Grace Fu to young Singaporeans: ‘Quality growth’ is important for Singapore
Posted by temasektimes on October 24, 2012
It was supposed to be a ‘conversation’ to get young Singaporeans thinking about the kind of Singapore they want to see in 2050, but ended up with Minister in Prime Minister’s Office Grace Fu dominating the session and imposing her world view on them.
Speaking to some 200 students and staff from tertiary institutions at a dialogue organised by the Institute of Policy Studies on Tuesday, Ms Fu reminded young Singaporeans that the country needs good quality growth for all segments of society to have good jobs and wages.
“You can wish for good things, but the economic conditions need to be right to get the better things in life,” she said.
Despite some concerns from the audience about having too much focus on economic growth at the expense of a better quality of life, Ms Fu reiterated that quality growth remains important for Singapore as it helps sustain social spending.
Though Singapore has one of the world’s highest GDP per capita income, it is plagued by a widening income gap between the rich and the poor who has no social safety net to speak of.
THE TEMASEK TIMES 
Law said
Talk is Cheap…
JeoJeo said
we can be perm sec or Minister or MP or… CEO or COO … so that we have a better quality of life
talk only said
What quality is she talking? Swiss quality?
Lim said
“quality growth remains important for Singapore as it helps sustain social spending” – quality growth means more money more hardship for locals as they are only good at sucking locals with all kinds of indirect taxes. The money made from quality growth goes mainly to the top and elite with crumbs left to sustain social spending – as they are very tightfisted when it comes to social spending and helping the needy. I think good economic growth more to sustain the fat cats and connected elites luxurious lifestyles than sustain social spending, maybe 2% only?.
Tan Yan Ren said
The crotch mentality of ME FIRST!!! all of you …TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF …WE DEFEND HIGHEST PAYING JOB IN THE WORLD…. AT ALL COST…that is why you dont see anyone resigning when they goofed and NO ONE gets left out after they are “RETIRED” when they screw up badly..they will be made Chairman or CEO of GLCs or related…..they call this a “BIG BOYS CLUB”
Quality growth because of "biased classification defination of growth" said
Quality growth because of “biased classification/defination of growth”
From the past ten to twenty, Singapore had achieved growth, but a lot on quantity growth, and not quality growth. Some of the quality growth may not really of quality growth because of “biased classification/defination of growth”.
example: if in treating crime case, a serious case treat as one case, and normal case also as one case, the our crime case will have only two cases. If we treat the serious case equivalent to 5 normal case, then we will have 6 cases.
SianzSG said
It is ok just grow singapore no need to care about stupid singaporeans. Anyway 40% is still fucked. good luck 60% and wayang party. nice monthly pay check and allowance.
No Can Do said
If good quality growth benefits the top echelons and head honchos of the organisations and only widens the gap between the elites and the rest of us, it wld be better to hv medium quality growth for the fruits to be distributed more widely for the general benefit. It’s high time the PAPie govt realises they’re elected to serve the ppl, to be of, for and by the ppl, not to fatten themselves and their elitist cronies.
Jaded said
i don’t think she has any idea what she is talking about…
ST said
definitely not…..pig are more intelligent
SianzSG said
she doesn’t need to as she is being paid millions each year and even if she fucked it up, she will just be shipped out to another govt body where she can continue to wayang and draw flat salary.
Look at that ccb george yeo. Now PAP doesn’t want him, he run away to other MNC siphoning more $$$. Fuck those idiots.
Tan Yan Ren said
you are right …sweet NOTHINGS!!!
Ron said
The quality of the blog comments here is the issue too. What are your counter arguments. Just spouting a few short statements does not create anything useful.
I agree with Grace Fu. Quality comes with a price. Spore is no longer back in the kampong days where people can be self sufficient but their quality of life in terms of medical, hygience, entertainment etc. are a world apart from today’s cloud-based IT environment.
So, we can be idealists and just wish for quality without debating how to get there, the efforts and costs required.
And is that cheap talk. I will say the blog comments are cheap talk instead.
singaporean said
Ron, so how much “growth” will equate to “quality”? These are cheap talk without being specifc. How much of a growth is necessary? With all these foreign trash they imported, have the “growth” and “quality” indicators actually raise in equal footing? Obviously no!
Man on the street may not be an expert in micro or macro economics, but the generally feeling all round has been that this government is seriously bias with their ft policies.
ST said
Not cheap talk, but brainless talk
People Inaction PArty said
Completely disagree with Grace that one needs economic growth to have better quality of life. If that’s the case, there is s problem of the definition of quality of life. I have visited little villages in many different countries and they lead simple and happy lives. Economic growth does not equal good life. Period.
Wong said
Absolutely correct ! Well said .
Goh Tong Seng said
That is because these villagers do not know what they’re missing out.
People Inaction PArty said
What they don’t know don’t hurt them.
Tan Yan Ren said
In malaysia they charge 1RM for medical …wah!!!malaysian very happy…what is their growth and wealth compare to us…they just billed my son 178SIN dollars for consultation and some medication for allergies which in Malaysia is 1 ringgit =40 cents Singapore…so, what is your quality of life for us Grace FU in view of the fact that you can spend hundreds of millions of dollars on “NOTHING”…and blowing budget to 400 million…and it is still OK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Singaporean said
shut up, disgraceful.
Zam said
Well said
No Can Do said
@ Ron: When FTs are being allowed in by the millions to compete with our citizens on, LOL, more favourable terms as without NS, etc., even if we build super-complexes, there is no benefit to the sons and daughters of the soil. And if the rest of us are sidelined whilst PAPie ministers and their cronies in GLCs and govt bodies get the cream and chunk of the growing pie, does quality count for the ppl?
No Can Do said
Addendum: Quality must go in tandem with the common ppl’s interest and wellbeing, not skewed 2 fatten ministers’ and cronies’ purses. The motivating factor shd be the ppl’s general uplift, as under Dr Goh Keng Swee. It must be measured, not simply any-old-how to boost GDP as basis to up parliamentarians’ pay. This can only come into being when our mps are elected cos they’re of and 4 the ppl, not cs they’re cronies or scholars or highflyers in public service. WP’s Chen SM is a shining example of the selfhless mp we shd vote for.
James Teo said
Does ponzi scheme equal economic growth? Just look at the housing for the people scheme and the CPF schemes. The amount keep on moving up and up! Want more and more people to keep the base pf the ponzi schemes!
We must wake up and not be so stupid as not to see the ponzi schemes!
True BLUE Sinkie said
She seems to have nothing between her two ears.
live and die in sincity said
no brains, no looks ? also nothing to crow about between the thighs ?
heartland Ranger said
Shut up
NoBrain said
ask the Fu what she meant by quality growth?
is it the growth at all cost we are having which makes the rich richer and the poor poorer?
amransan said
she trying to brainwash the young Singaporeans to beliving her LALA LAND story!
i belive the young sgrean are not so stupid to brainwash by her 🙂
trust me many of the young sgrean if got the opportunity will migrate to a better place because they can forsee their future in sg only suffer await them.
these people they can really talk like champion lucky for me i more then 20 years ago dont TRUST and LOST FAITH in them hahahaaaa 🙂
u can brainwash millions but u can brainwash me 🙂
cheers!
Hell pap said
Please don’t show the photo of the pig
It makes me puke every time I see it
fpc said
this bitch evidently doesn’t know anything about conditions being right since when she was at hdb, she didn’t know how the supply and demand of HDB flats and helped mbt drove hdb prices sky high. hdb prices since then has risen 100%. Has our pay risen 100 percent? a lot less than that!
public housing at ridiculous prices and subjected to stupid constraints.
Disgracefu said
Hitler once said, “…. they will betray anything for the sake of their miserable jobs and incomes.” Here comes grace fool, betraying her conscience and selling her soul to the devil for the sake of her miserable ministerial job and obscene income…
Gary said
Grace Fu must have her head screwed on backwards. Should GDP growth achieved by using cheap foreign workers considered “quality growth”? “Quality growth” should be sustainable and not have adverse long-lasing consequences. The problem faced by PAP is that what is needed for “quality growth” is a also threat to PAP political dominance. Since the later is PAP primary (and only) goal “quality growth” is not possible in Singapore.
ngpy said
Talk is free. I really disagree talking about 40 years down the years for Singapore, with given all opportunities to have a free hand in the past years they could not prove much and now talking about 40 years down the years, better talk the next about the next 4 years on how they are going to shape SINGAPORE.
Invictus said
Can the Minister identify an exact moment in the last 10 years when all the conditions were ripe and Singaporeans (we are not talking about the mega rich) enjoyed great abundance ? If she can find one, then why is wages depressed for so long for most Singaporeans
If she can’t identify one, then can she explain why if this is the case, the Ministers can afford to give themselves fat salaries while the same cannot be applied to average Singaporeans ?
Babuseng said
Problem is that the growth in singapore is not quality growth. We have seen economic growth at the expense of high inflation, which is actually causing the quality of life to go down. The government’s growth policies need to be rebooted.
No Can Do said
Contrast these presidents wth our leaders: Pres Jose Mujica, Uruguay keeps only @1,250/-, a mere 10% of his $12,500 salary, and gives the rest away. Both Pres John F Kenneddy and Herbert Hoover did not receive their pay. H Hoover refused to accept a single cent for public service lest he was accused of corruption. They were political icons by, of and for the ppl. But our parliamentarians??
Ken Lee said
Quality? how?
Unhappy Ones said
And why Singaporeans are getting unhappy nowadays? Overcrowded MRT, shopping malls, shortage of good child-care, high-pressure school environment, competition & promotion for jobs, shortage (and expensive) of housing, crazy car prices, ever-increasing medical costs, food costs.. All these problems may not be too much of a problem for most people if our salary are high enough to match, like Nordic countries. But unfortunately, most people ‘feel’ poor compared to say 8 years ago. Do you notice our productivity hardly increase all these years? Why? One of the root causes is the huge influx of cheap & low-quality FWs competing for quality jobs with the locals. Worst still, these people brought alone their whole families and they were granted PRs & citizens by our generous MIW! It’s now very difficult to remove the root cause without hurting anyone – FWs are like printing money, it can solve some problems but can cause other or more problems. We are now suffering due to past actions of our policy. Quality growth will come if we can raise productivity. The hell gate must be controlled so that employers know it’s time to work with locals and not always thinking of hiring cheaper and hard-working people to run their operations.
Robin hood said
The tactic is to create many problems in the already very congested small island city state. They will then say that no one else can overcome those problems except them, the pro alien party. So sucker Singaporeans like us are left bewildered, scared with no one to turn to. They make sure the oppositions remain ineffective, unable to convey the valid concerns of the populace in Parliament. The Wayang party MPs now appear to go along with them and agree to shut up on many issues.
With so many insfrastructural projects now going on and more to come to ensure quality growth, how can an opposition party take over in 2016? Singaporeans are trapped. There’s nothing Singaporeans can do EXCEPT to deny them 20 to 30 seats in Parliament in 2016. They can then still carry on with the ambitious projects but subject to close scrutiny. Although they desperately trying very hard to get more and more new citizens from now on, true blue Singaporeans are still many, especially the 60 percent of GE2011 who should by now open their eyes and repent.
Singapore for true blue Singaporeans!
Mod’s note:
The ‘Wayang Party’ is even more PRO-FOREIGNER than the PAP. When the PAP introduced a bill to limit the inflow of work permit holders, Low Thia Kiang opened his golden mouth to speak up against it and that is one of the FEW times his voice was heard in parliament. A vote for WP = A vote for more foreigners!