualified.

Firms which have a “disproportionately low concentration” of Singaporean employees at professional level, and companies where foreign managers are accused of favoring their own compatriots in hiring, will also be put under tighter scrutiny, the ministry said.

Firms with 25 or fewer staff, or those recruiting for jobs paying Sg$12,000 (US$9,580) and above a month, will be exempted from the advertising rule. Authorities have been phasing in measures to tighten foreign worker inflows amid criticism from citizens, who accuse foreigners of competing with them for jobs, housing, schools and public transport space.

Singaporeans have also complained that the rapid influx in previous years is eroding their national identity. The discontent spilled into general elections in 2011 when the ruling party garnered its lowest-ever vote count after more than 50 years in power. Two rallies against the government’s immigration policy were held earlier this year garnering crowds of more than 3,000, making them the country’s biggest protests in decades. -- AFP

 

source:  Businessworld 

Oil companies battle for talent with stress balls, sweets and beer

ABERDEEN, Scotland -- At one of the largest oil shows in the world in Scotland’s oil town of Aberdeen, hundreds of companies vied for new recruits, flaunting shiny drill bits and simulators amid free beers and women in tight work overalls.

The global battle for talent in the oil industry was clear at the SPE Offshore Europe Conference and Exhibition last Sept. 8-11 that was set on a site bigger than four football pitches.

At a time when oil and gas firms are cutting costs to try to improve profits and save cash for dividends, they face a skills shortage that is leading to runaway wage increases.

A recent survey by Oilcareers.com estimated the UK alone would need to attract 120,000 personnel over the next decade to carry on production in the North Sea and replace a retiring workforce.

Exhibiting at the show, which feels like a giant freshers’ fair, was one way for the companies to attract young people into their ranks.

“Having a stand here is good for raising awareness of the company, particularly among students who might be looking for jobs,” Bruce Ferguson, managing director at equipment maker Hunting, told Reuters.

A group of six students from Perth High School in Scotland -- weighed down with branded bags stuffed with brochures, sweets and stress balls -- told Reuters they were on the hunt for scholarships to pay their way through university.

Starting salaries, which in oil and gas rank third behind investment banking and law according to Graduates.co.uk, are getting in the way of efforts to lower costs.

The problem is a global phenomenon with hourly earnings in the oil and gas sector in the United States having risen 62% over the past decade, according to that country’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Job site Rigzone puts the global average salary in the sector at $98,000 per year.

Despite graduates struggling to get jobs in most sectors in recent years, oil and gas has bucked the trend with engineers and geologists in hot demand.

Bob Keiller, chief executive of oil services firm Wood Group, told the conference in Aberdeen that pay needed to come down to accommodate the now-declining nature of the North Sea, where output has fallen by two-thirds since 2000.

“If we’re going to be truly successful in the second half of the North Sea industry, we really need to re-baseline our cost base, and quite frankly we need to do our business using fewer people and paying them less,” he said during a talk.

But with oil and gas employers telling an industry survey earlier this year that their major concern in the current employment market was a skills shortage, it doesn’t look like there will be room for maneuver.

“The money, that’s always got to be a consideration, it’s very good,” Nicholas Dubourg, 23 and studying engineering at Aberdeen University, said as he walked around an exhibition hall, chatting to potential employers.

He said he expected a starting salary of between £25,000 and £30,000 ($39,000 to $46,800).

Lynsey Angus, about to start studying geology at Edinburgh University and at the show to secure summer placements, agreed.

“I’m told everyone wants petroleum geologists right now, so that makes my degree feel useful. Some people study something and then just end up working in a supermarket.”

One longer-term solution to the skills shortage is more automated and remote-controlled equipment, enabling unmanned platforms and cutting significantly the number of workers needed per barrel.

Andrew Gould, chairman of BG Group, said a technological jump was needed to keep North Sea production a viable business option.

“The solution to many of today’s problems with logistics is to use technology to reduce the number of people offshore,” Mr. Gould said. -- Reuters

source:  Businessworld

FB & Twitter in PH

The Philippines was ranked eighth in the world for Facebook with 33.6 million users (as of end-2013) and tenth for Twitter (as of August 2012), despite only around 30 percent of the population being able to access the Internet.

Diokno Present Stats @ an Austrian business community

ROAD MAP: The assessment of Dr. Benjamin Diokno, UP economics professor, of the country’s economic performance midway through President Aquino’s term points to a challenge for the administration to do better in the final three years of his presidency.

“Where’s the road map?” asked Diokno, a former Secretary of Budget and Management, as he assessed the economy before Austrian businessmen and their Filipino partners gathered last Thursday at the Makati Shangri-La.

The meeting was organized by Austrian Commercial Counsellor Lisa Viehhauser. It was also an occasion for the Austrian business community to welcome new Austrian Ambassador Josef Müllner.

After painting a not-so-encouraging economic picture, Diokno said: “What is lacking is decisiveness, policy consistency and policy credibility.”

*      *      *

UNSUSTAINABLE GROWTH: Diokno gave statistics showing that the Philippines grew at 7.6 percent in the first semester, but remains to be the poorest among the original five members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The 7.6-percent growth is not sustainable, he said, noting that even Aquino’s economic managers agree. He added that the Gross Domestic Product in the second half of 2013 will decelerate because of a still weak world economy and the tapering off of effects of election spending.

He said the Philippines remains to be the poorest among the original ASEAN-5 economies. In World Bank reports for 2012, the per capita Gross National Income of the five nations is: Singapore $47,210, Malaysia $9,800, Thailand $5,210, Indonesia $3,420 and Philippines $2,470.

The Philippines ranks the highest in poverty incidence among the ASEAN-5 economies. In the CIA World Factbook, the comparative poverty rankings of the five are: Philippines 83; Indonesia 133; Thailand 147; Malaysia 156; Singapore 211.

*      *      *

DEEPENING POVERTY: Based on data of the National Statistics Coordination Board, the poverty situation in 2012 appears to be unchanged from 2006 and 2009. But in terms of warm bodies, poverty has deepened.

The NSCB reports that there are 463,000 more poor people now than in 2009. “And we all know that because of the world economic crisis, 2009 was a bad year,” Diokno said.

Among the ASEAN-5, the Philippines has the worst unemployment record. While the unemployment rate was falling among its ASEAN-5 neighbors, it was rising in the Philippines.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas data show that unemployment in the ASEAN-5 for 2012 and the first and second quarters of the current year was: Philippines 7.0 percent (2012) and 7.1 (Q1), 7.5 (Q2); Malaysia 3.0% (2012), 3.2 (Q1), 3.2 (Q2); Indonesia 6.4 % (2012), 5.9 (Q1); Thailand 0.7% (2012), 0.7 (Q1); and Singapore 2.1% (2012), 1.9 (Q1).

*      *      *

NOT INCLUSIVE: Diokno said that whatever growth there was, it was not inclusive. Government figures show that the number of jobless Filipinos this year stood at: (January) 2,894,000 unemployed and 7,934,000 underemployed; (April) 3,086,000 unemployed and 7,252,00 underemployed; (July) 3,000,000 unemployed and 7,341,000 underemployed.

A recent World Bank study showed that by the time President Aquino steps down in 2016, the state of unemployment will be as dismal as it was before he assumed the presidency – if not worse.

The study forecast that 12.4 million Filipinos, or 11.5 percent of projected population by then “would still be unemployed, underemployed, or would have to work in the informal sector where moving up the job ladder is difficult.”

Diokno said unemployment is a form of “market failure,” adding that there is need for government intervention.

He said one challenge for government is to create around 14.6 million jobs in the next four years. In addition, it should create better jobs for the other 21 million who are informally employed.

source:  Philippine Star Column Postcript by Federico Pascual

The growth of the global middle class

WHILE there are signs that the global economy may be moving (albeit slowly) towards stability, one thing is clear: the world has changed significantly from the one that we knew just a few years ago. As the centers for trade and economic power shift away from traditional western bastions, analysts are looking to rapid-growth markets (RGMs) to shore up the still-wobbly global economy.

A recent Ernst & Young (E&Y) publication, Rapid-Growth Markets Forecast, identifies RGMs as countries that emerged from the 2008 recession with minimum damage and are projected to grow up to 6% in 2014. These countries cut across the globe and include nations in Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, among others. [The report did not classify the Philippines as an RGM for now, but the country is viewed as a high-potential market.] The expectation is that an increasingly interconnected world can benefit from the trading opportunities that will arise from this anticipated phenomenal growth.

Under this scenario, one anticipates that as RGMs achieve prominence, their economies will become stronger, their governments will become more influential and -- this is most important -- their people will become more visible because of their buying power. This will drive a significant shift in worldwide demographics, with the expected growth of the global middle class. Logically, increased economic performance will eventually flow down to the largest socio-economic groups in most developing countries -- the poor -- who are also the ones who will benefit the most from increased prosperity.

Who do we expect will constitute this “new” middle class? The report uses the same definition used by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD): households with daily expenditures between $10 and $100 per person in purchasing power parity terms. This income group includes consumers of television sets, refrigerators, cars and mobile phones, and is therefore clearly seen to be the driver of the global economy.

No longer will the global demand for goods and services be driven primarily by consumption patterns in the United States. The middle class in RGMs is expected to create a burgeoning demand in the coming years as they rise out of poverty, with their spending increasing from $21 trillion to $56 trillion in 2030. And as the RGM middle class expands, they will draw more imports and increase demand for services. It is highly possible that RGMs will become a key destination for more service exports, including sophisticated banking, insurance and other financial services that were previously more prevalent in western markets.

The global middle class is expected to grow organically and to have a healthy appetite. It is projected that the size of this group will hit 3.2 billion by 2020 and 4.9 billion by 2030, according to the OECD Development Center. The bulk of this growth will come from Asia; by 2030, Asia will represent 66% of the global middle class population and generate 59% of middle-class consumption (compared with 28% and 23%, respectively, in 2009). China, India and Indonesia together are expected to account for 27% of global consumption by 2020 and 45% by 2030. ASEAN’s proposed economic community, expected to be in place by 2015, will likely further fuel consumption within, and beyond, ASEAN.

The Philippines, which demonstrated 7.6% GDP growth in the first semester of this year and is projected to grow by 7% in 2014, is a high-potential market. The positive views and upgrades given by the credit ratings agencies have brought an increase in investor interest in the country, supported by socio-economic progress of recent years. With our robust domestic demand, coupled with our talented working-age population and growing middle class, the Philippines can be seen as being in a similar position to other RGMs in long-term performance. Local businesses would be well-advised to prepare for the growth opportunities to come, as well as increasing competition from foreign players.

There are a few key factors that have contributed to RGMs leapfrogging from third-world status to the new engines of the global economy.

One is technology. Mobile communications, broadband connections, tablets and smartphones -- all these have changed consumer purchasing habits and accessibility to goods. There are increasing numbers of online retailers in Russia, China and various RGMs that are capitalizing on having a huge global market -- without needing an actual, physical retail environment.

Then there is the growing number of foreign-educated youth who are bringing in skills, capital and new ideas to their home countries, and contributing to the economic and social welfare of their nations. From these individuals will eventually rise a new generation of companies that will embody modern entrepreneurial ideas and insights. As the middle class becomes more educated, they begin demanding more from themselves and the government. Consequently, their social and economic conditions will improve, leading to a better relationship with the government and a more advanced society -- one that offers the best in terms of employment opportunities, medical facilities, infrastructure, law and order, ease of doing business, and cross-border trade. This will, in turn, lead to stronger fiscal and monetary policies, which will benefit businesses and consumers. Under these scenarios, there are tremendous possibilities for forward-thinking companies to begin preparing, whether by establishing footholds in RGMs or building strategic alliances that will allow them to market positively to the coming global middle class.

The question is, are businesses ready to meet this coming demand?

To borrow an often-used phrase, the global financial crisis has resulted in a brave new world for all of us. One where the bold -- be they companies, individuals, or even a social class as a whole -- may find great advantages in seizing the initiative.

J.G. Cruz is the vice-chairman and deputy managing partner of SGV & Co.

This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for professional advice where the facts and circumstances warrant. The views and opinion expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of SGV & Co.

source:   Businessworld