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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 38, Number 17. July 16, 1973
4-6-75 — Devan: Singapore and the World Economic Crisis
4-6-75
Devan: Singapore and the World Economic Crisis
We decided that, in our own real interests, wage costs in Singapore must not be allowed to outrun wage costs in other developing countries. Wage increases this year must therefore be modest ...."
"But our economy is competitive with regard to countries like Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, the Philippines and South Korea.
"In Hong Kong, wages in certain sectors have actually declined. This means that their production costs go down and the prices of Hong Kong made goods also go down in export markets.
"So if Singapore is not careful, comparable goods which we manufacture here will be priced out of export markets.
'This would lead to the closing down of factories and to unemployment."
"If Singapore's wage costs went up too high, industrial investment capital would tend to gravitate away from Singapore towards countries like South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Philippines.
"This would mean no new job creation for the thousands of young people who join the labour market every year."
(N.B. In other words, Devan Nair was saying that the wage rate in Singapore must be kept to the lowest, to undercut those in other developing countries of Asia, in order to be more attractive to foreign capital. He hinted that in Hong Kong wages in certain sectors have actually declined, hence the revelation that real wages of workers in Singapore have actually fallen since Industrialisation, in the previous article is of no surprise He also threatened that it workers demand otherwise, there will be massive unemployment.)