A country's foreign policy, also called the international relations policy, is a set of goals outlining how the country will interact with other countries economically, politically, socially and militarily, and to a lesser extent, how the country will interact with non-state actors. The aforementioned interaction is evaluated and monitored in attempts to maximize benefits of multilateral international cooperation. Foreign policies are designed to help protect a country's national interests, national security, ideological goals, and economic prosperity. This can occur as a result of peaceful cooperation with other nations, or through exploitation. In International affairs no one is a permanent friend/permanent enemy. What is permanent is National Interests of a country.
Many people criticized the foreign policy in s'pore.But it is seemingly reasonable to some extent. It is because a decade back and more, Singapore and HK were the only developed countries in Asia and the rest of our lesser developed neighbours did trade with us. and it was natural resources like food and other necessities, if one doesn't count the abundance of cheap labour for the construction industry. Other than Hong Kong, singapore had not much competitors in terms of economic activity But now, these countries like India and China, are developing their own economies and its no longer just Singapore that offered a conducive environment for trade and business. The last few decades, it was true that Singapore was lesser known in the 1st world except to some large foreign investors and Multi national companies
As the rest of Asia rose, these investors found cheaper alternatives to Singapore because it will always be cheaper to set up bases in developing countries than developed ones.
In short Singapore has large competition now. As a result instead of directly competing with them, it will be wiser to work with them and their people. It is a classic business case of mergers. Merge with the competitors to survive. If u cannot beat them, joint them.
it could be the reason the current foreign policy was adopted, to make Singapore more widely known and to merge with the competition. They are
1) Migrants or Foreign Talents
2) Foreign Investment by Temasek in overseas assets
3) Offshore Banking to lure top money from around the world.
1) Migrants or Foreign Talents
I'm pretty sure everyone's had enough of them right now. Really.
2) Foreign Investment by Temasek in overseas assets
Yeah and not forgetting HOW much Temasek lost?
3) Offshore Banking to lure top money from around the world.
From the Burmese junta, drug lords and rich tax-evading indonesian businessmen aye?
You have to distinct the different between political party vs ministry.
The local understand the need for foreign workers here.
But, there should be some quality control and number restrictions.
What we have witnessed is an massive invasion that brought about 40% of the population.
The weird thing about this issue is that the one in power have completely ignored the needs of the local and spending lots of money just to butter the "new immigrants".
The end result of this invasion is that we end up with lower pay and less job.