When I heard Singapore’s Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry S Iswaran say that the Singapore government will not bail out the Marina Bay Sands IR, I was delighted. (See my post 2 days ago on my feelings on this)
However I was too fast in my happiness. Upon further reading of the news, I saw that Mr Iswaran put in a useful disclaimer. He said that he cannot rule out government-linked companies, which are commercial entities, saving the project if “it makes business sense to do so”.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at this. This is exactly my third point 2 days ago; the left hand giving money to the right hand. Does the Singapore government truly believe that Singapore’s reputation will not suffer if government-linked companies enter to save the IR? Now if that happen, the Singapore government will then go and announced that they did not use Singapore’s taxpayers’ money to save an American firm.
The question is this, “Who will believe you?”
I know I won’t.
2 comments:
It gets worse. It's not just GLCs like Capitaland. There's talk of Temasek also entering the fray. If GIC, which manages our reserves, pumps in billions to save the PAP's 'face', will that also not be considered a govt bailout?
As long as ANY gov-linked entities enter to help Las Sands, the impression will be that it is a bailout. No matter what the Singapore gov says
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