Up Close with Lee Kuan Yew by Up Close & Lee Kuan Yew

Author:Up Close & Lee Kuan Yew
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789814721523
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish Editions

STEPHEN LEE

President, Singapore National Employers Federation, 1988–2014

I do what I advise others to do! But everyone is entitled to a treat every now and then.

– Lee Kuan Yew

I first met Mr Lee in 1981. He was then Prime Minister, chairing a meeting of senior executives to discuss productivity concerns. Later that year, he devoted a large segment of the National Day Rally speech to productivity, taking into account the feedback we had given him. Apart from that, I did not have much interaction with Mr Lee early in my working career. My distant impression of him was that he was stern but focused.

The first time I had a one-on-one discussion with him was in the mid-1990s when I was a Nominated Member of Parliament. He was then Senior Minister. I had chanced upon him sitting by himself in the members’ room in Parliament House and took the opportunity to speak with him. We talked about the retirement age, which at that time was 55 and how that could be extended. We also discussed the concerns of employers. Mr Lee was interested to see Singaporeans working longer to supplement their income for retirement.

He was firm on moving ahead. One of his considerations was the unfavourable demographics. Twenty years ago, we had a younger population, but already he could see that the birth rate was declining and that it would be a matter of time before we had to extend the retirement age. He was far ahead and was already thinking of a retirement age beyond 60. Today, it is 62, with re-employment to 65, soon to be 67, 1 and perhaps beyond 67 in the future.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.