The poll by Reach, the government feedback unit, found that Singaporeans were worried about the slowdown in the economy and whether this would mean poorer job prospects for them here.

Rising fears over a slowing economy come as the labour market has started to show signs of weakness.

Last year, more workers lost their jobs amid weaker economic conditions. A total of 15,580 workers were laid off in 2015, the fifth consecutive year of rising redundancies, according to data from the Manpower Ministry.

The economy is expected to grow by between 1 per cent and 3 per cent this year, with economists expecting the slowdown to hit companies hard.

Respondents to the exercise, which saw Reach collect some 3,600 forms of input, also wanted the government to take a closer look at older workers.

About 86 per cent of the feedback was given directly or face-to-face to Reach. The rest was delivered through online channels.

Middle-aged workers also wanted new schemes to help workers affected by the slowdown to learn new skills and move into fresh industries.

Older workers were also worried about their income stagnating, even as job opportunities waned, noted Reach.

With one eye on the budget, respondents suggested implementing measures aimed at helping companies tide over the fall in business prospects.

Some wanted more generous tax reliefs, while others suggested cuts in the goods and services tax, property tax and fuel tax.

Reach chairman Sam Tan said he was happy to see Singaporeans coming forward to share their views directly with the government.

“We hear Singaporeans’ concerns about the slowing down of the economy, employability as well as the lack of job security,” said Tan.

“The government will continue to equip Singaporeans with the right skills to stay relevant in a fast changing world, so that they can secure better jobs and better pay.”

For baker Samson Lee, 43, keeping his job is his top priority.

Lee, who works in a bakery in Yishun, said that with companies considering automation, he fears his skills as a baker will become redundant.

“The government says we have to learn new things and get a new job. But it is hard to go for training when I have teenagers to feed and send to school. Where am I to find the time?” he said.

The budget will be delivered by Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat on Thursday from 3:30pm.

It will be broadcast live on television and radio. Those planning to watch it online can do so on the official Singapore Budget website or through the mobile application.

Leading the review is the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Philippine Central Bank), which is looking at better ways of tracking the flow of money into the Philippines, after the laundering through the country’s financial system of US$81 million stolen by computer hackers from the American accounts of the central bank of Bangladesh last month.

The review is taking a look at the role that the black market possibly played in transferring the $81 million from the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) branch on Jupiter Street in Makati City, where the hackers had wired it, and transferring the dirty money to other banks and casinos.

Industry sources said the BSP had asked the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) to suggest measures to better regulate the foreign exchange sector.

A BAP committee tasked to look into the matter met last week and decided to recommend an increase in the amount of foreign exchange that banks could sell to residents without prior BSP approval from $120,000 to $2 million.

“The BSP requires banks to ask customers for documents to sell dollars over $120,000 per day. If you allow banks to have a higher limit, and hopefully open it up without limit, corporations and the public in need of dollars need not buy from the black market,” one banker said.

The BAP has long been proposing to increase the threshold for foreign exchange transactions without prior approval, but after the RCBC scandal bankers themselves are looking to raise the daily limit to $2 million.

“We believe the bulk of the black market [or] money service broker deals are in that level, but [it’s] best if they leave the amount open to prevent deals from going underground,” the banker said.

According to industry estimates, 85 per cent of foreign exchange transactions in the Philippines are conducted outside the banking system.

But foreign exchange and money-changing services outside the banking system are not illegal.

They are required to be registered and are also covered by the antimoney laundering law like the banks.

Some argue that they need to be part of the entire ecosystem to grease the financial system.

But to prevent foreign exchange deals that are really meant to go underground, some bankers suggest the tightening of regulations for money changers.

In a statement, the Trade Union of the Philippines (TUCP) said on Sunday the value of the daily minimum wage levels nationwide dipped by an average of 96.95 pesos (US$2) a day or 2,520 pesos ($54) a month — an amount that could have bought them extra food or paid their utility bills.

Citing data released on February 12 by the National Wages and Productivity Commission, TUCP said the real value of the P481 nominal daily minimum wage in the 17 cities and municipalities in Metro Manila, for example, was 364.39 pesos a day since January this year.

The nominal value fell by 116 pesos a day or 3,016 pesos monthly, added the group.

“The lost value of the daily wage can buy them a kilo of imported, first class, deliciously fragrant rice and three variant of pagpag food for one good meal the entire family have not eaten for years. But if we look at the entire value lost in a month, it can cover for house rent, or water and electricity, or tuition fees,” said TUCP spokesperson Alan Tanjusay on Sunday.

Tanjusay noted that real wage was salary in terms of the amount of goods and services that could be bought.

He also pointed out that in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the current capacity of daily nominal minimum wage of 250 pesos to buy goods and pay for services in the region was only 157.43 pesos, meaning that the nominal value fell by 92.57 pesos a day or 2,406.82 pesos a month.

“The difference between wage and cost of goods and services is shown in the recent government survey showing a combined 10.348 million unemployed and underemployed workers dissatisfied with their salary because of the rising costs of services and the increasing prices of commodities,” said Tanjusay.

The March 2016 Labour Force Survey showed that out of the 40 million employed Filipinos, seven million were underemployed while 2.46 million were jobless, he said.

“The painful implication is that there are almost eight million working Filipinos who do not progress because they cannot even afford the minimum standard daily cost of living valued at 21.28 pesos for each member of family of five,” said Tanjusay.

The group called on the government to make growth more inclusive by “equitably sharing” the country’s wealth through consistent implementation of labour laws, stronger enforcement and regulation of prices of goods and cost of services.

US$1 = 46.35 pesos

Minister of Planning and Investment Bui Quang Vinh said that with an ambitious goal of achieving a GDP growth rate of 7 per cent to 8 per cent set in the Socio-economic Development Strategy in the 2011-20 period, the Southeast Asian country must shift its economic growth model from extensive to intensive, and the core issue in the transition process was improving labour productivity.

According to Nguyen Quoc Viet from the Vietnam National University’s University of Economics and Business, limitations of an extensive economic growth model which are based on the expansion of the quantity of inputs such as capital, labour, and resources, were hindering the implementation of economic stimulus policies.

Viet wrote in a story published on bnews.com that the capital now contributed around 60 per cent to GDP growth while total factor productivity (TFP) contributed about 25 per cent, compared to the rate of 50 per cent in developed economies.

An analysis by the General Statistics Office (GSO) said that labour productivity of Vietnam remained lower than other countries in the region and was uneven between industries. The statistics office said that the gaps between labour productivity based on purchasing power parity in 2005 of Vietnam were widened during 1994 to 2013 period with Asean+4 countries, including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia by between 50 per cent, 43 per cent, 17 per cent and 7 per cent, respectively.

The Statistics office said that this was due to the slow economic growth model transition, with labour in the farming sector accounting for a large percentage with low productivity.

According to Nguyen Thi Huong, Director of GSO’s Agricultural Statistics, many labour-intensive industries such as the farming sector had low added value, resulting in low productivity.

The 12th National Party Congress’s documents also pointed out problems of the Vietnamese economy. There was heavy dependence on investments for growth, low-skilled labour, modest application of science and technology, and slow improvement in productivity.

Improving labour productivity and growth quality were the two most important issues for Vietnam with regard to macroeconomic stability, economic efficiency and sustainable development, experts said.

“Increasing labour productivity is the only way to reach a GDP per capita between US$15,000 and $18,000 by 2035,” Vinh said.

The TFP of Vietnam must be increased to around 35 per cent to enable the country to fulfil its goals by 2020.

An economic expert said that one solution to enhancing labour productivity was shifting to sectors with high content of science and technology and high added value from sectors such as support, IT and processing.

Developing the private economic sector was also important to drive the development of a skilled labour market and improve management capacity, which would contribute to boosting productivity.

Christine Largarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, at a meeting with students of the National Economics University last week urged Vietnam to boost labour productivity, adding that local SOEs and private companies currently have very low productivity, which was only about one-fifth of that of foreign-invested firms.

Pham Thi Minh Uyen, from the Trade University, said based on the theory of the middle-income trap of Japanese economist Kenichi Ohno Vietnam was now stuck in a low middle-income trap.

Per capita income of Vietnam surpassed US$1,000 in 2008 (currently about $2,000) so the country is now classified as a low middle-income country, according to the criteria of the World Bank.

Experts have said that Vietnam relies too heavily on extracted resources, monoculture exports, subsistence agriculture and foreign aid.

Traditional industries such as mining and agriculture, which have the most potential, remain small.

Without strong reform, especially if Vietnam does not resolve the issue of corruption, it will be difficult for the country to escape from the low middle-income trap, they say.

Vo Tri Hao, of HCM City University of Economics, said that the capital, labour and land markets had developed slowly, as well as the reform of State-owned enterprises (SOEs).

Many small SOEs have been equitised or privatised, but large SOEs were reorganised into economic groups and turned into interest groups. These are protected and enjoy privileges such as priority access to capital, land and investment information, according to Hao.

Meanwhile, private enterprises, especially SMEs, find it difficult to access capital and land to build production facilities.

The distribution of resources for public investment is also distorted by corruption and interest groups, he added.

Meanwhile, according to Hao, many economists have said there were too many incentives for FDI businesses, and that foreign firms had not cooperated with domestic businesses, failing to transfer technology to local companies.

As most Vietnamese enterprises are small, their participation in the global supply chain is limited.

Only 36 per cent of domestic firms have been able to join the world’s production network while the percentage is 60 per cent in Malaysia and Thailand.

Economic experts have underscored the need for the country to speed up reform to fuel economic growth and integrate into the world economy.

Scholars researching economies similar to Vietnam also said that Indonesia and Bangladesh faced the same issues.

Challenges

Vietnam continues to cope with challenges such as the inefficiency of State-run enterprises and public investment.

Speaking at the event, Nguyen Duc Thanh, of Institute for Economic and Policy Research, said a major challenge was to retain high economic growth while ensuring environmental and social sustainability.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would enable Vietnam to increase exports to other Pacific Rim countries, including the US, which is one of Vietnam’s biggest export markets, he said.

The TPP countries account for 28 per cent of the world’s trade and 37 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP).

He added that the TPP and the Vietnam-EU FTA would create big opportunities for Vietnam but also put pressure on the country to boost reform.

However, whether the country can make the most of these opportunities would depend on its own efforts, he said.

Around 21 per cent of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam take part in the global supply chain, compared to 30 per cent in Thailand and 46 per cent in Malaysia.

“This is why Vietnamese SMEs benefit little from foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in terms of technology transfer and productivity improvement,” Hao said.

Thanh said that Vietnam had drawn up a clear roadmap for reform and that it had resources for reform but lacked strong determination.

“Time waits for no one and opportunities will slip away soon in this rapidly changing world. We must take action right now,” he said.

Most speakers agreed that the new FTAs would bring opportunities for Vietnam to reform institutions and build a model for a market-oriented economy.

Dang Quang Vinh, of the Central Institute for Economic Management, said Vietnam would have to face many challenges when the Vietnam-EU FTA takes effect.

Such challenges include the restructuring of SOEs, Government procurement, institutional reforms, geographical indications, and transparency and investor protection.

He said institutional reforms were pivotal to improve the business environment and the legal system, and that Vietnam must respect intellectual property rights, restructure SOEs, remove subsidies and foster competition, among others.

Prof Hansjorg Herr, of the Berlin School of Economics, said many trade agreements had recently been signed with Vietnam, but that these pose risks.

Many private businesses had not grown well enough, State-owned companies were influenced by politics and the economy was affected by FDI businesses.

Vietnam was still an outsourcing exporter, which only created benefits for other countries, and was still stuck in the low middle-income trap.

Recently the World Bank released a new report that lays out the path for Vietnam to reach upper middle-income status in two decades.

The Vietnam 2035 report, themed “Toward Prosperity, Creativity, Equity and Democracy”, suggests that Vietnam foster private sector competitiveness, promote social inclusion, and bolster the state’s effectiveness to climb up the economic ladder into a higher bracket.

Without this, Vietnam will find it very hard to avoid the “middle-income trap” and will fall well short of its significant potential.

Vietnam’s economy was estimated to grow 5.88 per cent per year during 2011-15, the slowest pace since 2010.

Vietnam became a low middle-income country (MIC) in 2008, and remains at that level.

Recently, Japanese economist Kenichi Ohno said that Vietnam had fallen into the middle-income trap, and his diagnosis sparked a heated debate about the country’s true economic situation.

The middle income trap is a theorised economic development situation, where a country which attains a certain income will get stuck at that level.

A country in the middle income trap will have lost their competitive edge in the export of manufactured goods because their wages are on a rising trend. However they are unable to keep up with economically more developed economies in the high-valued added market.

The seminar in HCM City was organised by the HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) Foundation.

These startups, which are expected to have a total funding of $200 million, are also seen to generate some 8,500 jobs—a development that will help the government achieve its agenda of inclusive growth.

“There are stories of success in the Philippine startup scene. What we can do is to encourage these startups, link them to venture capitalists, and help them to improve their capacity to enter the global economy by creating an environment supportive of their persistence,” said Trade Undersecretary Nora K. Terrado.

With over 30 Filipino inventors holding 23 patents assigned to 12 foreign companies, the DTI sees startups as viable catalysts to the information era.

As one of its core objectives, DTI now aims to develop a new breed of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through innovation.

“As we define the innovation economy of the Philippines, we would like to focus on coming up with new breed of SMEs. It will not just be about digital startups, but we will also explore the field of agriculture, biotechnology, electronics, ecommerce, among others,” Terrado explained.

Based on the 2015 assessment of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Philippines climbed 17 notches to rank 83rd on the global innovation index.

Aside from the country’s impressive climb on the global innovation index, the Philippines’ strong compliance to the intellectual property rights protection also posed a viable qualification to be the next innovation hub in Asia.

On a regional scale, the country ranked second for both patent protection and IPR protection in 2014.

One of the country’s top Philippine innovations is the Salamander by H20 technologies, an amphibious flood faring utility vehicle.

As the world’s first amphibious tricycle, H20 Salamander is a sixseater urban flood utility tricycle that has two variants. One is an electric fuel and the other is powered by gasoline.

Driven by the global crisis on climate change, Salamander was developed to address the call for reduced carbon emissions and flood problems in the country.

He was scheduled to announce the arrangement of ministries and the ministerial appointments to Parliament today.

Ethnic minority MPs welcomed his proposal to form an ethnic affairs ministry, one of 21 ministries compared to 36 under President Thein Sein’s administration.

“We support and welcome the proposal as we are ethnic minorities. We called for a ministry like this five years ago. Ethnic representation should be increased. The formation of an ethnic affairs ministry builds a bridge towards the peace process. The ministry should ease the suffering of the ethnic groups in the fields of education and health,” Arakan National Party Lower House MP Khin Saw Wai for Rathedaung said.

He noted that the ministry’s main task should be to tackle armed conflicts and involve all groups into the peace process.

“Ethnic rights should no longer need to be demanded but we still suffer from loss of human rights. Development is slow. We hope this ministry will not need to be permanent,” said Upper House MP Sai Wan Hlaing Kham of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy.

Htin Kyaw’s list showed that 10 ministries would be axed: the ministries of co-operatives, mines, rail transport, sports, science and technology and five president’s offices. Twelve ministries will be combined into six.

New bodies include the ministries of Culture and Religious Affairs, Telecommunications and Transport, and Electric Power and Energy. The Ministry of Finance and Revenue is being formed from the ministries of National Planning and Economics, Labour, Employment and Social Security, and Immigration and Manpower.

The Agriculture and Irrigation Ministry is going to be united with the Livestock, Fisheries and Rural Development Ministry.

New organisations include the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs and the Ministry of the President’s Office.

People involved in national sports last week expressed no concern about the proposal to scrap the Sports Ministry and transfer jobs to a suitable ministry.

Displeased with past poor performance of the ministry, which was established in 1996, they are convinced that there should not be a problem as long as the right person is assigned to strengthen the sector.

Myanmar won more than 80 gold medals at the 27th SEA Games hosted in the country. However, Myanmar won only 12 gold medals in the previous SEA Games held in Singapore.

“I don’t think there will be much impact. What matters is the management system and budget allocation. As such, sports policies can be handled by a department. It is too soon to comment on it,” said Banny Tin Aung, former deputy director of the Department of Sports and Physical Education and former secretary of the Myanmar Football Federation.

Than Toe Aung, the coach of the Myanmar national football team as well as former national footballer, said: “The one who leads the sports must be patriotic and devoted. In fact, the Ministry of Sports could not perform well in the past. There has been no programme whatsoever to draw in young athletes. If the incoming government can do this, there will be more new blood.”

Parliamentary Speaker Mahn Win Khaing Than has announced that there will be 21 ministries and 18 ministers in the new cabinet.

The ministries are:

1) Ministry of Foreign Affairs

2) Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock-Fisheries and Irrigation

3) Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications

4) Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs

5) Ministry of Resource and Environmental Conservation

6) Ministry of Electric Power and Energy

7) Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Man Power

8) Ministry of Planning and Finance

9) Ministry of Industry

10) Ministry of Health

11) Ministry of Education

12) Ministry of Construction

13) Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement

14) Ministry of Hotels and Tourism

15) Ministry of Economics and Commerce

16) Ministry of Information

17) Ministry of Ethnic Affairs

18) Ministry of the President’s Office

19) Ministry of Defence

20) Ministry of Home Affairs

21) Ministry of Border Affairs

He said yesterday that the new government would heed public opinion before making the next move and if the project does not win public approval, it would not be resumed.

“We have always faced questions on this. Anybody can say what they want. But as the spokesperson of the party, the o nly thing I can say is our policy is clear. We have special consideration for the people. We will not do it if people do not agree. Our chairperson Aung San Suu Kyi already mentioned it. We will aim for the development of the people,” he said.

Suu Kyi said during her election campaign in Myitkyina, Kachin State, that she had not seen the details of the Myitsone dam agreement and after studying it she would seek the people’s opinion to decide what to do.

With capacity to build 6,000 megawatt, Myitsone will be the fifteenth largest hydroelectric power station in the world. It is to be built by the Upstream Ayeyawady Confluence Basin Hydropower Co, a joint venture between China Power Investment Corporation (CPI), Myanmar’s Ministry of Electric Power and the Asia World. Due to strong opposition, President Thein Sein suspended the project in 2011.

Local concerns intensified recently after the Chinese ambassador to Myanmar Hong Liang said on March 4 that China would seek every possible way to resume the project by cooperating with the NLD. Reuters reported that the Chinese deputy minister for foreign affairs Liu Zhenmin said Beijing would urge the new government to resume the project, as it was still valid.

“It is an important cooperation project to implement between the two countries. In 2011, Myanmar postponed it but the contract is still valid. Cooperation is important for both countries. When the new government takes office, the Chinese government will continue to discuss ways to restart the project,” said Liu Zhenmin.

The comment stirred protest threats if the project is revived.

Environmentalist Win Myo Thu said: “This issue must be settled. The NLD said it would follow the people’s wishes. In order to do so, it needs principles. Depending on that principle, every possibility must be researched thoroughly. If it is cancelled completely, compensation should be given.”

NGOs and local people said that the giant dam would lead to the flooding of about 4,800 hectares, affecting 48 villages and people along the Ayeyawady (Irawaddy) River.