PRC FTs abusing our Global Investor Program

• Askingyouto

  17 Jun 11, 19:19

  June 17th, 2011 | Author: Contributions

   

  As a Singaporean who had dedicated 2.5 years of his life to serving the nation, it really pains me to read about what is becoming of this nation in the article “The woes of a Singaporean IT consultant” – we now have under-qualified “foreign talents” who had merely fabricated their resumes are now being given priority to local jobs over qualified Singaporean PMET’s (who, like me, had dedicated 2.5 years to serving the country). These foreign talents do not have to sacrifice a single second of their lives to protecting Singapore, yet are able to share in the same benefits as the Singaporeans whose jobs they have displaced.

  If this is not bad enough, let me add that Singapore is now being sold piecemeal to rich foreigners (some of which hail from dubious backgrounds, just like our “foreign talents”), by foreigners who have now decided to call themselves “Singaporeans” but actually have no intention to contribute back to Singapore (in any way), what benefits they have taken as “Singaporeans”. How do they do this? Via the Global Investor Program (a.k.a GIP scheme) [Link] sanctioned by Contact Singapore. Let me explain how this works…

  The GIP scheme was actually endorsed by the government to attract skilled and rich individuals to invest in Singapore. One way is for the foreign individual to invest at least S$ 2.5 million in one of GIP-approved private equity funds [Link]; of course, the migrant in question must satisfy certain criteria to ensure that Singapore is actually accepting talent and not junk. If the criteria is satisfied and the migrant passes the interviews by the relevant governing body, he / she is then allowed to “invest” this money in one of the GIP-approved funds and then obtains a Singapore-PR with no questions asked.

  From the GIP fund’s point of view, they manage the funds and are required by governing mandate to invest at least 50% of the funds into Singapore enterprises to encourage the growth of local enterprises. At the same time, the fund-manager collects 2.5%p.a. of the funds under management as management fees to cover operating costs. The fundamental intentions behind this idea are good.

  However, it has come to my attention that there are funds, which have been started by former PRCs who have either become Singapore citizens or are currently awaiting to become Singapore citizens. Ironically, they too became Singapore PRs (and then subsequently citizens) through this GIP scheme.

  Unfortunately (according to an insider), none of them have professional fund-management experience and are focused on raising as much money as possible (i.e. getting as many migrant-investors / clients to invest in their fund as possible) rather than channeling the money to helping businesses grow, so that they may benefit from the 2.5% management fee. It appears that they have a terrible market reputation and actually advice some of their clients who do not meet the criteria to qualify for Singaporean PR under this scheme to get their documents forged.

  To make things worse, they have not invested a single cent of the funds raised in any Singaporean enterprise (instead investing in Chinese enterprises recommended by their own friends or clients) and are not intending to invest a single cent in any Singaporean enterprise.

  To top it all off, I was told that this firm (based in Singapore) employs a lot more PRCs rather than Singaporeans. From what I understand, the founder of the firm has sent his wife and son to the UK for the son’s education, and is intending to send his son to the States thereafter for his university education, with no intention to let his son serve his rightful share of national service.

  To summarise it in a nutshell, Singapore offered such ingrates a good life in Singapore by offering them Singaporean passports, and ultimately Singaporean citizenship, and how do they repay us?

  1. By opening the floodgates to more foreigners and selling Singapore to more foreigners (some of who do not meet the criteria of highly-skilled migrants are encouraged to forge the necessary documents in order to pass the ICA) so that they may collect more fees and enrich themselves further;

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  2. the funds that were meant to go towards growing Singaporean enterprises in exchange for the Singaporean PRs we have so awarded these rich individuals, are now being channeled back into China to fund Chinese enterprises – one does wonder why we’re awarding a Singaporean passport to the rich foreigners in the first place if it will not benefit the country;

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  3. a token number of jobs are created for Singaporeans in this firm – the firm still prefers to hire PRCs as the bosses do not trust Singaporeans from what I understand;

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  4. the founders of the firm are not letting their families serve their rightful due of national service to the country which gave them clean air to breathe and a safe environment to dream in every night; if they were back in China, they’d probably be choking on the polluted air and worrying about whether they would be kidnapped and held ransom by random thugs.

  Really, seeing such things happen in Singapore does make me wonder what this country is coming to – to have a country being sold out to foreigners by its own government is a terrible thing. To have a country’s government let foreigners sell its own country out piecemeal? That’s unheard of and absolutely ludicrous.

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  Billy

  * This comment was posted on the thread ‘Painful experience of a local PMET working in financial sector’ (http://www.temasekreview.com/2011/05/20/painful-experience-of-a-local-pmet-working-in-financial-sector/)

  Taken from:

  http://www.temasekreview.com/2011/06/17/prc-fts-abusing-our-global-investor-program/