Singapore is fertile recruiting ground for Mandarin-speaking middle and senior managers to run multinational operations in China, where a lack of qualified managers has held back expansion plans by many foreign firms.
The financial crisis took a toll on Singapore’s export-dependent economy, reducing annual economic growth to just 1.1 percent last year, compared with around 8.2 percent between 2004 and 2007, and creating the highest unemployment rate in five years. Strengthening ties with China is seen as mitigating Singapore’s risk.
China is expected to become Singapore’s largest single market for non-oil exports this year, overtaking the US, says economist Irvin Seah at Singapore’s top bank DBS Group.
“We use the term ‘China-ready,’ meaning we will just have to grow with them,” said IE Singapore chief executive officer Chong Lit Cheong, whose state agency promotes Singapore firms’ investment abroad.
Singaporeans were among the first foreign investors in China after Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) adopted a market economy in 1978. Lee has visited China almost every year.
Business China, an agency under Lee’s patronage, is tasked to “groom 20,000 to 30,000 bilingual and bicultural Singaporeans with the ability to communicate effectively in the China market.”
RSS