UN Human Development Index (HDI)

This is rather amazing. Singapore is the highest ranking in Asia and even on top of Hong Kong, Korea and Japan. The Human Development Report is about 'Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerability and Building Resilience'. In simple english, it is about how each countries have progressed in human-centred development. 

Singapore ($72k) is way ahead of its neighbours like Indonesia (108), Malaysia (62), Philippines (117), Thailand (89), and even China (91). Is this $72k realistic or exagerated? Well, it equals to about $6k or S$7,380 per month. A lot of graduates would have easily reach this income level in their late twenties or early thirties. Just need to look around your friends and colleagues or yourself.

So what is the make up of this ranking? Income is one of the components. Gross National Income (GNI) is only behind Qatar ($119k), Kuwait ($85k), Liechtenstein ($87k) but lagging way behind in other components like life expectancy and schooling. Looking at the progress of Singapore, it is likely this ranking will only go up.

Which insurance company covers act of war and terrorism?

Mirror mirror on the wall, which insurance company covers you during act of war? 

There's an excellent article by the Straits Times covering this and the best appears to be Prudential. They cover not just act of war but also terrorism.

NTUC travel insurances covers terrorism but not act of war and any travel against MFA travel advisory. This is not too good as you will have to check before you travel for MFA travel advisory which is troublesome. If you need to go there for work sometimes, you will be going at your own risk. Their life policies does cover terrorism but not act of war.

Great Eastern also covers terrorism but not act of war. However, it is limited to SGD100,000 per person plus a list of terror exclusion. Looks like one's rotten luck is not punished by terrorism but also by the insurance company as well.

AIA travel insurance is the worst as it doesn't cover either act of war or terrorism. Their life policies does cover act of war and terrorism.

ACE travel insurance covers terrorism but not act of war.

Well, still not too late to know for anyone folks considering picking up a life policy. It is really important to know as it is often not our choice how we die and we would want our dependents and loved ones to be covered should the unfortunate happens. With such exclusion, then it is meaningless to be covered by those insurance companies.

Levy on Singapore-registered cars

Another case of the malaysian authorities not thinking hard on the implication before acting. This could be another case of flip flop policy. Now they plan to impose a levy on Singapore-registered car not (at not more than RM50/SGD20). Well, this totally contradict their master plan to have Iskandar succeed.

1. Live in Johor and work in Singapore. I have always think that this idea is not feasible due to the inconvenience of the immigration queue. This will make it worst. That means, it will cost an additional SGD20 now per day or SGD400 per month. One can buy a bigger car in Singapore with this extra.

2. Shoppers in Johor. Imagine the impact for Singaporean shoppers if they need to folk out additional SGD20 per visit? Might erode much of their savings for shopping in Johor and cheap petrol. There are a lot of Singapore crossing the causeway daily for that purpose and especially for weekends. There are about 60,000 cars on a typical day this could be the main driver for the authorities to change their mind soon. 

3. Lower cost of Iskandar. The whole idea of having different sectors like manufacturing in Iskandar is also to get the spillover effects from Singapore based companies wanting lower cost in Malaysia. Well, now it worsen their cost advantage.

Most of the Malaysian registered vehicles entering Singapore are as a result of the heavy import of goods from Malaysia such as poultry, vegetables, fruits, etc. The flow of money goes to Malaysia. As for those Singapore registered vehicles entering Malaysia, it is for shopping. The flow of money goes to Malaysia again. This increase won't do them any favour. Sometimes, need to understand who needs who more in any relationship before making any decision or will result in a lose-lose for oneself.

Sigh, such kiddie tit-for-tat behaviour is just the worry for me when it comes to property in Malaysia. The causeway may look like this in future :)

Copying has no limits for the Chinese

Looks like the Chinese has no limits when it comes to copying. Saw this in Beijing financial street and first look it appears to be TGIF Fridays until you do a second take.

This is the real thing.

Well, on the bright side, copying is the greatest form of flattery :)

More Convention Centers in Iskandar

Another thing looking up for Iskandar is the MICE sector. International convention should be a potential for Iskandar. Many companies in Singapore or Malaysia would like to have new venues for their company functions or internal meetings. Iskandar would be rather ideal. A short distant from Singapore and yet something new. 6,600 rooms will be available by 2015 but 5,000 more is needed. A short drive around Iskandar and you will find that there is a shortage of 4-5 star hotels and that includes Johor Bahru City.

Bubble Alarm Bell for Iskandar

I am glad that there are more and more people that is raising the alarm for the oversupply of Iskandar. Now from a recent article from the Straits Times has clearly pointed that out and supported by numbers. Let me interpret in simple terms what it means. 

1. Severe oversupply.

In forth quarter last year, there were 118,191 homes under construction in Iskandar and another 168,371 planned. Johor has a population of 3.5 million as compared to Singapore of 5.3 million. However, Singapore only has about 67,000 homes under construction and another 6,000 planned as of first quarter this year. 

More development are coming up. Country garden launched 9,000 and developing a 2,000ha island called Forest City off Tuas. This is 3 times the size of Ang Mo Kio.  Guangzhou R&F princess Cove will build another 3,000 apartments by 2017. It may even launch as many as 30,000 in the end. Another 80ha of Iskandar land has been bought by Shanghai-based Greenland Group, Zhouda Real Estate Group and Hao Yuan Investment. 

2. Is there an economic boom to sustain such frenzy in real estate development?

As far as i can see now, the answer is clearly a 'no'. Of all the RM131.6 billion (S$51.5 billion) committed investments in Iskandar from 2006 to december last year, a quarter (RM33 billion) went into residential property development.  This is very strange as usually for such a frenzy to start first, there should at least be a boom in the economy. Not the other way around. Take china for example, the economy is booming as it has become a global factory over the past decades and thus the sky rocketing prices of the properties in some of the major cities. But what about Iskandar? It appears to be the other way around where they are pre-empting a boom in the local economy and building houses. Is there a gold rush such that companies around the world are rushing to setup factories or business there? Answer again is no. The gold rush is nothing but appears to be hype created by property developers to capitalize on our greed.

There was an interview that they did with a real estate agent. She said that she plans to rent out her condo and the rental demand could come not just from expatriates working in Johor but also those working in singapore who would like more space and the lifestyle in Iskandar. Well, i would say that's only wishful thinking. Firstly very few expatriates would want to live in Johor and work in Singapore. It is just too inconvenient having to cross the causeway twice daily. If they are indeed expatriates, the company will pay for the rental and why should they care? If they pay for it themselves, they are not viewed as 'expatriates' generally but just foreigners on local terms. Secondly, if they want more space and lifestyle, they wouldn't have rented a condo too but a house. Soundly as absurd as it is, people tend to believe what they want to believe so it is up to you to decide with all the supporting argument and data (more would be preferred but I think that little is already scary enough for me).

How many Singaporeans are working overseas?

Have you ever wondered how many Singaporeans are overseas? The latest number from Straits Times shows about 207,000 citizens overseas. 50,000 or 24% live and work in Australia. That's quite a substantial number. In 2003, there were only 157,100. However, this number doesn't tell you if they've given up their citizenship. On average about 1000 Singaporeans have given up their citizenship yearly. This is not a good sign for Singapore as we are already having labour shortage and yet continuing losing people. How do we balance foreign talent and labour shortage? This is one of the biggest challenges our government face now especially when the next election is coming very soon.