Singapore’s largest dog adoption drive kicked off on Saturday, with the aim of finding loving homes for some 100 dogs.
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Visitors at the National Geographic Channel Free Pet Shop event mingle with the dogs.
SINGAPORE: Singapore’s largest dog adoption drive kicked off on Saturday, with the aim of finding loving homes for some 100 dogs.
After a successful dog-adoption drive last year, the National Geographic Channel Free Pet Shop event returns for a second run.
Event organisers said the adoption rate by dog shelters has risen by 35 per cent since last year.
More than 3,000 people visited the dog-adoption drive at East Coast Park on Saturday in the hope of looking for a new furry friend or simply mingling with like-minded dog lovers.
The two-day event also saw five shelters — Action for Singapore Dogs, Animal Lovers League, Noah’s Ark, Gentle Paws and Save Our Street Dogs — coming together to raise awareness about adopting dogs rather than buying them.
Ezra Koh, shelter manager of Save Our Street Dogs, said: “We would like to (educate) the public about our street dogs — that they are not just stray dogs per se, but they are dogs that can be domesticated.”
One of the adopters, Yvonne Yoong, said: “I choose to adopt the dog so that they don’t have so many stray dogs on the streets. It’s quite pitiful to see them walking around on the road and no one takes care of them.”
After a disappointing AFC Cup campaign, the Warriors FC coach now intends to focus on the local cup tournament
It has been a disappointing campaign in the AFC Cup for Warriors FC – the same club that were playing in the Asian Champions League a few years back. This time, the Warriors finished last in their group, recording a single win and five losses to go along with conceding a total of 17 goals.
The most recent defeat was a 5-0 hammering at the hands of Hong Kong side Kitchee SC, and Warriors coach V. Selvaraj had no doubts about their opponents’ superiority.
“I am very disappointed of the team’s performance, we should played better than this,” he said.
“In [the] S-league, we are not playing like this. But Kitchee is a very good team, they are strong and confident [and] they deserved to win.”
Domestically, the Warriors are not doing all that well either. They sit in the bottom half of the table in ninth place and marquee signing Kazayuki Toda has spent more time on the treatment table than on the field. Of the 27 points that have been up for grabs, the Warriors have only managed to secure 11 of them. This shambolic start can be said to be one of the worst for the eight-time champions.
At the start of the season, Selvaraj also declared that he would consider quitting the Choa Chu Kang-based outfit if they were not part of the top three by June, which is only a month away from now.
Warriors’ General Manager, Chong Wei Chiang, has stated that former striker Mirko Grabovac has been offered to the club as head coach. Sources close to Goal.com Singapore have also revealed that a local agent has established contact with Grabovac and will represent him here should the Warriors management decide to open negotiations with the Warriors legend.
Amidst the commotion about a potential shake-up, Selvaraj remains focused on his objectives with the team.
“After this tournament, we will focus on the Singapore Cup – we want to be the champions,” he asserted.
Warriors FC will open their RHB Singapore Cup campaign against Phillipines’ Global F.C. on May 1 at the Warriors Arena in Choa Chu Kang.
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When Gregory Wade left Research In Motion’s Asia Pacific headquarters here last fall, the logical thing to do might have been to pack up his family and head home to his native shore of British Columbia.
Instead, the eight-year expat joined an equity firm and continued preaching the economic miracle of Singapore, coaching Canadian firms looking to set up shop in the region as a vice-president for The Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Singapore.
“You will sense a vibe of growth, of energy, a sense of entrepreneurship and the desire and interest to create new and innovative products and services,” said Mr. Wade, who is now managing director of mobility at InflexionPoint Acquisition Corp. “I didn’t get that same vibe in Canada, regardless of locale.”
For a city-state with no resources, limited land and a small population, creating the explosive growth and development of the past half-century has meant running it like a corporation – using highly trained, highly paid leaders, inviting the world’s best and brightest to its work force with an open-door policy, and with a near-zero tolerance for dissent among the masses.
The result is a planned, modern economy with efficient public services, an educated population and a per-capita share of gross domestic product of more than $60,000 (U.S.), the highest in Southeast Asia. Singapore ranks No. 2 on the World Economic Forum’s global competitiveness rankings.
Today, as Singapore nears the 50th anniversary of its independence, the original economic miracle is slowing. Hit hard by the Asian financial crisis, the dot-com bust, the outbreak of SARS in 2003 and then global recession in 2008, the city-state is at an economic turning point.
In its early days of enticing multinational firms, huge tax breaks, low operating costs and a great quality of life in an English-speaking tropical setting were the calling card. Today, a more sophisticated approach is needed, economists say, with a heavy focus on research and development, education and head-hunting the best talent from at home and abroad.
“Singapore’s economic strength is so vulnerable. When Europe stops, when America goes into recession, when Japan goes into recession and China slows down, there is nothing left for Singapore because we are so small, our economy is all exports,” said Tan Khee Giap, an economist from the National University of Singapore and co-director of the Asia Competitiveness Institute. “All we can do is diversify.”
At the core of Singapore’s economic policies is the country’s massive Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council, chaired by the Prime Minister himself and given an undisclosed share of the country’s annual budget to reach out to the four corners of the globe for investment.
Operating through three government ministries, four agencies and a multitude of smaller schools and research institutes, it is a massive multibillion-dollar effort to keep Singapore at the cutting edge of technology and research, and draws some of the world’s biggest corporations to its shores.
One of its lead agencies is the Economic Development Board, which pursues business opportunities around the globe from a gleaming downtown headquarters with a stunning view of Singapore’s skyline. The board manages 21 offices in 12 countries, including six in the United States, developing investments and industries that together contribute about 40 per cent of Singapore’s GDP.
“Our openness to investments started really in the 1960s because we found that the multinational corporations brought with them their own distribution networks and their own market. So it opened us to the rest of the world in terms of their exports,” said Damian Chan, the board’s international director for Americas, who said the focus has shifted over the years from lower-tech manufacturing to higher-tech, such as semiconductors and electronics, and now to more innovation and knowledge-based industries, including biomedical sciences and clean technology.
“The key thing now actually propelling the Singapore economy forward, and we will see that continue over the next two, three, maybe even more decades, would be the Asian growth story.”
With many of the world’s leading multinationals already setting up shop, research and development is the next major focus. In 2006, the government set aside more than $10.5-billion for RD over five years, aiming to have it increase to 3 per cent of GDP. Today an estimated 1 per cent of the country’s expenditure on RD is government-funded, with another 1.5 per cent backed by private industry.
Much of that has gone into a steel-and-glass planned development whose construction is still under way, buildings with fanciful science-fiction names like Biopolis and Fusionopolis, housing the research institutes of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, or A-Star. Inside its labs and office towers, an estimated 5,000 researchers and other employees work in areas ranging from aerospace research to genomics, to developing a more effective razor for men. Here, a private multinational can access government-subsidized research labs for product development, technology transfer and marketing; some costs are recouped through joint projects and patent purchases.
In a major coup for Singapore’s RD efforts, Procter Gamble is installing a $97-million research lab here to develop new skin and hair care products mainly for the Asian market.
Other big names operate here, too: Dairy giant Danone researches advances in maternal and child nutrition. China’s Baidu has opened a research centre for language-processing technologies specializing in Southeast Asian languages. Pharmaceuticals company Roche is researching cancer and infectious disease treatments here, and wind technology company Vestas is establishing a global research and development centre.
Keeping Singapore’s economic miracle going, argues A-Star’s infocomm institute’s executive director Tan Geok Leng, is going to come down to cutting-edge, world-leading science.
“We think talent makes the big difference,” said Dr. Tan of the institute’s scholarship programs to send Singaporeans abroad for study, as well as efforts to attract international researchers. Their staff come from about 80 countries, and the institutes have drawn more than 60 companies from around the world.
However, nations looking to Singapore’s example might also heed the weaknesses in this planned economy as it matures.
At first sight, Singapore is a utopia of high-end shopping, clean streets and greenery. World-class restaurants accompany luxury hotels; even the street hawker stalls that dish out Singapore’s legendary melting-pot cuisine have been moved indoors into clean, modern surroundings. Its resort centre, Sentosa Island, draws an estimated 19 million visitors a year to its luxury hotels, water parks and Universal Studios theme park. A lovingly created botanical garden, city parks and the new $800-million first phase of the Gardens by the Bay parkland complex are all feeding Singapore’s reputation as the Monaco of Southeast Asia.
And expatriates have embraced the lifestyle: an English-speaking, safe and modern city in a tropical climate.
But there are cracks appearing in Singapore’s breakneck pace. Inflation in March sat at 3.5 per cent, a drop from earlier monthly averages that have hit 5 per cent and higher. By necessity reliant on the performance of its trade partners, weakness in the U.S. and Eurozone contributed to Singapore’s slowed GDP growth of 1.3 per cent in 2012, down from 5.2 per cent in 2011, and a contraction of 1.4 per cent in this year’s first quarter.
And for the first time, open political dissent erupted last year with the release of a white paper on population, which predicted Singapore’s population would have to expand from its present 5.3 million to 6.9 million by 2030 to sustain economic growth.
It was a breaking point, with housing prices already skyrocketing and public transit stretched under pressure from both increasing numbers of poorly paid migrant workers hired into manual labour jobs from places including mainland China and Indonesia, and at the other end of the scale, high-flying expats whose rich corporate packages are driving up the costs of housing and schools.
The government has responded to the dissent by tightening foreign labour quotas and increasing wage subsidies for companies that hire Singaporean nationals instead of expats. But it’s clear Singapore’s recipe for success over the past five decades is now in need of adjustment.
“There is clearly a huge dissonance between what Western observers think is happening in Singapore and what’s really happening on the ground,” said Linda Lim, a Singaporean economist at the University of Michigan who has been critical of the Singapore approach, arguing the government’s failure to allow industry growth to be more determined by market forces has left the country dominated by multinationals that have created a glass ceiling for the Singaporean nationals they employ, and open to extreme volatility from its economic dependence on trade.
“The bottom line is, competitiveness cannot be created out of thin air, competitiveness must be based on what you have and who you are,” she said. “You need to figure out what is different about you. There is no generic policy.”
Still, Canadians on the ground in Singapore say their resource-rich homeland can learn a few things from Singapore – the focus on bringing the best and brightest into government as well as industry, on recruiting from around the world, and on directing government dollars and programs to maximize the potential for innovative new industries.
“The intentions in Singapore are all very good but it’s their ability to implement those high ideals which I credit them for. … By default, this country should be not even a Third World nation but a fourth-world nation. At the turn of the century it was an opium den, a prostitution den and a gangland area. What they’ve done well is they have sought out the best and the brightest and recruited them into key leadership positions,” said Rohan Belliappa, executive director of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Singapore, which counts such iconic Canadian firms as Research In Motion, CAE and Bombardier among its membership.
He says he sees opportunities for Canada’s regions, including his native Atlantic Canada, to replicate some of Singapore’s efforts in areas including logistics management, financial services and the biosciences – all knowledge-based industries requiring few natural resources.
“They are continually looking for the growth opportunities. They don’t just follow the trends, they stay ahead, with best practices and investment improvement, on everything, even public relations and relations with neighbouring countries; they are friends with everyone in the region,” he said. “They’ve got the smartest people from the private [sector], the money from the public [sector], and build the nation on that basis.”
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More than $100,000 worth of tickets will be given free to Straits Times readers to watch the music performances of American rock icons Aerosmith, South Korean pop sensation Psy, Grammy winner Carly Rae Jepsen, soul-pop singer CeeLo Green and Sky Blu from popular American dance- pop duo LMFAO.
The Straits Times is holding a contest to give away tickets to the inaugural Social Star Awards and the Singapore Social concerts later this month.
One lucky winner – a Straits Times “super fan” – will also experience the glitz and glamour of walking the red carpet, with a $3,000 fashion makeover for two, at the awards show celebrating the best in social media.
To be held on May 23 at Marina Bay Sands, the awards – dubbed the Oscars of the social media world – will crown the most popular personalities and brands on the world’s biggest social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube and Weibo.
In conjunction with the awards, two nights of concerts will also be staged on May 24 and 25 at The Meadow, Gardens by the Bay.
Called Singapore Social, the gigs will feature top acts such as Aerosmith, CeeLo Green, Psy, Jepsen and Asian girl group Blush.
Both the awards show and concerts are organised by Singapore- based company Starcount, which tracks the activities of 1.7 billion Internet users on the world’s top 11 social media sites.
The Straits Times is the official Singapore media partner of the event, Hot FM 91.3 is the official Singapore radio station, and Kiss92 FM, the supporting Singapore radio station.
Mr Warren Fernandez, editor of The Straits Times, said: “Whether you read the ST in print, online, mobile or on social media, we want to make it a rewarding experience.
“This includes a chance to win access to the social media awards night as well as two nights of concerts with some of the big name performers, which our readers will enjoy.”
To enter the contest, come up with all kinds of creative, multimedia ways to tell us why you deserve to win tickets to these performances and the awards show.
The entry can take on any format: It can be a photo, a self- made video, or even a song that you can post online.
Participants will also have to download the Starcount app to their phone (http://bit.ly/StraitsTimesFanChart) and connect to the app via Facebook, Twitter or Google+.
The person with the most creative entry and who also shares ST content on Facebook or Twitter will win a pair of tickets to walk the red carpet at the awards show with a $3,000 makeover by homegrown fashion brand Raoul and styling from neXt Salon.
He or she will also get a pair of tickets to the post-awards party and to the concerts on May 24 and 25.
Ten winners will each get a pair of tickets to the awards show and the two concerts, while 120 others will each win a pair of tickets to the two concerts.
Participants have until May 18 to submit their entries, along with details such as their full name, e-mail address and contact number.
Some music fans are already excited about the competition.
Mrs Adeline Lee, 33, a realtor who is a fan of CeeLo Green and Psy, said: “I just have to think of something interesting to submit, because I wouldn’t mind getting a nice makeover and seeing Psy and CeeLo.”
The Straits Times is the Official Singapore Media Partner of the event, HOTFM 91.3 is the Official Singapore Radio Station and KISS 92FM, the Supporting Singapore Radio Station.
Mr M, 47, was a former senior sales and marketing manager at an electronics MNC for nine years before he was retrenched in 2009. Married with a wife and twin teenage sons, he tried his hand at being a financial … Continue reading →
Rates from 250 Singapore dollars, about $208, at 1.20 Singapore dollars to the U.S. dollar.
Basics
The relatively sleepy and leafy stretch of the Changi area on Singapore’s far east coast may seem an unusual spot for a stylish new hotel — and yet, in September, there it appeared: Capri by Fraser, a sleek property with 313 rooms designed for travelers who may be staying awhile. The rooms, described as “studios,” are large, with sofas and kitchenettes, meant, no doubt, to appeal to the conventioneers and businesses in the new forest of office buildings sprouting around it.
Location
In the heart of Changi Business Park, the hotel is adjacent to the Singapore Expo convention center, a short walk from the Expo train station and about a 30-minute taxi ride from downtown Singapore. It’s also next door to a large mall packed with a supermarket, clothing and shoe stores as well as a long list of restaurants, bars and fast-food places that sell everything from egg tarts to Subway sandwiches.
The Room
Spacious and well designed — with built-in adapters for international travelers and a small kitchenette equipped with saucepans, plates, utensils, a microwave, an induction stovetop and a medium-size refrigerator — our “studio deluxe” would have made for a comfortable stay of several weeks. There was a king-size bed, DVD player and large-screen TV. The pale wood furnishings and décor punctuated with cheery orange and chocolate accents in throw pillows and artwork were pleasing to the eye. But our bedside lamps didn’t work; even after a maintenance worker repaired them, one flickered out completely.
The Bathroom
A similarly roomy affair with a large shower area outfitted with a rain-shower head and a hand-held nozzle. Toothbrushes, a sewing kit, an ironing board and a large laundry basket, along with an abundance of Malin + Goetz toiletries, were provided.
Amenities
This is a hotel with something for just about everyone — a spa that offers massages and Javanese slimming sessions; a small business center; in-room dining as well as a Western-style restaurant and bar; washers and dryers on every floor in plush rooms that each have a different theme (a foosball table offers distraction in one; a workout bike in another); free bikes (the beach is about a 30-minute ride away), parking, wireless Internet and airport shuttle; a 24-hour glass-encased rooftop gym and a rooftop pool. (But swimmers beware: office workers in the surrounding glass buildings have a fairly good view of all sunbathing action.) There’s also a generous happy hour on weekdays with free-flowing wine, beer and cocktails. Expect slow service, though — after waiting more than 20 minutes for my Long Island ice tea, the waitress explained that the bar had only one cocktail shaker.
Breakfast
Breakfast wasn’t included in the basic room rate; we were encouraged to try the weekday buffet for 28 Singapore dollars. But after examining the sparse Western spread of scrambled eggs, dry-looking chicken patties, limp bacon and tiny croissants, we headed elsewhere.
Bottom Line
An off-the-beaten-path hotel that provides top-notch comfort and service, despite a few small kinks.
Capri by Fraser, Changi City, 3 Changi Business Park Central 1; (65) 6933-9833; capribyfraser.com.
Marina Bay Sands, Singapore – Brunei recently participated in the Asia Dive Expo held annually Marina Bay Sands, Singapore from April 19 until 21.
Dubbed as the world’s foremost dive expo, the three-day spectacle offers visitors a wide range of exhibitors, and speakers from around the world that included workshops, presentations, demonstrations, dive pools and tanks.
The Brunei delegation comprises of Ranimah A Wahab, Acting Deputy Director at the Depai unent of Fisheries; Faten Shahrani, Project Officer at the Tourism Development Department and two local dive operators: Poni Divers and Oceanic Quest.
According to Fifie Whalid, Administrative Manager of Poni Divers, there were bookings and definitely an increasing interest to dive in Brunei as it is convenient for weekend dive trips because of the short distance and travel is easy.
They was also a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Brunei booth by officers in-charge from Tourism Development Department and Fisheries Department. – Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin
