Monday, November 10, 2008

Why the Singapore Government should NOT saved the Marina IR

Last week, Las Vegas Sands was in the news regarding the building of the Marina Bay IR. It seems that Las Vegas Sands’ auditor in the U.S openly doubts their ability to continue building the casino, sorry resort, in Singapore.

As the world is in the midst of a global recession, I’m not surprised at this. What surprise me are the assumptions that the Singapore Government will step in to save the project if Las Vegas Sands cannot finish the project. Las Vegas Sands hinted as much in their press conference and as there has been no objection from the Singapore government yet, I think we can safely assume that this will be the case.

First off, I have to ask why the Singapore Government is even considering bailing out the project. The Marina Bay area is one of 2 IR projects ongoing. We have another project on Sentosa and that is going well. Why should the Singapore Government saved the project when there is another project just like it still ongoing?

Second, Las Vegas Sands is an American company. If the Singapore Government wants to start bailing out companies and their projects, they should start by bailing out Singapore companies first! Already, there is 1 Singapore company who has been affected by the global credit crunch, but I never heard of the Singapore Government coming in to save it. Why should the Singapore Government use Singapore taxpayer’s money to save a project by an American company?

Third, if I am not mistaken, the Singapore Government has a stake in the IR as well. Now most Singaporeans will say that this is the reason why the Singapore Government will step in to save the project, I say this is the reason why the Singapore Government should NOT save the project. As a stakeholder in the project, it will not be right for the Singapore Government to save its own project. It will be the left hand giving money to the right hand, and this will hurt Singapore’s reputation.

For these reasons, I feel that this is why the Singapore Government should NOT saved the project.

8 comments:

Daniel Ling said...

Hi, although i agree partly. But sincerely there's other concerns.

1) If the project failed before it started, i would feel dun bother saving it.

2) Since the project already started, sincerely there's already money pumped in, and by bailing it out, there's a possibility to save it which leads to pt 3

3) Once the project, there will be more jobs, more money, etc. (SGean take up a not i do not noe)

Basically sincerely, i do hope tat once the project is completed, it will really be better.

Sincerely i hope so.

Seelan Palay said...

Good analysis, friend :)

Anonymous said...

They already used taxpayer's money to bail out troubled banks in the West, so I am not surprise they will do the same with the IR, if failure is imminent. Singapore boleh lah!

Ghost said...

The condition now is different from when the project was first approved. Less tourists are expected to come to Singapore in the near future due to the global slowdown and as such I fear saving the IR may not create jobs but turn into a white elephant for Singapore.

market2garden said...

The situation is similar to USA financial crisis, regardless of right or wrong reason, the casino project is TOO BIG, failure is disastrous, so .........., save or not to save, that's the question, or there's only one way to do it?

Anonymous said...

Sorry but I have to disagree. Why is the casino project too big to fail when it haven't even been finished yet? Even if it is finished, it may not be a success.

Anonymous said...

Whether Singaporean like it or not, the gov is going to save the casino project. People seem to forget that there is such thing call third-party which doesn't require government direct Intervention. The third-party is directly link to the government, and no, the government claim no control over the entity, so to speak. Did people forget our Temasek Holding and GIC that run indpendent of the government even though they are using our taxmoney for gamble ? Recall the use of thirdparty in ShinCorpse saga where billions of taxmoney is lost and move on ?

Well. Take this call and the gov is going to directly to bail the casino project indirectly through Temasek Holding. Capital Land ? Isn't that GLC as well ? So what the difference. There are thousand of ways to screw the citizen, and it doesn't matter which way as long as it leads to Rome.

Anonymous said...

Building the IR is absolutely neccessary! Without a doubt!

The Town consealed leaders have lost money in Lemon Brother invesments, and they need to recover the money, on paper.

The IR will provide a legal outlet, in the Singapore context, to reinvest the funds. Perhaps 20-60% of the funds will be randomly distributed and invested on the 1000 new tables as RE-INVESTMENT FUNDS. This random distributions will reduce risk of complete lost of funds in the first round.

Imagine, how much the people will reap if any one of the investments STRIKE the right bet. Investments have risks, and such risks are carefully calculated risks.

Those who lost in the Lemon Brother sega will have a chance to get even. They are afterall, the elites.

What if all funds are lost? Well, dont forget, just increase consealed tax from $60 to $120. This will solve the issues.

The overhead to run a flat is not that expensive. One Bangala paid $400 or less a month to clean/sweep at least 2 blocks of flats per month. Free flowing water from Malaysia to flush the common corridoors, car parks, and etc. No issues.

Expect Town elite members to raise tax to $120 to $220 region in times of 'dire needs' but the people mush 'work together to pull everyone out of the situation'.