Interview Related Work- Suggest Three Govt Policiesto Change

1. Biomedical Research Policy: Singapore is trying to create a world class biomedical research environment from scratch. In particular, AStar has spent a few billion dollars building research facilities, attracting prominent scientists and training local students into researchers at foreign universities. The risks are high and the long term returns are very uncertain. Singapore, with a 4.5 million population probably does not have a ready supply of research talent to form the critical mass needed for a biomedical hub.

The United States has a huge number of cheap, talented and highly-motivated graduate students contributing to its research output on a sustainable basis. In Singapore, AStar has to spend close to one million dollars to train one graduate student at tax-payers' expense. It is not entirely clear how this process is cost-efficient and sustainable. Moreover, there are huge disagreements among experts as to whether the focus of research is appropriate. For instance, Dr Lee Wei Ling and Mr Philip Yeo hold strongly opposing views. Reasonable people disagree, because the very nature of research entails an uncertain, future outcome that is very difficult to account for.

At the same time, huge sums of research grants are given to attract prominent scientists and researchers. It is interesting to find out how much consideration is given to the merit of the research proposal as opposed to a publicity stunt. Research grants to promising young researchers seem to be more efficient than Nobel Prize, tenured professors passed their prime. The assumption is that these "whales" will attract other young and bright researchers, which remains unproven. Moreover, there is nothing to stop these researchers from leaving when the grants run out. More importantly, even if AStar succeeds as a research hub, do we have an existing mechanism to translate medical research into commercial gains? Hopefully, Singapore would not have MBA- Biomedical scholarships!

If the biomedical research policy in Singapore has become too large to fail, one way to make it more cost-efficient is to expand on our local universities' research output. Rather strangely, AStar is built from scratch rather than an extension from local universities. The rationale is that there is there is a certain synergy between research conducted by universities and biomedical laboratories. In terms of incentive effect, graduate students will be driven to do good research under a strong culture of mentorship. The existing setup in AStar does not seem to have this strong culture of mentorship.The idea is that principal investigator of the research team should see his role as an educator rather than a producer of research in order for this whole biomedical research enterprise to be sustainable. Moreover, there seems to be more collaboration between foreign universities and AStar. A huge factor is that research laboratories in foreign universities readily accept Singaporean students since they are "free" research workers at Singaporean taxpayers' expense. If this expenditure is channeled to our local universities, the overall research capabilities would increase and become more sustainable. More importantly, biomedical research knowledge and capabilities are retained locally. At the very least, the physical research infrastructure of local institutions will be upgraded as a result.

2. Preparing for an Ageing Society: Singapore is rapidly becoming an ageing society. The aged in Singapore (assumed to be 60 years and above) will increase from 8% in 1990 to around 26% in 2030. This would cause serious, structural problems in Singapore such as falling labor force participation rate, falling tax base, rising social and welfare costs etc. Hitherto, there have been separate policies such as the purchase of annuities, encouragement of foreign immigrants to mitigate the impact of this demographic challenge. However, a comprehensive blueprint is missing. It seems that a concerted and comprehensive blueprint to consider all aspects of this demographic challenge will be beneficial.

It is difficult to recommend improvements since the full extent of this problem has not been recognized and identified. But there is an exigent need to deal with this as soon as possible. The rationale is that older voters may form political blocs and push for policies in their best interests. There needs to be more discussions and a consensus on the contributions of different segments of society to elderly care. For instance, in Japan, the premiums of the Long Term Insurance Care program for elderly care is paid roughly in equal proportions between the state and national governments and people who are aged 40 or older. It is very difficult politically for the Japanese government to cut back on this expenditure or increase the financial burden of the aged without losing significant support. In Singapore, at a starter, the minimum sum and the CPF retirement age should be raised to account for the longer working life of Singaporeans.

3. Implementation of Petrol Tax in Singapore: Currently, there are only excise tax and GST on petrol and diesel in Singapore. There are many benefits of implementing petrol tax in Singapore. It is a new source of tax revenue for Singapore, thus giving the government room to cut income tax which encourages savings and investment. The tax burden will fall on car owners, who are likely to be better off than the average Singaporean. It accounts for the negative externalities associated with driving (congestion, health related problems.) It is another tool for MOT to shift commuters to use public transport away from cars. It is consistent with the existing government approach to make commuters pay more for car usage than car ownership. It reduces the need to raise ERP, thus reducing political costs. It helps to promote Singapore as a green, garden city.