Blog Posts by Elena Torrijos

  • COE prices drop across-the-board

    By Elena Torrijos | Yahoo! Newsroom – Wed, May 23, 2012

    Big cars led the decline in prices of certificates of entitlement (COEs) across-the-board on Wednesday.

    In the bidding exercise, the price in the big car category dropped S$6,834 to S$85,216.

    The COE price for small cars and taxis decreased S$4,599 to S$58,8001.

    In the open category, which is for any vehicle type though usually it is used for bigger cars, the price fell by S$2,101 to S$86,889.

    The premium for commercial vehicle closed S$1,447 lower to S$57,106, while that of motorcycles went down S$131 to S$1,890.

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  • New foreign labour curbs to make bad situation worse: SMEs on Budget

    By Elena Torrijos | SingaporeScene – Mon, Feb 20, 2012

    Workers cross the road in the central business district of Singapore in 2011. (AFP photo)Workers cross the road in the central business district of Singapore in 2011. (AFP photo)

    UPDATED (7:10pm, 20 Feb. Corrected third paragraph to say cap will be brought down to 60 per cent, not 50 per cent for manufacturing sector)

    Small and medium enterprises expect hiring people will become even harder than it is now amid the tight labour market after the government announced measures to curb the inflow of foreign workers.

    In unveiling measures to help Singaporeans in the government's budget for 2012, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said that to reduce the country's dependence on foreign labour, the ratio of foreigners workers companies can employ will be lowered starting from July this year.

    The cap for the manufacturing sector will be brought down to 60 per cent from 65 per cent. For the services sector, the maximum share of foreign workers will be cut to 45 per cent from 50 per cent.

    "As it is currently, SMEs are already having some problems... in terms of getting labour, so lowering the dependency ratio (ceiling) would not really help the situation," said Ang

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