This is the future of our promise land. Clean government, highly educated people, more urbanized areas, tech utopia in asia and most of all, no more OFW’s. How i wish i am still alive when this happened to my land. Having so many tall buildings sprouting here and there doesn't mean progress. Progress is when people live peacefully with less crime, children and women are safe to walk the streets even at night, education and health care is free or cheap, people have discipline and they not only fear God but also respect the environment, no stray dogs and cats left to die in the streets, there are traffic laws and rules followed, food is afford , tourists feel safe etc... Philippines passed form a poor country to a emerging country in less than a generation. Manila is now very modern and is full of skyscrapers,malls and other modern things. The skyline of Manila is one of the best in the world. The philippines is a place to travel and visit. The 3 mega projects that will change the country are :the manila mega subway,the Eco friendly city and the city of pearl. One day ,Phlippines will be developed . In 30,the country will be a miidle income country. The city of pearl will be the biggest smart city on earth and the manila mega subway will be the biggest infrastructure project of the country. Exactly, lack of FDI's (foreign direct investment) because of protectionism is the thing holding back the Philippines. I've been saying it for years but domestic conglomerates together with a cultural tendency towards protectionism has kept the people focused to the idea of protectionism. So even if you explain it to them the benefits of FDI they won't believe it. Having said that, protectionism ironically, is currently actually working in their favor. It's protecting them to some degree against communist takeover. An ideal nation state should have ample opportunities for all and enable social mobility according to Minister at Prime Minister's Office and Second Minister for Home Affairs and Second Minister for Trade and Industry S Iswaran. A society that embraces family values is what Singapore should aspire to be. At the same time, creating an enabling environment to ensure sustainable growth is also key, This thing about is is there a trade off between growth and and and lifestyle and all that stuff so so let me start with one basic thing okay what life balance is a very popular thing right now right everybody talks about we need work life balance. So let me start by saying something which you would all agree with but you know to have work life balance you need a good life but you also need good work. You cannot have work life balance with there's no work. Well there's very little work on this book that you don't like doing. Right so if I say to you well you know you got a crummy job but you got a great lifestyle so what's wrong with you. I don't think you'll be very appreciative of that. So we need to ensure. That in the Singapore's context. Does. Who seek quality jobs because that is desperation different types of job that challenges you that takes you in different directions to do creative things whatever we're able to provide for them. But equally for those who say well look you know I I'm quite happy to compromise a little bit on Korea because my family life and other things all social commitments and is more important well we must be able to accommodate that as well. So. Let me put it a different way you know so you know the question was awesome what is the ideal nation state and so on I think what we want in Singapore is a please the first of all has opportunities for all of us. So when you come out whether it is whether you're a student fresh coming out as a grad or you may be a 40 year old who is now thinking of a change in your career or something all and so on we went to Singapore that as good opportunities different options for different people meeting your aspirations. We also want to Singapore read this social mobility meaning it doesn't matter what your background is. If you have the capability if you have this the competence you should be able to aspire and this this guy should be the limit. So minimally I feel we need a society that is and then we want a society which embraces. Family and creates an environment where we don't we don't feel stressed because we feel that we have to change that loss dollar down but rather as a society which just took those of us who wish to pursue careers well it's a society that has options and opportunities for that and for those of us who prefer different kind of lifestyle media wanted to social service volunteer work and so on the society is able to accommodate it and not just accommodate but also values it and respects it and celebrates. So we need that. In our society so I I am not full suit so why I'm saying this is I don't think it is correct to talk about a trade off and I mean the minister of trade industry and I tell you we talk about trade offs all the time the trade off is not about economy and economic growth versus your welfare and your family life and so on. Because that is actually a personal choice all of us have to make. But government. At the national level has to create. The opportunity in the environment where you can make those choices and live with those choices. Because if I have an economy that is grinding to a halt and not able to compete you will cannot make that choice. But equally if I have any country which only focuses on economic growth and says look at all these things about the childcare and all the other things that are important to family life we just really get them to the back room that's all good be good either so we need to create an enabling environment. Right. And then within that enabling an enabling environment each one of us will have to make our own decisions and your choice may vary according to which stage in life you're in as well you know by the week when you're young and energetic and just out you may want to grill hot shot career in something but later on you may say look I have a different approach I've done what I wanted I've done my - in that area I want to sit back and smell the roses a bit more I need to be able to do that. So where is the economic trade off the economic trade off actually is because our country is not a new level we upped you know we are really an advanced economy in many ways. And it's very hard for mature advanced economies to be growing at 10 percent and an 8 percent and all that not much but what we've done in the past we have to accept the fact that our growth rates are going to moderate down to something like maybe 3 percent 3 to 4 percent also over the next few decades. And in order to do that we need a few things happening we can talk about this and you know I think somebody may have mentioned briefly about foreigners and so on. We don't need. And continuous influx of people from overseas in order to do this but we need a judicious popping up. If you don't have that and you rely only on our domestic population and it's rate of growth we will find that it makes it even harder that's just from a population but if you want to bring in the talent angle every time he brings in a company in a new business area you know like George Lucas when you brought in his 2 costumes and all those guys doing those fancier graphics and all that for the different things immediate check we wanted to bring it because the site is AT area for future opportunities and growth. But we had hardly any single parents who could do it at the stop so we said look you come over we will let you have a certain proportion of foreigners as part of the starting makes we will train people we will create the opportunity for more Singaporeans to common looking something like this and that's how we worked at. Right so I think the trade off is a personal trade off is a personal choice at the government level. We are very committed to creating the kind of country kind of society where we have opportunities social mobility and then a good education system that allows you to then go out and decide what you want to do the world's your oyster go ahead and find it you'll speak you'll you'll please and you define it for yourself. Right. I think that's the approach to take on this I mean from my perspective.
