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SAME as RWS
already open for 3Qs
ALL profitable results
epliew ( Date: 30-Nov-2010 19:36) Posted:
when the manila casino will be ready ?
panastar89 ( Date: 30-Nov-2010 19:26) Posted:
Genting HK aims to put Manila on lifestyle map
BUSINESS TIMES
Resorts World Manila will be banking on the rich heritage and culture of Manila to draw in the numbers, says president of Genting Hong Kong
MANILA: Leading global leisure, entertainment and hospitality corporation Genting Hong Kong Ltd has high aspirations of putting Manila on the map as the next biggest lifestyle hub in Southeast Asia.
David Chua, president of Genting Hong Kong Ltd, said that he was confident of Resorts World Manila's (RWM) capability in becoming a "money generator".
Chua said that RWM will be banking on the rich heritage and culture of Manila to draw in the numbers. He said that annual tourist arrivals in Manila was 3.3 million, with a 15 per cent increase from the previous year.
Although Chua declined to reveal how much Genting Hong Kong profited in terms of sea- and land-based operations, he said that 70 per cent of the contributions came from its cruise line operations, which he said was still "growing by leaps and bounds".
Genting Hong Kong also operates Star Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line.
"We have just ordered two fleets under the NCL, with each costing RM850 million to build. They will be launched in July and be based in Miami," Chua said.
He said that Star Cruises will be embarking on a new route in February or March next year.
"The bigger Superstar Libra, which is 46,000 tonnes, will be running the Phuket and Krabi route from Penang, following the success of smaller ships with the tourism board. We are also increasing tonnage into Taiwan as the booking trend in Taiwan is two-to threefold of last year," he said.
Chua was speaking to Malaysian reporters after the signing of a US$600 million (RM1.9 billion) loan facility agreement by Genting Hong Kong with Maybank Investment Bank Bhd, Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, DnB NOR Bank ASA, RHB Bank (L) Ltd, Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp Ltd and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp Ltd, which acted as joint mandated lead arrangers, underwriters and bookrunners in the transaction.
Genting Hong Kong chairman and chief executive officer Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay, who was present at the signing, said that Genting Hong Kong was pleased to have the opportunity to work with its key relationship banks which have a sound understanding of the company and have shown consistent support over the years.
The signing ceremony was held at the newly opened Genting Club in RWM, in conjunction with the Genting Group's 45th year anniversary celebrations.
The RWM, which opened its doors in August 2009, is an integrated leisure and entertainment complex featuring three hotels, including a six-star all-suite Maxims Hotel, a shopping mall, four high-end cinemas and a multi-purpose performing arts theatre.
Earlier in the day, Genting Hong Kong held a signing ceremony with the Technical and Further Education New South Wales and the University of Technology Sydney as part of the collaboration to provide international level hospitality training to young Filipino students at its Genting-Star Tourism Academy.
Read more: Genting HK aims to put Manila on lifestyle map http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/gentig/Article/#ixzz16lQt9kp4
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O U T C O M E
ALREADY KNOWN
BEFORE EACH
GAMBLE
MULTIPLE Or NOTHING
SAME SAME fOr C F D
wIn mOst Or lOse ALL
Flyordie ( Date: 21-Aug-2010 19:36) Posted:
狂输2630万富豪是狮城海产大王
曾出资80万给李南星拍戒赌电影
郭炳福（右）曾经要出资80万给李南星拍戒赌电影。（档案照片）
3天内在赌场狂输2630万的狮城商人，原来是本地知名的海鲜大王，曾经要出资80万给李南星拍戒赌电影！
这名50多岁商人是远洋海产（私人）有限公司的执行董事，并是新加坡水产业工商联合会主席郭炳福。他在2005年期间，原本有意出资80万元去投资一部由李南星主演的电影《戒赌专家》，结果后来因种种原因，计划告吹。
郭炳福是家中幺子，他在80年代开始从父亲那里接手一间海产拍卖公司，之后该公司在90年代与同是父亲创立的远洋海产合并，发展成至今上百万元的生意。
目前，该公司的业务包括出口海产如乌贼、剑鱼到世界各地的餐馆、食物加工厂和批发商。近年来，公司还扩充营业，增加了食物加工和肉类产品分销。
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sImIlarly
thOse whO wanted dIvIdends
NEVER BuY GENTING BERHAD
INSTEAD
they BOUGHT MAYBANK
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at GENTING EGM 2010
GENTING TOP MANAGEMENT
InfOrmed the ENLIGHTENED flOOr that
FIRST INSTALMENT wIll be PAID
In Early 2011
wIth the CASH set ASIDE
C O O L
O V E R H E A R D :
majOrIty Of GENTING sharehOlders are grOwth InvestOrs
nOt dIvIdend earners
C H E E R S !
Juz_Invest ( Date: 22-Aug-2010 18:15) Posted:
Genting S'pore needs to amass cash: analysts
SHAREHOLDERS of Genting Singapore won't be receiving dividend payouts
from now through 2011 - due to restrictions in a $4 billion bank loan
it took to build its flagship Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) - even though
the company's earnings potential looks robust in light of its recent
second-quarter results.
Citing confidentiality terms, Genting Singapore said it could not
specify the conditions that restrict dividend payouts in the loan
agreement it reached in 2008 with five banks to raise funds for the $6
billion resort. The banks are DBS, OCBC, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland
and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.
Some analysts, however, believe the company isn't issuing dividends
because it is amassing cash for future regional and global expansion
projects.
The question of dividend payouts was raised by some shareholders at an
extraordinary general meeting on Wednesday to vote on a proposed
divestment of Genting Singapore's UK casino operations to parent Genting
Malaysia.
A company spokesman said on Wednesday that Genting Singapore 'believes
in long-term shareholder value and is using the cash flow to increase
shareholder value through its investments'.
The company's board of directors said they haven't ruled out the
possibility of issuing dividends upon fulfilment of those loan
conditions.
But the company spokesman couldn't comment on when those conditions
would be fulfilled or when it would make a dividend payout to its
shareholders.
'In the next couple of years, it's unlikely the company will dole out
dividends,' said Vincent Khoo, head of research for UOB Kay Hian
Malaysia. 'In the future, it might dole out modest dividends. But the
company will plough back a substantial portion of retained earnings for
future regional expansion.'
An analyst with Morgan Stanley Research said dividend payouts are
'not in the mind of a casino (operator) that is ramping up and has
intentions to grow its gaming business across the globe'.
'They might have restrictions on existing debt, but they can repay
the debt any time they want because they have cash on their balance
sheet,' the analyst said.
Some investors question whether, given the strong financial results
of the company, it is worth paying a high share price valuation for a
company that they perceive as not doing enough in terms of transparency
and dividend payouts.
At least one Genting Singapore shareholder says he believes the
company will start paying out dividends only when its casino operations
have stabilised.
'As a shareholder, I'm not very happy there's no dividend this time,'
he said. 'But this is just their first year of operations in Singapore,
and they're still putting in money to build Phase 2 of Resorts World.'
'I'm waiting to see what kind of fixed dividend policy the company
will come out with once its Singapore operations stabilise,' he added.
For now, he said, he intends to continue holding his Genting Singapore shares because he has confidence in its potential.
'But by next year, if there's still no dividend, then I'll paint a different picture.'
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Macquarie SOLD ALL the Covered Warrants at low low low low prices.
Many are EXPIRING by END of 2010 and START of 2011.
MacquarIe wIll lOse alOt alOt alOt alOt Of mOney In CASH when these EXPIRE.
That is WHY MacquarIe wOUle lOve tO sEE Genting prIces CRASH durIng these perIOds.
BEWARE
AWARE
SCARE
CARE
Juz_Invest ( Date: 30-Sep-2010 11:23) Posted:
| DJ
MARKET TALK: Macquarie Cuts Genting Singapore To Neutral |
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0033 GMT [Dow Jones] STOCK CALL:
Macquarie downgrades Genting Singapore (G13.SG) to Neutral from
Outperform, cuts target price to S$1.75 from S$2.10 to account for lower
longer-term growth projections; "we think market growth will stabilise
and the current price is factoring in overly optimistic growth
assumptions." Notes Resorts World Sentosa's performance peaked in April,
before opening of Marina Bay Sands, has since been tad lower. Says RWS
patronage may be affected when Galaxy Entertainment (0027.HK) opens its
integrated resort in Macau in 1Q11. Adds increased intervention in
gaming business by Singapore government can't be ruled out, given recent
order by country's casino regulator for both operators to stop bus
services shuttling Singaporeans; "this highlights the political
sensitivity to locals gambling and raises the level of political risk in
the market." Shares down 2.6% at S$1.90 yesterday.
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WHY all the EXPIRED NEWS ?
Juz_Invest ( Date: 26-Aug-2010 13:55) Posted:
Genting M'sia shareholders OK casino deal
A MAJORITY of Genting Malaysia's shareholders voted yesterday in
favour of a 340 million pounds (S$713 million) cash acquisition of 44 UK
casinos under the Circus, Maxims, and Mint brands from its affiliate
Genting Singapore.
The deal was approved last week by a majority of Genting Singapore shareholders.
But,
despite yesterday's apparent majority vote, the deal didn't pass muster
with many of Genting Malaysia's minority shareholders, who criticised
it as being too pricey, said Vincent Khoo, head of research for UOB-Kay
Hian Malaysia.
'There were a lot of questions and issues raised by minority
shareholders during (yesterday's) EGM. A lot of them are unhappy because
the acquisition is pricey,' he said.
'Although I share some of the management's optimism for adding value to the UK casinos, ultimately the acquisition is pricey.'
Genting Singapore bought the UK casinos in 2006 at a price of $1.861
billion - thus the value lost was $1.17 billion, according to a July
report by Morgan Stanley.
Morgan Stanley noted that the book value of the UK assets on Genting
Singapore's balance sheet is $585 million; net debt related to the
assets is $173 million.
Of concern too were potentially difficult prospects facing the gaming
market in the UK because of weak economic conditions in Europe and
tighter gaming regulations in the form of unfavourable duty structures
and a smoking ban in enclosed public spaces, Mr Khoo said.
Because of these concerns, Malaysia's sole casino operator has been
on a roadshow in recent weeks to convince shareholders of the rationale
and potential of buying into the UK casino operations.
A gaming analyst in Hong Kong said he believed the sale would enable
Genting Singapore to focus its time and management on growing the
Singapore business and to position its balance sheet for the next phase
of growth.
'Had it not gone through, then that would have been a negative for
Genting Singapore because the UK assets haven't been doing well, so they
would have been a distraction,' he said.
Analysts say the sale enables Genting Singapore's management to
concentrate on the ramp-up of Resorts World over the next
year-and-a-half, including the introduction of junkets, the extension of
Universal Studios, and new hotel offerings.
The acquisition of the UK casino assets helps underpin Genting
Malaysia's recent success in winning the bid for a lucrative video slot
machine licence at the Aqueduct race track in New York.
The deal for the UK casinos, along with the aforementioned video slot
machine contract at the Aqueduct racetrack in New York, would help
diversify Genting Malaysia's earnings stream and provide further
opportunities to expand in other developed gaming markets, according to a
Morgan Stanley report.
Genting wants to build a 'racino' with about 4,500 video slots at the track in Queens, a borough of New York.
The company is offering an upfront fee of US$380 million to the state, more than the US$300 million minimum required.
The new acquisitions could add about 3-9 per cent upside to Genting Malaysia's 2010-2012 earnings estimates, the report said.
Genting Bhd holds a 48.65 per cent stake in Genting Malaysia and a 51.73 per cent stake in Genting Singapore.
Shares of Genting Bhd gained 18 sen, or 2.06 per cent, to close at RM8.90 yesterday.
Shares of Genting Malaysia shed seven sen, or 2.23 per cent, to close
yesterday at RM3.07, while Genting Singapore shares dipped five cents
or 3.14 per cent, to close at $1.54.
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PM Lee calls on religious leaders to lead by example
SINGAPORE —
Calling on Singapore’s religious leaders to be a bedrock and lead by example, Mr Lee said: “Your communities look to you as role models because how you counsel and lead your congregations has a strong bearing on religious relations in Singapore.”
Mr Lee was speaking at the Taoist Federation’s 20th Anniversary dinner and inter-faith dinner at The Expo, which was attended by some 2,600 religious leaders and followers from all faiths.
He noted that Singapore’s religious leaders have taken moderate stands on many issues and, in the process, developed good personal relations which have helped to calm the ground.
“At such times, we will depend on our religious leaders to help cool any tensions... to build trust and mutual confidence, and so that we can come through peacefully and safely as one nation together,” said Mr Lee.
He pointed out that, while Singapore’s religious and racial diversity enriches and makes society interesting, it also means that Singaporeans “must work hard to safeguard (the nation’s) harmony”.
Reminding Singaporeans to emphasise their “common identity as Singaporeans”, Mr Lee added: “We should acknowledge and be sensitive to our differences between faiths.”
Concurring, the Inter-Religious Organisation’s honorary secretary Theresa Seow said: “Many of us Christians, particularly the Catholics, who have been to the Taoist Federation and the San Jing Gong Temple to learn about Chinese beliefs, have moved away from labelling Taosism as a religion of superstition.
Truly, we can only appreciate when we are open to learn.”
With the various faiths practised here shared by many in the world, problems elsewhere can affect and test the Republic’s social fabric, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong noted on Friday.Esther Ng
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Tussle over wine set to turn sour
Teo Xuanwei
xuanwei@mediacorp.com.sg
SINGAPORE
This, at a time when the warehouse operator is also seeking the court’s permission to sell the thousands of bottles of Australian wine which AWM had placed with it.
MediaCorp broke the story of AWM’s sudden closure on June 30.
The following month, hundreds of AWM customers — with investments totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars — tried to retrieve their wines from Trident Districentre.
But the logistics company, located in Toh Guan Road East, turned them away because the police were investigating the case.
It is unclear how many bottles of wine are in its warehouse.
Now, Trident Districentre, which AWM is believed to owe large amounts of rent, is seeking to sell the wine.
AWM customer Lim Pek Kueen, however, is contesting that she is the “legal and beneficial owner” of her wines in the Districentre.
She is represented by TSMP Law Corporation.
The case is expected to be heard next month.
AWM was run by husband-and-wife team Benny Lee Ghim Seng and Kally Quee Yen Ping, who are believed to have fled the country days after aggressively wooing customers to pump in more money.
The five-year-old firm purportedly had some 1,000 customers whose investments amounted to $10 million.
Other AWM investors whom MediaCorp spoke to said they, too, hope to reclaim their wine.
One of them, who declined to be named, said: “We invested so much money for the wine, it’s only right we get them back. It’s the only way we can cut some of our losses.” — At least one customer of shuttered wine investment firm Assets Wine Management (AWM) has gone to the High Court to recover her wine that have been locked up in a warehouse since June.
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SOURED WINE
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Qantas pilots ‘may have saved the day’
landing weight, the computer eventually concluded it would stop with just 100m of runway to spare at Changi Airport, the report said.
The crew opted to land instead of dumping fuel, which would further upset the plane’s balance.
As the plane prepared to land, it lost many of its systems which controlled pitch, speed and braking — so the pilots asked the cabin crew to prepare for an emergency evacuation as they risked a runway overrun, it said.
The Airbus stopped with just 150m of concrete left, brakes heated to 900°C and four blown tyres.
It was also gushing fuel and one of its engines refused to shut down for over two hours, until fire crews drowned it with foam.
Pilots eventually decided against evacuation and kept passengers on the plane for another hour as fire crews secured the A380. Reuters
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Qantas pilots may have saved the day, say investigators
SYDNEY
And it was a passenger — an off-duty Qantas pilot — who first alerted the crew by pointing out that a tail-mounted camera showed “some form of fluid leak from the left wing”. The pictures were shown on the jet’s in-flight entertainment screens.
On Friday, about a month after the dramatic landing at Singapore’s Changi Airport, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) released its preliminary findings, which revealed that the plane may have been so badly damaged that the five pilots, with a combined 72,000 hours of flying experience, may have saved the day.
According to data retrieved by investigators, the first sign of trouble occurred barely four minutes after the plane carrying 469 people took off from Changi Airport on a clear day.
Climbing to 5,300 feet, the oil pressure in one of the plane’s engines began to drop. Within 30 seconds, engine vibrations increased. Roughly 10 seconds after that, sensors showed the engine overheating and the turbine disc failing.
As the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine blew apart over Batam, fragments ripped though parts of the wing, puncturing fuel, hydraulic and electronic systems and leaving the plane with limited flight controls.
There were so many warnings, it took pilots 50 minutes just to complete the required responses before they could prepare the plane for landing.
The number of errors was such that computers calculating landing data could not handle them all. Pilots removed some options, hoping that would still be enough to make an accurate call.
With the plane coming in at about 50 tonnes heavier than its maximum — Pilots of a crippled Qantas Airbus A380 superjumbo struggled with more than a dozen system errors after an engine blew apart on Nov 4, and landed the plane in Singapore with barely much runway to spare, an Australian investigation revealed.
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 During my maiden test of Verizon's 4G LTE USB modem, I consistently experienced faster upload and download speeds than I get with my cable modem. It's astounding, but it won't last — when enough users pile on, these speeds will drop precipitously.
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GIC, Great Eastern ‘to buy stakes in CICC’
SINGAPORE
Morgan Stanley is selling its entire 34.3-per-cent stake in CICC, valued at roughly US$1 billion ($1.31 billion), in a move that will end its 15-year involvement in the lender, the first Sino-foreign investment bank and the top-ranked underwriter of share sales in China.
Besides GIC and Great Eastern, Morgan Stanley plans to sell stakes of about 10 per cent each to US private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and TPG Capital, said the sources.
GIC already owns 7.35 per cent of CICC after buying into the company in 1995. Great Eastern was originally in discussions with CICC to buy Morgan Stanley’s entire stake but the plan was blocked by Chinese regulators, said one of the sources.
CICC is 43.35-per-cent owned by Central Huijin Investment — the investment arm of the nation’s sovereign fund China Investment Corp.
The other shareholders besides
- GIC are
- Mingly Corp, with 7.35 per cent, and
- China National Investment & Guaranty, with 7.65 per cent.
CICC is headed by Mr Levin Zhu, son of former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji.
— The Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) and life insurer Great Eastern are planning to buy stakes of about 10 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively, in China International Capital Corp (CICC) from United States investment bank Morgan Stanley, four people with direct knowledge of the deal told Bloomberg.Bloomberg
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Bank staff enjoy pay boom but ROE lags
Christopher Howell s
christopherh@mediacorp.com.sg
Under the intense scrutiny from regulators and the public, the cash bonus pool for bankers in Western financial centres is estimated to shrink drastically, with the
There is no such rage against well-paid bankers in Asia, where bonuses are on the rise as business improves and competition for talent heats up.
In Singapore, though, there is a disconnect between what bankers are being paid and what shareholders in banks are earning. Bank wages in Singapore have seen a full recovery from the pre-Lehman days but shareholders are still wondering when their return on equity will get back to their 2007 highs.
In the last quarter, combined pay and accrued bonuses at the three local banks was $1 billion, a rise of 38 per cent from the third quarter of 2008, when US investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed.
The average return on equity (ROE) for the three banks, however, remains well below those pre-Lehman days.
For the three local banks, the average ROE was just above 10 per cent in the last quarter, well below levels that were as high as 16 per cent in the first quarter of 2007.
Meanwhile, all three local banks reported in their last earnings statements that expenses rose partly due to higher bonuses, salaries or increased headcount.Fundsupermart.com.
Analysts say banks don’t have a choice.
[SINGAPORE BANKS do not have TALENTED PRODUCTS ?]
Rising competition is forcing them to pay top dollar for talent.
”The competition in Asia is generally quite stiff, especially for top talent. And if you don’t pay competitively then you will actually lose your top talent to other competing banks,” said Mr Wong Sui Jau, general manager at
But while bank employees will probably take home even bigger checks next year, analysts are not convinced that investors in Singapore lenders will also do so.
As investments, Singapore banks here “have been significant underperformers.
This has to do with the fact that the margins of profitability for banks on their lending operations have been extremely squeezed because of very, very low interest rates both in Singapore and developed markets.
And I think this will continue to lead to bank share underperformance”, said Mr Arjuna Mahendran, head of investment strategy for Asia at HSBC Private Bank. SINGAPORE — There may be less cash to go around this holiday season for bank employees in New York and London, but not for their counterparts in Asia.New York Times estimating the decline in London to be between 20 and 30 per cent as compared to last year.
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Hold bus services to higher standards
Let’s also employ more technology, set up high-level task force to effect real improvement
Richard Hartung
Everything seems fine with the buses here, according to the Public Transport Council (PTC). SBS Transit “complied with all the standards,” the PTC said in October, while SMRT has only “been fined for three failures” for late departures in the six months until May.
THE TECH IS OUT THERE
Another step would be to leverage leading edge technology fully. In the United States, University of California Professor Alex Bayen’s research group is merging radar, lidar, detectors embedded in roads and video with input from GPS devices to “detect patterns and build a prediction engine”.
One initiative in Sydney, according to the New South Wales Auditor-General, is a real time bus monitoring system that “can also provide traffic light priority for late running buses”. While technology is used here, too, bus companies still have staff standing at bus stops monitoring bus arrivals with a watch and paper!
Steps like changing bus priority realtime, using better prediction models for scheduling and using technology to help enforce bus priority in bus lanes could result in higher service levels. While usage of some of this technology may already be in the pipeline here, employing more of it and communicating the results could also be beneficial.
Improving bus transport is important for reducing commute times, raising productivity and increasing usage of public transportation, among other reasons. Despite efforts to do better, Land Transport Authority data until 2008 showed that bus commuting times had remained static at about 42 minutes for a decade. Even though it turns out that SMRT is a member of the International Bus Benchmarking Group that shares global best bus practices, data still indicates that arrival times and other results lag best-in-class standards.
Actually solving the problems may take more focus than what has been the case so far.
For example, the situation in Singapore may be serious enough to warrant an independent and high-level task force to develop and implement strategies that lead to real improvement. Setting and achieving higher standards as well as taking steps to leverage technology even better could also make a big difference.
There are a multitude of other opportunities.
Public transport here has the potential to be world-class and improvements will benefit productivity as well as commuter satisfaction levels.
The critical next step is to make the change happen.
The writer is a consultant who has lived in Singapore since 1992.
Tell that to commuters, though, and you may hear far different accounts as their stories come gushing out.
One commuter I know taking Service 75 during peak hours in mid-October, for example, waited for 20 minutes one day and then had two buses arrive together as soon as he reached the bus stop the next morning. It is an experience commonly echoed by many.
Another commuter I spoke to compares bus drivers’ stop-and-go driving techniques to the rides hurtling people around at Universal Studios. More stories like these abound.
With over three million passenger trips on buses every day, the impact of small delays or other problems is huge. Not unexpectedly, the Singapore Management University’s 2010 Q2 Customer Satisfaction Index found that “customer satisfaction scores for both the Mass Rapid Transit Systems and the public buses sub-sectors have been declining since 2007”.
So what can be done?
Several steps could make commuting by bus better.
For one, Singapore could start using best practices. Research last year by Imperial College’s Mark Trompet, for example, showed that New York set a standard where buses must arrive within three minutes after their scheduled arrival time and buses in Paris must arrive within two minutes. Where schedules in Singapore do exist, he said, buses are supposed to arrive within five minutes before or after their scheduled time.
That 10-minute window can cause dissatisfaction, or worse. As research by University of Arizona Professor Ryan Johnson mentions, a “bus-bunching phenomenon has frustrated passengers in cities around the world”. Other research cited by Mr Trompet showed that bus arrival irregularity “discourages commuters’ use of public transit”.
If we’re going to get people to ride the bus and like it, moving to the levels of New York or Paris could help. While the PTC does measure 11 standards, tracking others like “regularity” or “customer satisfaction” as is done in Sydney and setting higher targets such as arriving within three minutes of the scheduled time — rather than “at least 80 per cent of bus services to operate at headway (frequencies) of not more than 10 minutes during weekday (excluding public holidays) peak periods” — could lead to higher service levels.
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Why are social service workers not included?
Letter from Joseph Wong
I READ with great interest reports of the higher bonuses that civil servants will be getting this year as a result of Singapore’s strong economic recovery. I am happy for my friends and relatives in the civil service sector.
However, I am dismayed for my friends working in another public sector that will not be getting these bonuses. They are those in the social services and Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs), which I regard as an dispensable form of public service.
I have seen the tremendous good that the people in these sectors do for the less fortunate and needy in our society. The most admirable aspect about the people I have met is how incredibly committed they are to their calling.
I feel this group of public servants is, however, often forgotten when it comes to remuneration and reward.
The National Council of Social Service (NCSS) website articulates very well the role of social services and VWOs, which is to “promote the wellbeing of people and communities.
It seeks to help individuals to be self-sufficient and less dependent, and restore individuals, families or communities to successfully function in the society”. This is no mean feat.
Hence, surely Singapore’s economic success could not have been entirely possible without the social stability that it enjoys?
Surely, too, this stability could in part be attributed to the dedication of the people in the social services, the VWOs and others within the NCSS community?
I know for a fact that some of the people in this field have their own families but they barely earn enough to make ends meet.
It is almost a travesty of justice to allow this situation to remain unrectified.
I would appreciate it if the relevant authorities could explain how the people in this sector are being looked after in terms of bonuses.
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In February, Mr Lam was ordered to pay Deutsche Bank in Singapore an outstanding US$1.1 million ($1.4 million) after the bank closed out his foreign exchange positions at the height of the financial crisis in October 2008.
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