Blog Posts by Fann Sim

Raising productivity is more important than ever in Singapore's maturing economy as it faces land and manpower limits, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Monday.

In his May Day message, PM Lee said the government has been moderating the inflow of foreign workers. By having a tighter grip on foreign workers, wages will be pushed up in the short term. However, this may hold back many companies that are eager to expand but cannot find enough workers.

He warned that it is "dangerous to assume complacently that wages can continue to rise indefinitely, just by our squeezing on foreign workers."

"Higher wages push up business costs, affect our competitiveness, and may cause higher inflation," he said.

Instead, Singaporeans can raise their productivity to sustain better wages and higher real living standards said PM Lee.

"Raising our productivity will benefit workers, firms, and our economy as a whole. Workers can earn more in higher-quality jobs. Firms can prosper and
expand their businesses

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[UPDATE: 24 March at 12:15pm - adding more details]

A woman has been arrested for staging a protest on top of Crawford Bridge in Kallang on Friday evening.

The 59-year-old woman was carrying a banner and wearing a cape-like garment that looked like the Hong Kong flag. Police told Yahoo! Singapore that the woman was subsequently arrested as she was believed to be of unsound mind.

The Straits Times reported that the woman is a Hong Kong national who had overstayed in Singapore after her social visit pass expired.

The daily added that her banner, which was handmade, contained a message in Chinese that conveyed an anti-authoritarian sentiment.

She also reportedly said she was royalty, and had been mistreated.

Juon Tan, a project manager working near the area, told Yahoo! Singapore that he saw the woman standing on top of the arch at Crawford Bridge from his office's balcony at about 4:50pm.

"She was quiet, just holding on to a banner. She was sitting down and standing up at times to catch Read More »from Woman stages protest on top of Crawford Bridge

Public transport operators SBS Transit and SMRT have improved 22 bus services in the last three months, said Land Transport Authority (LTA).

In an ongoing quarterly review, LTA found that both PTOs have made improvements such as deploying higher capacity buses or adding more bus trips to increase frequency and capacity along sectors that experience consistent heavy ridership.

SBS Transit has added more bus trips to bus services 7, 36, 57, 98 and 109 and deployed more double-decker buses during the morning and evening peak periods on services 6, 43, 45, 98, 197, 85 and 334.

25-year-old student Edmund Chia felt that the double-decker buses on 334 are a good improvement since this bus passes through many neighbourhoods and is always crowded when departing from Jurong East Interchange.

“Even though it will save me five to 10 minutes of walking, I don’t take it because it’s so crowded. Ever since I can remember, 334 has always been single and very crowded,” said Chia.

Additional bus trips and

Read More »from Improvement in 22 bus services, 180 trips added weekly: LTA

From 2013 onwards, employers are required to give their foreign domestic workers a mandatory weekly off day. (Yahoo! file photo)

Foreign domestic workers (FDW) will now enjoy at least one rest day every week, under a new law announced in Parliament on Monday.

The new ruling will require a weekly rest day for FDWs, while providing employers the flexibility to compensate their FDWs with extra pay should the worker agrees to work on their rest day, said Minister of State for Manpower and National Development Tan Chuan-jin.

For each rest day forgone, the FDW shall be compensated with at least one day's wage on top of her monthly salary. One day's wage is calculated by dividing the monthly wage by 26 working days.

Instead of monetary compensation, employers can also give FDWs a replacement rest day, but it should fall within the same month as the rest day forgone.

For those such as the elderly who are unable to give their FDWs frequent off days may apply for the monthly FDW Grant of $120. This FDW Grant is over and above the existing FDW Levy Concession of $95 per month for households with elderly.

"A weekly rest

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The 2011 GCE A-Level results were released on Friday. (Yahoo! file photo)

Nine students obtained nine distinctions from 13 academic units for the 2011 Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education Advanced Level (GCE 'A' level) examination.

The students are from Raffles Institution (RI), Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) and River Valley High School (RVHS).

RI's top students were He Zhiyuan, Jin Chentian, Khoo Jia Hui, Raghunathan Adithya, Tiffany Seah and Zhang Mengshi.

Toh Yong Hui Desmond and Khor Shi-Jie were HCI's top achievers while RVHS produced one national top scorer, Soh Zhi Liang.

90.8 per cent of the 14,262 school candidates achieved at least 3 H2 passes, with a pass in General Paper or Knowledge and Inquiry at the 2011 GCE 'A' level examination. The passing rate is the same to the year before.

Read More »from A-level results: 9 students achieve 9 distinctions

Fishes smell sugar as danger, a study revealed. (Getty Images)

New research has revealed how fish are alerted to potential danger -- through the smell of sugar.

A group of scientists from the Agency of Science, Technology and Research's Neuroscience Research Partnership and the Duke-National University of Singapore (Duke-NUS) Graduate Medical school have figured out the nature of "Schreckstoff" -- which causes the rest of a school of fish to take off in fear when one member gets injured. (German for alarm substance or scary stuff).

They found that one component of the alarm substance is a class of sugars — specifically a type of glycosoaminoglycan (GAG) called chondroitin sulfate.

When a fish is injured, it causes the breakdown of this sugar, which is found in abundance in the skin, and it is the fragments that cause the fear response.

Using brain imaging to see how alarm signals are processed in a fish's brain, scientists discovered that one region in the olfactory bulb -- part of the brain which first processes smell -- is activated by the

Read More »from Sugar smells like danger to fish: S'pore scientists

Yaw Shin Leong has officially vacated his Parliament seat. (Yahoo! file photo)

Former Workers' Party (WP) member Yaw Shin Leong will no longer represent Hougang as a Member of Parliament (MP) and has left his Parliament seat.

This announcement was made in Parliament on Tuesday by Speaker of Parliament Michael Palmer, who told the house that Yaw will not appeal against his expulsion from the Workers' Party, Channel NewsAsia reported.

Yaw had informed the Clerk of Parliament of his decision via email on 20 February, CNA said.

On 14 February, WP announced Yaw's expulsion for failing to account to party leaders allegations related to his private life. Following WP's announcement, Palmer announced during parliamentary sitting on 17 February that Yaw will have to inform the parliament of his appeal in a weeks' time.

Under the Constitution, once an elected MP ceases to be a member of, or is expelled or resigned from the political party for which he stood in an election, the seat shall become vacant.

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Read More »from Yaw Shin Leong has vacated his parliament seat: Michael Palmer

LTA will improve roads in the northern part of Singapore for better connectivity. (Yahoo! file photo)

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will embark on two new road projects to improve overall road connectivity and capacity in this area.

LTA will expand the existing interchange that connects Central Expressway (CTE), Tampines Expressway (TPE) and Seletar Expressway (SLE) to improve connectivity between Yishun Town, the new Seletar Aerospace Park (SAP) and the expressway network.

As part of this expansion project, four new vehicular flyovers will be constructed.

In addition, five new road connections will also be created to improve the connectivity between the expressway and the road network namely:

(i) From Seletar West Link to CTE;

(ii) From CTE to Seletar West Link;

(iii) From Seletar West Link to Yio Chu Kang Road;

(iv) From Yio Chu Kang Road to Seletar West Link; and

(v) From TPE (Westbound) to Seletar West Link

A new road will also be built between TPE and Yishun Avenue 6.

As part of this new road link, a new dual two-lane road will be constructed between Yishun Avenue 6 and 1

Read More »from Road projects for better connectivity in Northern Singapore