Food prices up 4.3% but some dips too

From The Straits Times, Feb 14 2008.

By Jessica Lim

PRICES of items commonly found in kitchen larders have generally gone up by 4.3 per cent since last April.

That is more than twice the 2 percentage point increase in the goods and services tax which kicked in last July, a survey by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI) has revealed.

Varsities up tuition fees by 4% to 20%

From The Straits Times, Feb 14 2008.

NUS, NTU, SMU to cushion effect with more financial aid and ‘lock-in’ system

By Jane Ng

TUITION fees at the three local universities will go up by between 4 per cent and 20 per cent for the new batch of undergraduates entering in August.

But to cushion their effect, all the varsities will introduce more financial help schemes, as well as a ‘lock-in’ fee structure first pioneered by the Singapore Management University (SMU), where students pay a set fee and will not be affected by future increases.

S’pore losing about 1,000 capable people every year

From The Straits Times, Feb 14 2008.

Main draw isn’t China, but the US and other English- speaking countries

By Clarissa Oon

SINGAPORE is losing about 1,000 capable people every year and the numbers are growing, said Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, sounding the alarm on the severity of the brain drain.

Go for frozen food and cut up to 50% off bill

From The Straits Times, Feb 14 2008.

Supermarkets seeing more sales of frozen foods but some people still reluctant to switch

By Jermyn Chow & Jessica Lim

CHOOSE frozen over chilled pork and lop off about half your marketing bill. Ditto when you go for frozen over fresh chicken wings.

Here are the numbers: Chilled pork fillets cost $16 per kg at the market, but frozen ones cost $8; chilled chicken wings go at $7 per kg, but just $4.60 frozen. Price- conscious as Singaporeans are, they have seemed slow to see the math.

Household incomes up but rich-poor gap widens

From The Straits Times, Feb 14 2008

By Bryan Lee, Economics Correspondent

THANKS to a booming economy and rising salaries, the average family in Singapore saw its household income rise by 9.6 per cent last year, the biggest increase in at least a decade.

But the rich again got richer in 2007. Higher-income households generally enjoyed bigger pay hikes than lower-income ones, widening the income gap between the rich and poor.

NUS, NTU tuition fees to go up by 4%

From The Straits Times, Feb 13 2008

TUITION fees for the new intake of National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) students will go up by 4 per cent in the new academic year to meet rising manpower and operating costs.

The increase is much higher for permanent residents and foreign students to reflect greater fee differentiation between local undergraduates and others at both universities.

The last time the universities raised their fees was in 2006 when tuition fees went up by three per cent.

New Private-Equity Fund Targets Deals In China

From The Wall Street Journal, Feb 4 2008.

By RICK CAREW
February 4, 2008; Page C3

HONG KONG — Two senior Goldman Sachs Group Inc. bankers are teaming up to run a new $2 billion private-equity fund aimed at landing big deals in China.

Richard Ong, Goldman’s co-head of investment banking in Asia excluding Japan, who is leaving the Wall Street firm in March, plans to work with Goldman’s China partner, Fang Fenglei, on the new venture, called the Hopu Fund, according to people familiar with the situation. Both bankers are keeping close ties to Goldman, and the investment bank is planning to put around $300 million of its own money into the fund.

Singapore GIC to buy hotel from Morgan Stanley-paper

From Reuters, Feb 3 2008

TOKYO, Feb 3 (Reuters) – The Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) is set to buy a luxury hotel in Tokyo from Morgan Stanley (MS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) for around 77 billion yen ($723 million), the Nikkei financial daily said on Sunday.

In a deal likely to be completed late this month, Singapore’s largest sovereign wealth fund will buy both the land and the building of the Westin Tokyo, located in the city’s central Ebisu district, the newspaper said.

MM Lee ‘not sold’ on 6.5 million population

From AsiaOne,  Feb 1 2008

MINISTER Mentor Lee Kuan Yew ‘has not quite been sold’ on the idea of a 6.5 million population size in Singapore.Instead, he projects for Singapore an optimum population size of five to 5.5 million for Singapore.

He said on Friday: ‘I have not quite been sold on the idea that we should have 6.5 million.’

Only way to contain costs

From Asia One, Feb 4 2008

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PRUDENCE again underlies the latest tweak to health financing. Higher MediShield premiums Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan announced last week may be untimely when prices of almost everything are rising. But it is better to act before affordability starts to erode.