China's Economy - George

China and Singapore are closely linked in many ways and you can say that Singapore relies on China and vice versa, for example, there are a lot of people in Singapore that invests in China, and if the economy in a China grows, trading partners in Singapore would also prosper. China also manufactures most of our products and also provides a lot of raw material, thus, without the support or buys, we would not be able to reach as we are now today, and we would not progress into a first world country with a great economy with such speed.

China's Economy -Ya Wen

In the previous CID lesson, we learnt about the main factors of China's economic growth. China's socialist market economy is the world's second largest economy by nominal GDP (Gross Domestic Product). It is the world's fastest growing major economy, with growth rates averaging 10% over the past 30 years. However, it is also ranked 4th in the world in terms of GDP per capita. This means that the income gap between the rich and the poor is widening. China has one of the lowest corporate tax rate in the world but this attracts foreign investors to do business in it. This has also been of paramount importance to China to accumulate huge levels of growth in its economy. 

China is now at the centre of the region’s growth story. Looking around us, many of the objects we see now are exported from China, and this shows how important China is to us as a trading partner. In other words, this means that Singapore’s overall economy could also suffer if China’s moderating economic growth results slowdowns. It would be prudent to keep an eye on events in China as Singapore's prosperity would most probably be affected, more or less, if there is sluggish growth in China's economy.

China's Economy-Josiah

China's economic growth

By opening up their country,China would be more prosperous as more countries will have business ties with her. Due to China's population,cheap labour which makes mass production possible, China can afford to have cheaper products and more countries will trade with China as the prices are lower thus China will be more prosperous with increase trade. The tax rates in China is also relatively lower,this attracts foreign investors to China setting up their business in China which indirectly benefits the country as China would be more developed. Their exchange rates also makes trading with China more worthwhile as traders can buy goods at a lower price before selling it at their own currency thus lowering the capital cost. In China itself,because of this growth more people will have jobs due to more foreign traders setting up factories,standard of living also increases as people are more well off. This growth also leads to negative impacts, more factories will result in pollution of air water and even the noise. There will also be increase in income inequality as income gap between cheap labourers and wealthy businessmen would be greater as not everyone has an equal opportunity in this growth. China's economical growth would also attract Singapore as the goods are also cheap,due to the income inequality more people might also migrate to singapore to look for better opportunities.

China's Economy- Emma

China's economy growth and implications on Singapore

In our previous CID lesson we looked into China's rapid increasing growth of economy and also the many reasons for its success. There are mainly three reasons for the rapid growth of China's economy. Firstly, China has one of the lowest corporate tax rate of 25% as compared to many other developing and trading countries. With this low tax rate, it attracts many foreign investors to conduct business with China as they can save a huge sum of money from the tax and can use the money saved for other purchases. Secondly, China has many massive lands available, thus they can build more factories to produce more goods. Adding on to that, the third reason is that China has a huge population of 1.4 billion. There will be no lack of manpower and cheap labour will attract foreign businessman. Thus they have more manpower to work in factories and produce more goods more efficiently and faster. With this mass production, it saves time and effort thus allowing businessman to profit more. 

I find that China's economic growth will continue to develop further and increase more rapidly in the future. Thus I find that Singapore should start trading more with them for imported goods. I find that we should also maintain a good and friendly relationship with China as we continue to work and trade with them. As China develops even more, many goods are made or produced there, in order for the goods to be obtained, it needs to be imported and we will be able to use it. If we do not maintain a good relationship or partnership with them, our variety of goods will be hard to get in the future. I hope that we can also learn from China to become a better nation at trade so as to attract foreign businessmen to trade with us too. We should also collaborate more with China in order to keep up with the developing changes around the world.

China economy- Xinhui

China economy is very good. However, due to its huge population, the gross income for every person is very low. Because manpower in china can be easily sought after at a low cost with china's population, investers go to China to build factories and manufacture goods. Other than the manpower, th land in China is vast and is cheaper compared to countries in Singapore. Tax rates are very low also. However, despite china economy, many people are suffering because they gross income for every person is very low, and thus many people do not have enough in China. The rich and poor gap is ever widening because of this.

1 Child Policy- George

Reflection(26/1/2015)

If the population in Singapore continue to decline, even though our economy will rise and more attention and funds would be diverted to us, there would be a severe manpower shortage, and even more foreign talents would be in Singapore. And many of our generation would not want to continue old traditions in Singapore such as good hawker food, and there would be lack of local talents. If the death rate is much higher than the birth rate, Singapore would face a lot of troubles, mostly manpower shortage. But the plus side is that it won't be too overcrowded on the little Red Dot. And transportation and studies would be easier and more relaxed. There are many negatives sides, as when the Older Generation leaves, we would lack the "Singapore Kampong" spirit? Due to too many young teenagers, (and even young babies at the age of 2) using their electronic devices, there is a lack of communication and our social skills would decrease.

1 child Policy - Ya Wen

Reflection(26/1/2015)

Singapore Government is using all ways and means to encourage Singaporeans to give birth to more babies. Many young couples nowadays are not in favour of the idea of giving birth to children with many excuses. For example, some of them would say they want to be successful in their career and having a child would be a stepping stone to fulfilling their dreams. Others plainly just do not want the hassle of raising a child. With this, the birth rate in Singapore greatly decreases. On the other hand, more and more people are aging and dying. This is the main reason for the decrease in population size in Singapore. Having seen that, the government is now encouraging couples to bare a child using methods such as the baby bonus we have now. The one child policy doesn't seem to have any effect in Singapore as many people here are always ready to showcase their talent but with more than 1.3 billion people (1,336,718,015 as of mid-2011), Chinese leader Deng Xiao Ping created this one child policy to temporarily limit communist China's population growth. It is said that this one child policy not only limits the population growth, it also helps to nurture more children to become young talents in China. With only on child in the family, parents would most likely focus solely on this child and provide him with the best education, to best tuition, and the best of everything to him, thus nurturing the child in the best way one can ever recieve. However, I think this isn't a very good strategy as children would be very stress under the full attention of their parents and the chances of them rebelling to stray into the bad path becomes higher. This would also increase competition in the country itself and unhappiness of the citizens would increase. Thus, I do not approve of the one child policy despite its advantages stated. 

1 child policy- Emma

Reflection(26/1/2015)

During the previous CID lesson we learnt about China's "one child policy" the policy was introduced in 1979 to alleviate social, economic and environmental problems in China. It is beneficial and effective for their country but it is a complete opposite situation compared to our country.With the dwindling population growth of Singapore, the following generation will have even lesser birth rates, causing the Singapore population to decrease. Many couples have only one or two children and some do not wish to give birth at all. It is really worrying as the child needs to take up a lot of responsibility as an only child to support his/her parents. The manpower in Singapore will also decrease as there are too few people talents and thus the government needs to hire foreign talent. Thus in conclusion we need to increase Singapore's birth rate in order to help the society's development. We must also ensure that the number of death rates are not too high as we still need the pioneer generation to help aid with assisting the current generation and helping them to follow in their footsteps, making it a cycle to assist our next generation. We must also encourage couples to give birth, increasing the birth rates. Through all these efforts we can become a better nation.