I contemplated attending the parliament seating today, but I had lessons, so was confined to the room and limited to the small google box. But it was satisfactory.
This was Tharman Shanmugaratname's first Budget delivery, can't say it was exciting, though there were a few laughs. The ministers were slouching in their seats and some looked really tired halfway through the speech. Every year, it's like that. It's hard to stand those long hours, and the seats do look very uncomfortable. But I would have killed to be there. :)
It was a largely conservative and somewhat pessimistic budget, I thought, though Tharman tried to add a few optimistic notes. Expected growth rate for the next fiscal year was reduced to 4-6% largely due to the state of the global economy. The US's recession plus the credit crunch have largely hit Asian exports and Singapore being vulnerable to global forces, would definitely be affected. We seem to be already feeling the pinch, as everyone has to tighten their pursestrings to deal with the higher costs of living. Increased oil prices and food prices will affect our daily lives, and higher oil prices do translate to higher transport and miscellaneous costs as well.
I guess the most hyped up part about his speech was the emphasis on R&D and innovation, as several initiatives are going to be implemented to boost innovation in certain sectors and industries. Lifelong learning was emphasized, and we'll reap the gains of the top-ups to our Post-Secondary Education Accounts. There were mentions of university and tertiary education.
He did continue the "no one gets left-behind" rhetoric to explain measures to close the income gap and distribute the wealth more evenly. Estate duty was scraped, thought it was good since it meant that foreigners won't hesitate too much to invest in properties in Singapore. Meant a higher degree of certainty. But it largely seems to be targeted at wooing investors and foreign immigrants.
Didn't get a reduced personal income tax, but there's a tax rebate. I doubt this will put to rests grouses of Singaporeans since the high costs of living is living some ppl high and dry. Ultimately, it was planned for the future, but kind of failed to resolve the immediate concerns and problems. Some Singaporeans might be disappointed.
I do find that Tharman as Finance Minister..hmm, not too bad. His finance policies are better than the education ones, oops.
Sharing of surplus though is quite generous. And surprisingly, we'll be having a budget deficit of 0.8 billion this year.
Well,enough of the heavy stuff then.
Yesterday twas' valentine's day, and singles nite out for us.
Love it.
While people were flocking to high-class restaurants for supposingly romantic candle-light dinners, the bunch was more than satisfied to settle for chilli crabs at Big Eater near City Harvest. We ate damn a lot man. And there were satays too...
Seow Si Min was sick so she had to settle for bland 鱼片面。
My head is on the big side. LOL
YiLing is very kiasu when she sees crab
Seow diao me
Satay
and gluttons....
Chilli crabs! We order like don't know how many mantou can. And mantou got no "FEELING" hoho
Neighbours!
Damn unglam.
The girls talking
the mess we left.
Anyway, we were hysterically laughing all the way back. Or rather I was hysterically laughing. Crazie nite......
Could do without boys. HAHA
finished rambling
5:08 AM <3