Casinos have benefitted Singapore's economy' : Lim Boon Heng
-
Apr 25, 2011 - Straits Times
PEOPLE'S Action Party chairman Lim Boon Heng, who broke down two weeks ago when recalling the difficult decision he had to struggle with on the casino debate in 2005, acknowledged on Monday that the two Integrated Resorts have benefitted the Singapore economy.
One year on after the casinos have been in operation, he said they have not only created direct jobs, but also spin-offs for the travel, food and beverage industries, said the retiring minister on the sidelines of a community event in Jurong East on Monday morning.
Citing an example of the gains from the IRs, he said: 'I think today, taxi drivers are generally quite happy because they are fully booked. All in all, it has been beneficial.'
At a press conference two weeks ago, Mr Lim, 63, had to pause at least twice to compose himself as he recalled the 'very difficult process' he went through to accept the decision, for the sake of jobs that the integrated resorts would create, despite his opposition to gambling as an industry.
Mr Lim also responded to Singapore Democratic Party candidate Tan Jee Say's proposals to shift away from manufacturing and focus instead on the services sectors. He said he 'fully disagreed' with Tan's suggestions as they would lead to companies moving their operations out of Singapore, and many families here depended on the sector for jobs.
Countering a charge from Mr Tan, a former aide to Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, that the PAP had lost is 'moral compass', Mr Lim said: 'I think Mr Tan may have lost his way... he is trapped in a time warp. He has been out of policy making decisions for quite some time. The world has moved on.'
Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Manpower Lee Yi Shyan also weighed in on the rebuttal, warning of the loss of many economic spinoffs in doing away with manufacturing.
-
ya...benefit the undertakers also when addict gamblers jump flats or mrt
-
Yes casion brings in jobs opportunities.
But then I heard a few bad news that pple resigning from the casinos, citing long working hours, no off day, salary stuck, something like that.
-
bring more problems too.
-
Sounds like a typical customer service job to me.
-
Yes, more social problems. Even from jb too. Wife gambled all their hardearned money and hubby chased all the way to casino and wanted to beat her up.
More families will be broken, more debts too. But on surface, still ok...water still calm.
-
Cry over Caninos and now this. Please make up your mind. More miseries than gain in term of crime, cheating, broken familes and marriages, frauds, suicides and other vices.. The courts have been more busy lately in dealing with casino-related crimes. It's a heavy price Singaporeans has to pay. If you dont want your children to gamble, why then promote it in our midst.
How can it be good over building more employment opportunities in education and health sector and building up of entreprenuerial spirit of Singaporean (which is lacking) and which is after all, our only resources.
-
wa, words like that from a CAtholic's mouth, I 'salute' you Lim boon heng.
-
Originally posted by shanfan:
wa, words like that from a CAtholic's mouth, I 'salute' you Lim boon heng.
and on Easter, he must be "very pious".
-
Originally posted by Clivebenss:
and on Easter, he must be "very pious".
this kind, hahahahah. H H -
I have no words for a man who sold his soul to the devil.
-
The reason why he disagrees with Tan Jee Say's proposal to expand the services sector more than manufaturing is simply because.....pappies cannot think out of the box. They have all been conditioned to think within the set framwork of policies. Anything out of it is would sound suicidal. Typical civil service ya? Those who work in there would agree with me.
Manufacturing economies are those of developing nations. If we take a look around the world at developed economies, services constitute their primary fulcrums. By services, we mean finance, hospitality, healthcare, entertainment, advertising etc etc.
-
Originally posted by Icerage:
I have no word for a man who sold his soul to the devil.
well, he enjoys the sales and after sales effects. -
very true.. but i have to agree with him that manufacturing sector in singapore has the largest base of workers.. he has to think about them too.. if we shift towards the service sector, its will be better for singapore economy but can those workers find jobs to feed their families? possible..definitely in the long term where training plays a part
-
Originally posted by Rock^Star:
The reason why he disagrees with Tan Jee Say's proposal to expand the services sector more than manufaturing is simply because.....pappies cannot think out of the box. They have all been conditioned to think within the set framwork of policies. Anything out of it is would sound suicidal. Typical civil service ya? Those who work in there would agree with me.
Manufacturing economies are those of developing nations. If we take a look around the world at developed economies, services constitute their primary fulcrums. By services, we mean finance, hospitality, healthcare, entertainment, advertising etc etc.
There's still manufacturing sector in Sweden, UK, Korea, US and even ROC
-
If we do away w/ manufacturing industries, it only means more dependent on more food imports, no more shipyards, no more CIS
No need for engineering tertiary courses less say civil engineering. Wat happens? More foreigner engineers?
-
Historically, singapore economy was once upon many times sky-rocketing without casinos. Well done to the resilient, charitable and benevolent lots of people making singapore so much pleasant through love & caring!
-
Originally posted by sbst275:
If we do away w/ manufacturing industries, it only means more dependent on more food imports, no more shipyards, no more CIS
No need for engineering tertiary courses less say civil engineering. Wat happens? More foreigner engineers?
sbst,,,if PAP really steps down and everyone wants to go werk in casinos and advertising and selling backside because its the in thing to them....then what i saw from long ago will be true only in spore!!!!! -
Originally posted by Rock^Star:
The reason why he disagrees with Tan Jee Say's proposal to expand the services sector more than manufaturing is simply because.....pappies cannot think out of the box. They have all been conditioned to think within the set framwork of policies. Anything out of it is would sound suicidal. Typical civil service ya? Those who work in there would agree with me.
Manufacturing economies are those of developing nations. If we take a look around the world at developed economies, services constitute their primary fulcrums. By services, we mean finance, hospitality, healthcare, entertainment, advertising etc etc.
wrong rockstar.manufacturing is only found in those powerful countries and rated as the best country in the world.only countries with no manufacturing industries would be totaled screwed up countries.u can surf the net and observe that. ------------------------------------------------ sweden has a manufacturing industry eg all their factories and design induystries are there in sweden n europe. The 20 largest (by turnover in 2007) companies registered in Sweden are Volvo, Ericsson, Vattenfall, Skanska, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget, Electrolux, Volvo Personvagnar, TeliaSonera, Sandvik, Scania, ICA, Hennes & Mauritz, IKEA[dubious – discuss], Nordea, Preem, Atlas Copco, Securitas, Nordstjernan and SKF.etc etc --------------------------------------------------- as u design and create revolutionary products.u need to manufacture by thousands or millions of them in spore.in no way would one make something thats not really needed such as a cASINO or something else. u need to stary yer own business n then make $$$$$ to say this.u dun need a masters degree to tell u please dun do aay with manufacturing.thats the way of the idiots leading to POL pot or some bankcrupt state! japan became wealthy up to today not by service side but by manufacturing in the past by their wonderful products,cars,motorbikes,processsed foods,sweets,snacks and biscuits.today they are even getting more richer by selling folks made in japan PS3 and PS4 gamingconsoles and the spinoff for them in the softare games are by the billions of dollars and u should know that they mass produced these games by the millions every day or so. it all boils up to each n every citizen in what they have as ideas after the PAP. i hope it wont end up like another animal farm where they would say 4 legs good n 2 legs bad as in manufacturing is bad and casinos n sales service industries is good. when that day comes..a civilwar would hatch out between dumb uneducated impractical folks and business savvyical pract folks in spore.theres is no such thing as doing aay any industries.if thats so...u might as well do away oth the different living thing n races in spore n put the one u perceive to be the best in place. -
the problem with them is they care more about the figures then anything else.
-
Initially he against the opening of casino, then he join the agreeable group.
The group are pack with power, all sing the same song. No choice, join the group.
What amaze me is that before casino opens, there are diploma courses too.
-
Ya, bring more job and revenue to ah longs as well.
-
Future generation will find it easily accessible to the casion in future.
$100 for them will be like nothing.
More social problems.
-
The casinos have a negative impact on society. We are going to face more problems for the few jobs that are created.
-
well i'll just answer sbst and elite hitman together ya.
Those swedish conglomerates mentioned no doubt are mega brands but they dwarf in comparison to the service sector. Just do some research and one will find that many of the developed economies, especially the european ones are focused highly on service sectors....say 70% easily? Well, I'd like to think of taiwan too as one with a high focus on services eg tourism and entertainment with the manufacturing sector easily in their shadows.
And what do we mean by a service economy or a manufacturing economy? Does it means it's entirely services or manufacturing in that respect? No lol....hope we understand that. Nobody says we should do away with manufacturing too...that's suicidal! It's just a re-shift of focus. Perhaps that's why Tan Jee Say was misunderstood too.