Singapura! Singapore Part III

Day 03 (19 March 2008)

My classmates and I had two visits today. The first one was a visit to the IMF-Singapore Regional Training Centre - a dedicated centre for upgrading and enhancing the knowledge and skills in ensuring the stability of financial systems in this region.

During the Q&A session, I dropped a bomb to one of the speakers on the shortcomings of the report for the Article IV Consultation. While the Director of the Centre himself agreed to the limitations that I've mentioned, he, however, insisted that the host countries need to be more transparent and cooperative.

Lunch after the session with IMF training centre

The second visit was to the Association of Banks in Singapore. Again, nothing much that I gained from this visit, except that the Association themselves actively issued standardised operational rules and procedures to its members. I guess if the Association of Banks in Malaysia were to do the same thing, this will facilitate the regulator to focus on more pertinent matters rather than daily operational routines.

After the two visits, we were allowed to do our own things. Aishah, Esther, Huanu, Jibrail and I decided to visit the financial district, Marina Bay (to see the iconic merlion) and Little India. And here are some of the pictures taken during the jalang-jalang:

Can you see the Maybank building? According to the ABS, Maybank is one of the key player in SME financing in Singapore

This is where Datuk Siti Nurhaliza will be performing for her special concert on (last) 21 March 2008

At last we managed to find a less "dirty" restaurant in the Little India area which serves pure vegetarian food

Day 04 (20 March 2008)

Today is the final day of our fieldtrip. We had three lectures in the morning before having a lunch buffet, thank God, not at the Mayflower chinese restaurant. The food, however, was not as good as those served in the SEACEN training centre or any banking or finance courses in Kuala Lumpur.

This pictures were taken on my bus journey to Melaka:

While the Singaporean immigration team was very efficient at the Changi International Airport, nevertheless, their team at the causeway was less efficient and not customer-friendly. It took us a while to get through the security check and I was informed by the bus driver it took longer time now because the authority is still searching for the escaped Mas Selamat. Hmmm... I wonder why it takes them too long to find this fella since I was made to believe that Singapore, like the UK, has so many CCTV installed aimed at combating crime and addressing security concerns. I guess we can't 100% depends on the technology alone. Another important lesson to take note by the authority in Malaysia.

Anyhow, it was an eye opening fieldtrip for me. Goodbye, Singapura!

In the middle of the journey, the bus stopped at Kim Guan restaurant in Ayer Itam. I personally think that this restaurant should be regulated and supervised by the authority because they charged the customer unreasonable prices. I had half a plate of rice, a small one-piece fried chicken and fried sawi - they charged me RM6! At least, the foodcourt in the Suria KLCC charged me 50 sen less for the same menu. Does this mean that cost of living in Ayer Itam is much higher than in Kuala Lumpur?

Insya-Allah, I will never buy anything from the Kim Guan restaurant in the future, and neither my family too.