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Old 23-04-2011, 12:20 AM   #21
ymmij
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Default How much of our National Reserves are really left?

How much of our National Reserves are really left?
April 22nd, 2011 | Author: Contributions

Let’s recall back in 1993 when our ex-president Ong Teng Cheong had asked parliament how much is our national reserves, the reply he received was that it will take 56 man hours to produce a dollar and cents value of the immovable assets

Not only was the PAP government displeased with the question but obviously they took it personally and even went to the extent of depriving him a state funeral when he died in 2002 even though he was a Singapore president.
Fast foward to 2010 and Singapore is currently ranked no 9 on the list of Public Debt by Countries -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...by_public_debt
ranked by the CIA world factbook.

FYI from CIA world factbook: for Singapore, public debt consists largely of Singapore Government Securities (SGS) issued to assist the Central Provident Fund (CPF), which administers Singapore’s defined contribution pension fund; special issues of SGS are held by the CPF, and are non-tradeable;

Which simply means that the Singapore government borrows our money from the CPF by selling Singapore Government Securities to the CPF board.

What is more suspicious is the retirement age to get the CPF in cash, has been moved from 55 to 62 and even proposed to be raised to 65, not mentioning the minimum sum policies that were put up to further limit the cash we should be getting from our own money and to top it all up, the Special Accounts and Medisave Accounts interest rates would be reduced or be left to fluctuate according to CPF board instead of the stable 4% before the 31st Dec 2011.

http://mycpf.cpf.gov.sg/Members/Gen-.../Int-Rates.htm
As announced on 20 September 2010, the Government will maintain the 4% p.a. minimum rate for interest earned on all Special and Medisave Accounts (SMA) and Retirement Account (RA) monies until 31 December 2011. Thereafter, interest rates on all CPF account monies will be subject to a minimum rate of 2.5% p.a.

Taking into account the inflation rate we are experiencing for the past 40 plus years which has been 2.73% yoy and the inflation rate which in 2011 itself is around 5% and rising further.
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/Econ...spx?symbol=SGY

Would this not mean that we are being shortchanged on our CPF money when we finally get to draw out the cash at retirement age, as our Ordinary Account interest rates are only 2.5%?

Imagine getting $1 today which could afford you to buy a can of coke and compare it to getting it a year later when the can of coke costs $1.05 because of inflation at 5% and you could not afford it anymore.

Now take the above scenario happening to hundreds of thousands of dollars of your CPF money.
This would mean that the money in your CPF account is being devalued overtime even as you are sitting down and reading this article here.

By the time you retire and receive the cash, it would not only be of much lesser value, as compared to the value it has today but also, you would have lost so many opportunities because the money had been sitting in your CPF account devaluing itself via inflation.

Not to mention the government is trying to limit the amount of cash you could receive at retirement age with the minimum sum policies
and the ever rising retirement age which altogether diminishes any opportunity for you to drastically change or improve your life in any way.

Lastly, we should also consider the rising HDB prices, could this be part of a plan to leave Singaporeans with lesser lump sum cash for their retirement?


So what could be the reason, the government is trying hard to shortchange us on our CPF money?

For this question we have to take the countless failure and investment mistakes the GICs and Temasek holdings has been able to keep a secret from us
so far. As we all know such information is not made available to the general public.

http://www.temasekholdings.com.sg/media_centre_faq.htm
Temasek has been granted the status of an exempt private company. As an exempt private company, we are not required to disclose financial information.

But we could bring out some questionable transactions that Temasek Holdings had executed such as the sale of our power plants since 2008
http://www.temasekholdings.com.sg/me...eases_2008.htm
1.Temasek successfully completes divestment of Tuas Power – Power genco sold to China Huaneng Group for S$4.235 billion
2.Temasek sells Senoko Power to Japanese consortium-Power genco sold to Marubeni-led Lion Power consortium for an enterprise value of about S$4.0 billion
3.Temasek sells PowerSeraya to YTL Power International for an enterprise value of S$3.8 billion

So why are our national assets being sold to foreign entities or a portion of it sold off to them, one by one?

I am sure our telecommunication industries were one of the first to go. Next maybe could it be our national education or how about our transportation companies?
Will SMRT etc be the next target and how about our national healthcare system?

It is already getting itself ready by changing itself into a corporation called NHG.
We have heard ministers echoing that our medisave accounts will not be enough to cover our hospital expenses and medical needs in the future and we might need some kind of safety net in terms of private insurance, right?
Will this mean that our hospitals and polyclinics are to be privatised and sold away too and instead of just relying on our medisave accounts to suffice for our medical needs, we would need to qualify for private insurance because medical costs goes sky high after privatisation and sold to foreign entities that are out to maximise profits.

Just like how we are suffering from higher electricity bills as our power plants were sold to foreign entities.

What is next on line on the Great Singapore Sale? God forbid that our HDB too becomes a target later!

So let us put the facts together now,

No 1. We are ranked 9 in the world on the list of countries by public debt. Public debt meaning the CPF money that the government owes to us.

No 2. The government trying very hard to shortchange us via our CPF

a) by handing us our money much later, making us lose opportunities (by raising retirement age),

b) letting the money devalue itself via inflation (inflation higher than OA interest rates and revision of OS and Medisave interest rates)

c) handing us lesser cash when we really reach the retirement age (minimum sum policies)

d) Lastly raising the prices of new HDB flats which were built by the government for its citizens (so that the citizens have lesser cash at retirement since the HDB flat takes a huge portion of their CPF funds)

No 3. Selling of our national assets such as our power plants etc.

So, could we the assume that our sovereign funds/CPF or national reserves had been majorly affected via Temasek Holdings and the GICs investment mistakes?

I believe a search on the net would surface thousands of reports regarding Temasek and GICs investment failures, which are all over the financial news.

Thus our CPF money had been squandered away through these investment failures?
Whatever it is, we need transparency and accountability immediately, on our CPF/Sovereign Fund and all our national reserves to be declared and made known to the citizens.

Plus also the government to stop shortchanging us on our CPF and proof to us that all the money is there and we are be able to access it at any age to avoid any “opportunity lost” or chance of it being devalued via inflation.

Finance 101 “Dollar receive today cost more than a dollar receive tomorrow” and “Cash is King, not credits, cpf figures or account balances”
.

Joseph Lee of Marsiling
http://www.temasekreview.com/2011/04...e-really-left/
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Old 23-04-2011, 12:26 AM   #22
KAO LUO
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haizz.. wu PAP kong bo lang kong ...........
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Old 23-04-2011, 12:33 AM   #23
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Originally Posted by KAO LUO View Post
haizz.. wu PAP kong bo lang kong ...........

they voice up we need to listen...we voice up they give us a lot of excuses...
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Old 23-04-2011, 12:35 AM   #24
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Originally Posted by kool View Post
they voice up we need to listen...we voice up they give us a lot of excuses...
ha This call power .............
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Old 23-04-2011, 12:38 AM   #25
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Originally Posted by KAO LUO View Post
ha This call power .............
who give them power?
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Old 23-04-2011, 12:40 AM   #26
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who give them power?
singapore lang lor ..................... after they use power back to singapore lang
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Old 23-04-2011, 12:46 AM   #27
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Ha... u 2 one sing and the other play guitar ar?... Ha...
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Old 23-04-2011, 12:52 AM   #28
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Ha... u 2 one sing and the other play guitar ar?... Ha...
BB arrr .. just wake up liao ..... see this time spore lang can wake up bo
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Old 23-04-2011, 12:55 AM   #29
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BB arrr .. just wake up liao ..... see this time spore lang can wake up bo
This time must sing Wake up for singaporean make the right decision...
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Old 23-04-2011, 12:57 AM   #30
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Still cannot wake up can jump block liao... or make plans to move at least 30 km away from singapore liao. Ha...
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