This is home, truly, for new citizens

THEY might not have been born here, but new citizens living in Jurong West are looking forward to National Day.

Ms Yvonne Lee, 35, an administrative planner from Perak, said her family applied for citizenship as they have become used to life in Singapore after moving here for work 10 years ago.

"Plus, my sister and two brothers have relocated to Singapore and I like the safe environment," she said.

Her citizenship application was approved three months ago. Her sister, housewife Lee Soo Hong, 45, became a Singaporean three years ago with her businessman husband Beh Chai Yang, 49.

Both sisters live just a stone's throw away from each other in the Westwood private estate in Jurong West, and the Lees have plans to celebrate National Day at Marina Bay.

On Sunday, the older sister and her husband joined their neighbours in selling national flags in the estate.

Another newly-minted Singaporean is service executive Jimmy Lim, 35, who said the flag-selling event helped him understand his neighbours better.

Originally from Penang, he has been living here since 1995 and became a citizen last year. This weekend, he will take the National Pledge with his family.

"As a citizen now, it is even more meaningful for me to say the pledge and celebrate National Day with my family over dinner," he said.

This Sunday at 8.22pm - the time when the pledge will be recited at the National Day Parade - Singaporeans here and overseas are encouraged to do likewise.

Another new citizen who lives in Westwood is Mr Michael Rebaczonok-Padulo. Formerly from Connecticut in the United States, he came here in 1975 and started teaching a year later. He became a citizen only in May.

The 56-year-old, who teaches language and communications at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, is conversant in Mandarin and can belt out a song or two in Chinese dialects like Hokkien.

In fact, he even lived in a kampung with his adopted Chinese- Singaporean family in the early 1980s.

"I feel very accepted and welcome here. Nobody is left out and that's one important factor that attracted me to the country," he said.

Markets could be in for a reality check

July has been a month of unusually good news. It began with the astounding jump in GDP growth figures for the second quarter, which saw economists quickly revise full-year growth estimates upwards. Then, last week, property data confirmed that Q2 2009 was one of the best performing on record, with the number of new home sales exceeding those for the whole of 2008. The Housing and Development Board’s resale price index also reached an all-time high in the quarter. Industrial production was down in June, but the NODX rose by 7.6 per cent in quarterly terms. And the Singapore stock exchange has also rebounded nicely.

But this was all news that was not quite in accord with the tone of the official outlook for the economy. After revising the 2009 growth forecast from a contraction of 6-9 per cent to 4-6 per cent, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said: “Notwithstanding the improved performance in the second quarter, the outlook for the rest of the year remains largely unchanged – of a weak recovery susceptible to downside risks.” This was attributed to the continued weakness in the global economy, with MTI citing rising unemployment and reduced household spending in the US and the euro zone. It added that the housing markets in many leading economies have yet to bottom out, while financial institutions are still in the process of deleveraging. “At this juncture, there is no evidence yet of a decisive improvement in final demand,” it added.

While the Singapore economy is very open and reliant on the global economy, it is interesting to find that the asset markets here are capable of running up far in advance of an economic recovery. There are, however, good grounds to be circumspect. One of the reasons for the increase in the GDP numbers was the spike in biomedical manufacturing output and electronics inventory restocking. MTI said both may not be sustained.

Recently, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong also drew attention to the uncertainties ahead. “For the next couple of years – 2010, 2011 – we don’t know how the world economy will be, and how that will affect us and what we can do about it,” he said. US officials have also expressed caution as to when the economic recovery will kick in. Moreover, there will be a time lag of at least a couple of quarters before a US recovery spills over into Asia.

And yet, we have this stock and property market exuberance. One of the reasons for this is simply the volume of liquidity sloshing around the world at a time when monetary policies are easy just about everywhere. But this is not a sustainable dynamic. At some point, the monetary stimuli will have to be withdrawn, and markets would need to be better supported by economic fundamentals. Market players should be wary of this. They should recognise that, at this point, they are ahead of the economic curve, and that, sooner or later, the markets will come up against a reality check.

Tender for residential land at Dakota Crescent to start in a week

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) announced on 22 July 2009 that an application from a developer to put up a residential site at Dakota Crescent for public tender. The land area is about 1.7 ha and has a maximum permissible gross floor area of 60,164 sqm.



In accordance with the procedures of the Reserve List System, URA has made public the minimum price committed for the site which is not less than SGD130 million. The public tender for the site will be launched in about a week of which then there will be a public tender of about four weeks.



More information about the land at Dakota Crescent is available in http://www.ura.gov.sg/sales/DakotaCres/MA/DktCres-intro(T).html