Newspaper clippings
- Much of Singapore’s growth relies on exports, as it is the most trade-dependent country in the world. Singapore’s trade amounts to alomost four times its gross domestic product, which is the total value of what it produces within its own borders each year.
- One out of every six American workers, or 17.5 per cent of them, are now unemployed or underemployed, according to the latest US data. This is the highest level on record and probably the worst since the Great Depression in the 1930s.
- There were more than 1.2 million foreigners in Singapore last year. 10 per cent are new PRs, while another 20 per cent are PRs who have been here for some time. As for the remaining 70 per cent of foreigners who are here on work permits, “they are not citizens and never will be,” said MM Lee. “They will go home after two years. They do the difficult jobs and without them, MRT stations will not go up.”
Now, the demographics are such that five working persons support one elderly person. In 20 years, it will be 1.5 for every elderly person, he said. “How does it work? How do we get the money to support them in hospices and hospitals?” he asked. Hence, the need for foreigners to power the growth to overcome Singapore’s looming problems and raise the Singaporean’s standard of living.
- China offered US$10b in concessional loans to Africa over the next three years. Aid offer announced by Wen Jiabao at Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (Focac). China has promised to build 50 schools and train 1,500 teachers for Africa to cater to its students. It will also send agriculture technology teams to help train 2,000 African personnel in this area.
One worry is that China is again stepping up its aggression to snatch up Africa’s natural resources to help feed its booming economy and will do business as before with regimes with bad human rights records. “The Chinese government and people have always respected the autonomous right of the African people to choose their own social systems. China’s support and aid for Africa has never been — and will never be — attached to any political situations.”
“Europeans view Africa as their own backyard. Of course, they feel uncomfortable about the arrival of the Chinese.” “China’s policy is based on mutual development. Few Western countries have a foreign policy like this. Most are about telling Africans what to do.”
- NUS President Tan Chor Chuan: We must keep our singular focus on talent. Not just recruiting and rooting top talent from overseas, but nurturing our own “home-grown” talent and creating the conditions that enable all talent to flourish and to excel. We must also continue to transform NUS education: to nurture graduates who are critical thinkers — creative, articulate, and globally effective; graduates who stand out and who are keenly sought after…
We must also build on our already excellent progress in research to make it really world class, with peaks which are among the leaders in the world. In the end, we must have two equally strong legs — in education and research — to succeed as a leading global university.
…At the same time, in Asia’s rapid growth, humanity will also face some of its greatest challenges: among others, environmental sustainability and the mitigation of global warming; public health and the pressures of rapid demographic shifts; and income inequalities and financial security.
Both the growth and the challenges of Asia hold great opportunities for NUS. There will be a pressing need for better research and understanding, and for more innovative solutions, ranging from clean water and energy to urban planning and building design.
NUS must, therefore, intensify its efforts to make itself a pre-eminent knowledge centre on Asia — a knowledge hub providing a new and more integrated understanding of critical issues in Asia, particularly of China and India.
The most critical challenges facing Asia, such as sustainable urbanisation and ageing, are multi-faceted and have complex interconnections. To address them adequately, we need research that is integrative, cross-disciplinary and addresses the key interconnections between issues.
We have embarked on the task of building five integrative research clusters in Finance and Risk Management, Biomedical Science and Translational Clinical Research, Ageing, Asia Studies and Sustainability. Each cluster provides a loose but dynamic structure which will bring together researchers in related fields, and promote integrative research among them. Each cluster pursues globally competitive research, with an appropriate Asian focus.
The new NUS Global-Asia Institute set up in September will provide the platform for integrative Asia studies, centred initially on critical issues for Asian cities. We will also create ways for researchers to work together across clusters on key, boundary-crossing research questions — effectively forming a “super-clusgter of research clusters”.
The super-cluster would provide a more effective interface between the deep pools of research talent in NUS, and partners, agencies and industry seeking large-scale integrative and holistic R&D and solutions.
NUS will also focus on further boosting our standing as a global university by extending our global reach. While we continue to pioneer novel models in global education, we will also look at expanding our NUS Overseas Colleges to more sites in Asia, the Middle East and beyond; and at setting up research centres based in China and India that are closely linked to our integrative research clusters.
All this will require much boldness and hard work..(leaps and bounds and demanding quest blah blah).
- Michael Richardson, Iseas: International trade has been an engine of growth for many Asian countries, enabling them to create jobs and raise living standards faster than other countries that were not yet ready to take advantage of surging trade opportunities. In pragmatic Asia, a nation’s standing is judged not just in terms of military power and diplomatic skill but also how it shapes up as a source of trade, investment and technollogy. By this yardstick, how does the US measure up against in particular Asia’s rising giant, China? …Unfortunately, the Obama administration has been hobbled in one key area where it should be showing leadership: trade policy. Beset by critics in Congress and the unions who claim trade agreements cause job losses and weaken the economy, the US is reviewing policy. The pace has been glacial. As Mr Michael Green, a former National Security Council official in the Bush administration, wrote recently: “The complete lack of a trade strategy leaves the US without any tools to counter the growth of exclusive regional economic arrangements within Asia.” These bilateral and multilateral trade agreements are often called “free trade” arrangements. In fact, nearly all are preferential trading arrangements that discriminate against non-members and distort global trade. They have flourished as negotiations to liberalise world trade have languished. By the end of last year, just over 400 bilateral and regional trade agreements have been notified to the World Trade Organisation. Another 400 or so are scheduled to be notified by the end of next year. Of the total, 326 are in the Asia-Pacific area. By far the biggest, the China-Asean FTA will take full effect in January next year. With a combined GDP of US$6 trillion and a merchandise trade volume of US$4.5 trillion, Cafta will be the world’s third largest trade bloc after the EU and Nafta….Meanwhile, US trade with the region has fallen, its investments have slowed, and it has become a small-time player in determining the future trade architecture of the region. The US is party to just 20 of the 800-plus trade agreements registered with the WTO.