Watching Lawrence Wong’s speech at the PAP Conference a few days ago, gave me a lot to think about as a Singaporean, and as a Majulah Singaporean who is now a sexagenarian.
I have been blessed to have grown up during the developing years of Singapore, moving from underdeveloped in the early 60s, to strong developing years in the 80s and 90s and culminating as a matured developed country into the 21st century.
Having studied and worked overseas, I can confidently say that Singapore is my home, and Singapore is where I wish to be. Every time coming back to Singapore, we take for granted how green and clean our city, island and country is, we take for granted our efficient and effective everything is around us; we take for granted how peaceful and safe our country is. We do not realize how much effort, time and monies it takes by our Government to ensure a smooth running country for its citizens.
Let’s put things into perspective, from 1965 to 2024, there have been 4 global recessions: 1975, 1982, 1991 and 2009. This does not include SARS in 1997 and COVID19 in 2020, and the impacts caused by the Gulf War and 9/11.
Gen Ys was born between 1981 to 1996, and Gen Zs from 1997 onwards. This means by the time the oldest Gen Y graduated and started working, say at 26 years old, it would be the year 2007. So pretty much most of the Gen Ys and all the Gen Zs have never experienced a recession?! So for the Gen Ys, their first experience of a downturn or a difficult and negative economic period was COVID19 and post COVID19. While we acknowledge the global impact of the pandemic, we must also understand the impact and post impact to the cost of living globally, not just Singapore.
Cost of Living
In fact, the price of our ‘basket of good’ has been increasing steadily since 2015, with climate change, brings unpredictable weather to agriculture, which requires predictable weather, hence, spoilage and lower yields are the new normal which in turn has put pressure on prices of basic foods. The pandemic brought about disruption in the supply chain, and prices started to escalate, however, it has calmed down abet it is still elevated. Inflation globally has fallen since the pandemic.
Let’s dwell into the demographics of our population to gain a better understanding of who may or may not be impacted by the higher cost of living expenses. About 15% of our population is the elderly, that is, above 65 years old. The largest age group is between 30 years old and 36 years old. The bottom 20% of our population has a household income of less than S$3,000.
The median annual salary of Singaporeans is about S$61,000 and in terms of average salary annually about S$70,000.
On a GDP per capital basis, Singaporeans contribute about US$127,565, which means every Singaporean creates or supports about US$127,565 worth of GDP at PPP (purchasing power parity) which considers relative cost of living.
The median annual salary of a fresh graduate in Singapore is about S$51,000. Let’s not even discuss fresh graduates in professional fields like law and medicine which would be higher.
How about programmers and coders, and even more surprising are influencers on social media, the much talked about new economy called the gig economy, all earning good monies with the skies the limit.
In 2023, more than 7.8 million departures for holidays were made by Singaporeans. In the 2024 NATAS travel fair, more than 120,000 people booked tours with most travel agencies experiencing more than a 30% increase in business.
During the pandemic in 2020, the median BTO price of a 4 room HDB was S$450,000 about the same as the peak in 2013. In Q3, 2024, the median resale price of a 4 room HDB is about S$680,000.
So, do we really have a cost-of-living problem in Singapore and has housing become unaffordable, these are the ‘noise’, misinformation and disinformation created by the opposition parties, is there really any truth to it? Obviously, not.
Think about it for a moment, if the cost of living is painful and housing is beyond affordability, then, why are there so many Singaporeans travelling, why are so many Singaporeans buying new cars, why are there so many Singaporeans buying higher priced BTOs, why are there so many Singaporeans prepared to pay more for HDB resale flats, why are there so many Singaporeans eating out at restaurants……….why, why, why?
Granted, the groups that need the most help are the bottom 20% and the elderly 15%, and I must say that our Government has done a lot for these two groups and will continue to do so.
“Whoever governs Singapore must have that iron in him. Or give it up. This is not a game of cards! This is your life and mine! I’ve spent a whole lifetime building this and as long as I’m in charge, nobody is going to knock it down.”
― Lee Kuan Yew
The truth is all of us have grown up in Singapore in the past 59 years, educated, knowledgeable, determined, work hard, work smart, all of us in our own way have developed our own ‘iron’ within us to help give ourselves a better life and to also contribute to Singapore. The baton will now be passed on to the Gen Ys and Gen Zs, who will have to chart out and carve out, the future for and the future of Singapore.
Nobody owes us a living, the only way to outrun the continuing rise in cost of living is to educate ourselves, value-add and be productive citizens of Singapore. Our Government has created the necessary infrastructure in the education system to fulfill our dreams of being professionals, and if we can’t, we can always pick up a skill. Our people need to be either educated or skilled, there is no place in Singapore for the unskilled.
Singapore 4.0
During one of PM, Lawrence Wong’s speeches in Parliament, he talked about Singapore’s future and that he wishes to see Singapore become a global innovation and technology country of excellence.
In the past near 6 decades, we have been doing well learning from the West, adopting and adapting for our own use in Singapore and we have been highly successful. We then, created Singapore Inc., and sold our expertise to our neighboring countries.
Singapore’s assets have always been its people, it was, it is, and it will always be, we have no natural resources, our natural resources are Singaporeans. We need to evolve for the future to create and innovate our own technologies that have global implications and international applications. Then, export these technologies to the West and the rest of the world. Singapore must become the global Silicon Valley; this is our future. This lead and challenge can only be undertaken by the energetic and creative minds of our Gen Ys and Gen Zs.
The Pioneer generation, the Merdeka generation and the Majulah generation have all contributed to build Singapore from an under-developed country to a developed and matured country. It is now time for the Gen Ys and Gen Zs to bring Singapore to new heights in the next 60 years.
The Panthenon Investment Group 