High prices in Singapore

Dear Mr TAN
The prices of electrical and electronic engineering products and falling by the day reflecting the advent of sciences and technology, increasing scale of economy, reducing labour cost from cheap foreign labour, falling cost of capital, intensive competition and the substitution of labour with automation.

But the prices of financial services are rising significantly by the day, despite the advent of information technology, ATM humanless banking, increasing scale of economy, reducing labour cost from cheap foreign labour, falling cost of capital, intensive competition and e-documentation.

Is it NOT cheaper NOW to issue and process a bank draft or money order?
Is it NOT cheaper NOW to issue and maintain an insurance policy?

Also, there is a significant management failure in the efficacy, efficiency, economy of distribution cost in Singapore.

Examples: The exact same box of Nestle ice cream is sold in JB supermart at RM5.05 but it is sold in Singapore supermart at S$5.05. The exact same bottle of Narcissus rice wine is sold in Shenzhen China at RMB5.00 but it is sold in Singapore supermart at S$5.00.

Same Air, Train and Bus return trip tickets are sold in Malaysia at RM but in Singapore at S$.

Why are hawker stores NOT restricted to owner operators and instead, there is an intermediary sub-store landlord to increase the cost of operations. Please advise WHAT and WHERE distribution management had gone WRONG.

Thanks & regards
T E O

FISCA - Choosing the people

I do not choose the people to join the FISCA committee. They will be elected by the members.

For the protem committee, I only managed to get sufficient people to sign to get FISCA started. Some of them may not wish to be in the limelight.

The FISCA committee will be elected by the members. They will not be chosen by Tan Kin Lian. But I will do my best to encourage people of integrity to step forward. It is difficult to know if someone has integrity, unless one works with that person. More importantly, we should set certain principles for people to abide by.

I hope that members of FISCA knows that they can play a part in building an organisation that is strong, and run by people of integrity. Do not expert other people to carry this burden for you. This burden has to be shared.

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Mecca - for Muslims only

I wanted to visit Mecca. My friend said that this not possible. Mecca can only be visited by Muslims. This is posted in large signs along the road to Mecca.

I have a guide book that explains the rites of Hajj, Umrah, Ihram, Tawaf, Sai, etc. It was quite educational.

Shopping in Jeddah at midnight

I went to the Balad (old town) at midnight. The roads are congested. Many people travelled at night in Jeddah. Night becomes like day in the hot summer.

The streets at Balad is busy and crowded. I enjoyed the architecture of the old buildings. The windows are constructed with thin strips of wood allowing the women to look out into the streets, without being seen. My friend said that the roads in Cairo Egypt also have similar structures.

I left the souk (market) close to 2 AM. That is the time that most shops close in Jeddah during Ramadan.

FISCA Committee

Someone expressed the concern that the FISCA committee may include people working for the banks. He had his money burnt through the Mini-bond and does not trust people anymore (including FISCA).

There is no need for this worry. The people from the banks will not be interested to sit in the FISCA committee. Even if they personally support the aims of FISCA, they will not dare to be involved (for the sake of their jobs). Similarly, most financial advisers are not likely to support or be involved with FISCA.

At present, we only have a protem committee in FISCA, and some of these members do not wish to be in the limelight. This is a temporary situation. FISCA will have to call an election. The profile of the elected Committee members will be put up in the website after the election.

FISCA will have the other challenge. How to get the financial experts to be involved in the work. Do not think that all this information can drop easily from the sky. Consumers should support FISCA now, if they do not wish to see their money burnt again in the future.

Tan Kin Lian