Things to watch out for in Singapore 2009

Finally, the year 2008 is coming to an end. Over this turbulent year, we witness many events that come and go in no order: (i) the death of JB Jeyaretnam, (ii) the minibonds saga that extend to the town council investments, (iii) the recommendations from AIMS report with collective feedback from bloggers (check out Journalism.sg's review of media events in 2008) (iv) the evolution of healthcare policies (check out this report from The Void Deck), (v) the first F1 night race in Singapore, (vii) rising costs of living in Singapore with respect to transport and fee hikes from electricity bills to domestic consumption and (vi) the global financial crisis that will take us into an unknown and uncertain times of recession within the next 15 months. In my own preference of not looking back this turbulent year, here are the things to watch out for in the year 2009. 

1. The Budget in January 2009: Being part of the private sector (within the small and medium business enterprises) now, any business owner and employee will look to the budget to see if the government will give any aid with regards to short term loan financing or tax rebates for the corporation. The global finance crisis has caused the banks in being conservative and not loaning out money to businesses for growth financing. It will be interesting to see that how the government will intend to help the small and medium enterprises to weather the next 15 months of contracted liquidity. Even if you are not in the private sector, it is also important to see what goodies the government will roll out for the Singaporeans from tax rebates for personal taxes to hand out dividends, for e.g. Progress package. That leads to my next point.
2. Will the PAP call for an election?: Recently, I talked about the possibility of an election happening next year in 2009 since in times of crisis, people will gravitate towards the government for assistance and stability. Although the electorate has been unhappy with the state of town council funds, the rising costs of living from the GST hikes and increasing bills ranging from energy to transport, it remains to be seen that it will translate to electorate gains for the opposition. As I pointed out earlier, even if the ground is extremely unhappy, can the opposition cough up talent and harnass a strong grassroot movement which is robust and tight like the PAP for a nine day general election campaign?
3. Cherrypicking the recommendations from the AIMS proposal: After so much consolidation of ideas from the blogosphere and the AIMS committee, the ball is now in the ruling establishment's court. Will the government adopt most of the recommendations, in particular, un-banning the famous 100 sites?
4. Indicators for an economy in recession: Will the global financial crisis steer the whole world from a recession to depression? In the context of Singapore, for the country to steer itself out of the recession, it is important to look out for several economic indicators for each quarter: the unemployment rates, the consumer price index, the amount of government projects rolled out, and the amount of re-training required.
5. Will the Sands Integrated Resort open in 2009?: It will be interesting to see whether Sands is able to open up the resort in 2009, given all the media spotlight recently on whether Sands can complete the casino projects in Macau and Singapore in the face of banks not able to provide further financing. Of course, the government will not let the project die, and it is likely our sovereign wealth funds will enter as white knights to save the day. 

Of course, there are many things to look out for in the year 2009. Of course, I hope that the country is able to steer itself out of the recession and get back on track with growth. Be ready to watch this space.

Comments

[The Void Deck]

Hey braw!

Methinks Sands will happen, maybe with even a little nudge from, not our govt God forbid as they can't use public funds on a commercial enterprise like this, but *cough*Temasek*cough*?

The budget will be exciting to watch!