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8. The Budget supports our efforts to restructure
and upgrade the economy, and sustain economic
growth over the long term.
9. The restructuring over the last few years has
not been easy. It has been painful. In 1999 and
2000 before the recession, we had about 13,000
retrenchments a year; more or less steady. But
over the past few years, the retrenchment numbers
went up sharply to as high as 26,000 in one year
- 2001. This is real pain because every person
in these numbers is a worker with family, with
responsibilities, with a future, with worries.
The retrenchments are now back down to 10,000.
10. It has been a painful experience but we have
become stronger. Overall, we have become much
more competitive. We have to press on with our
restructuring and not to fear change. If you
look at our companies, you can see that. PSA,
which restructured and retrenched 600 workers,
is now competitive again; able to hold its own,
not just against Tanjung Pelepas, but Dubai Port,
and many other competitors in the world. SIA,
working with unions, has made major changes to
cut costs and to operate more flexibly.
11. But, we must never think that we have arrived.
Mr Tan Soo Khoon made a very good speech yesterday
pointing out that we live in a world where trade
and political tensions still exist and will continue
to simmer. He listed out the places where there
is no level playing field. SIA - you want to
open - there is obstruction. Each time you want
to move, a new challenge comes up and we have
to deal with it. That is the reality of the world.
We accept it as it is. But, having come here
and having strengthened ourselves, we have now
to gird ourselves to tackle all those problems:
to deal with a world which is changing at an
ever increasing pace, to watch the trends, and
to move quickly and decisively to respond to
them.
12. The competition in the future is not just going
to be about lower cost, but increasingly about
higher value. I think we are well-placed for
this competition. We have explained this in many
ways. We now have one fresh way to present this,
that is to look at four core strengths, CORE –
- Connected. Plugged into the global
market, moving around goods, people, and information;
through our seaports, through our airports,
telecommunications, and our FTAs.
- We are Open. Open to ideas, capital
and talent. Open to enterprise. Set up as a
knowledge hub and a land of opportunity.
- We are Reliable. We enjoy a great
reputation for trust, quality and consistency,
and generally a very high reputation in Asia
and around the world.
- We are Enterprising. With a flexible
mindset and the ability to anticipate, to learn,
to adapt, and to move quickly.
13. So CORE competencies. We must build on these
strengths to stay ahead of the competition and
keep the economy growing,
- to differentiate ourselves as a trusted
centre for quality and service;
- to invest more in innovation and R&D,
and become a key node in the global network
of people, ideas and businesses;
- to support entrepreneurship and enterprise;
and
- to maintain a tax system that is best for
business, and will enable us to grow.
Let me deal with these one by one.
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