Comments by "Zhi Han Lee" (@lzh4950) on "De-industrialization was Hong Kong’s Biggest Mistake" video.

@andyyang2797 Think SIngapore could be an example of how government intervention doesn't always have to be negative (maybe it's been seen that way as its associated with protectionism, which might be seen as molly-coddling), if say the gov't itself practices market discipline too to, say, reduce wastage e.g. it maintains high standards at its national airline & airport as they're seen as inextricably linked to the country's reputation too
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Also noticed that much of the Cantonese pop we know are mainly from the 20th century & less from the 21st, maybe because its seen as less significant as the Mandarin pop industry of mainland China has grown
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Unless 1 day some of the lower-pay jobs are combined with higher-paying ones (e.g. if office staff end up having a duty roster to take turns to sweep the office floor), which I imagine might happen 1 day when more people are educated including those in developing countries that get more developed in the future, & thus less of them migrate to take on lower-wage jobs) & eventually it becomes impossible to hire any 1 for a lower-pay job
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Meanwhile somehow in Singapore the big companies are either foreign or gov't founded/linked, so they aren't as influential on gov't policy. The few private large companies here e.g. Far East Org'n, CDL, BreadTalk Group, OCBC, UOB Bank meanwhile aren't as politically vocal as companies in other countries I think
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Think many things in life have a trade-off between efficiency (that'd favour economies giving up manufacturing for services as they develop, since the latter might be more profitable per unit area of land needed) & resilience (that'd favour having a more diversified economy e.g. enacting gov't policies to retain some manufacturing even as the economy develops). Singapore also has a negligible primary industry e.g. a handful of vegetable, egg & fish farms as it was deemed less profitable per unit land area than other industries but didn't completely eliminate it probably for food security reasons (my teacher was saying that in case food imports get cut off, @ least we'll still remember how to produce our own food)
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@dylantkl As a Singaporean I also recalled a time ~10yrs ago when the country's electronics industry was in more of a doldrum, possibly because we were still making components mainly for PCs whereas it was smartphones & tablets that were become the 'in' thing then. The situation has improved though probably as the market has changed
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A challenge I forsee for S'pore is when the countries it imports petroleum from (since we don't have any of our own reserves) develop their own refinery industry/infrastructure, which might compete with S'pore's own, which are significant economic contributors e.g. Shell's refinery has been at the offshore Bukom island since the '70s. If diplomatic ties with neighbouring countries go south, our airspace, which is tiny & surrounded by theirs (e.g. we've to rent airspace from neighbouring Indonesia as the stacking pattern flown by planes landing @ our Changi Airport overfly Batam island ~20km south), could ended up being 'sieged' if neighbouring countries decide to close their airspace & cause a blockade. That'd be bad news for our airport too, which is significant in our economy also. Seletar Airport also had no flights for its 1st 3-4 months of opening as Malaysia, whose Pasir Gudang industrial estate is just 4km north of the airport, blocked the airport from upgrading to an ILS system (by rejecting flight plans filed by airlines flying to the airport)
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@Al-ng2wn Actually I think Singapore's gov't did hint that the country's reliance on foreign labour also limited how tightly it could close its borders during the pandemic, though the construction industry still took a big impact when the country banned travel from South Asian countries after a 2nd wave of infections in India mid-2021, as many workers in the industry hail from there. The gov't suggested hiring from mainland China instead, however I heard that less people there are attracted to work here as their own country has more job opportunities too now
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@Kaif08610 5 yrs only actually in Singapore (for land for housing), before the developer is charged 35% stamp duty, & they have to sell all houses by then also. With the pandemic delaying construction however, ironically now some public housing take longer than that to build. & its in more recent years that land use became more flexible here e.g. allowing buildings to be both factories & offices, or industrial land to house supermarkets/IKEA (under the Warehouse Retail Scheme (WRS)); before that there were raids on factories being used as offices. Also heard of a case where the gov't changed the law when a shopping mall (Liv@Changi) was built halfway to ban it from having eateries following nearby "residents feedback" about "traffic & noise". Which is a pity as that's the only mall in that area for the next few km (surrounded by "lower-rise" (~8 floors) condominiums), & I heard the mall is thus unable to rent out any of its shops
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