"A Government Can Run Like a Corporation and Fulfill Stakeholder Expectations." Do You Agree? (Use Singapore as an Example.)

What is ethically responsible management? How can a corporation, given its economic mission, be managed with appropriate attention to ethical concerns? These are central questions in the field of business ethics. There are two approaches to answering such questions. The first one is Milton Friedman’s shareholder theory of management and the second one is Edwards Freeman’s “Stakeholder” theory of management, two different views about the purpose and aims of a business.

Excellent salaries jobs and conditions of working, primary safety of people, and many other advantages looked as an oppurtunity in a natural life to these very struggling immigrants. The huge rush of these people created the job shortage (Conlin, 2009, 444-449).

As working for the Turkish Treasury in the Directorate General of State-Owned Enterprises, which mostly deals with the overseeing of the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and also responsible for the ownership function of the SOEs in the country, this report will be researching the United States (US) experience with the government corporations regarding to their financial management and governance mechanisms.

The job market has seen its share of ups and downs in the previous years due to the financial crisis caused when the housing bubble burst in 2008. There is growing concern that the influx of illegals into the country are taking away jobs from the native of the country making them social enemies of all things. The Pew Research Center has an estimate of 11.3 million illegal immigrants are found living in the United States in 2014 with an average of 350,000 crossing through the border illegally each year (Passel & Cohn, 2015). The numbers suggest that the current trend is that those people are coming into the country to look for a better a life, which in most cases this is correct but the fact remains that they still need to find a place of employment.

The increase of unemployment and underemployment has been credited to the migration of citizens from rural areas of Kingston where little opportunitirs for employments exists. Although, this integration of citizens only added to the already compounded issue of high demand of employment.

Given the quota system, not all the immigrant visas get used, in fact a sizable number of them go unused every year. This results in U.S. not being able to retain maximum possible talent and risks loosing it to other countries. One needs to realize that quota restriction not only impacts the individual and their families, but also impacts the companies who can’t find skill labor to succeed.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), corporate stakeholders have a very important role, not only within the business for the community as well. "Good corporate governance helps...to ensure that corporations take into account the interests of a wide range of constituencies, as well as the communities within which they operate, and that their boards are accountable to the company and the shareholders. This, in turn, helps to assure that corporations operate for the benefit of society as a whole" (1999).

This paper will have a detailed discussion on the shareholder theory of Milton Friedman and the stakeholder theory of Edward Freeman. Friedman argued that “neo-classical economic theory suggests that the purpose of the organisations is to make profits in their accountability to themselves and their shareholders and that only by doing so can business contribute to wealth for itself and society at large”. On the other hand, the theory of stakeholder suggests that the managers of an organisation do not only have the duty towards the firm’s shareholders; rather towards the individuals and constituencies who contribute to the company’s wealth, capacity and activities. These individuals or constituencies can be the shareholders, employees,

In light of the recent scandals that rose around big multinationals such as Enron and WorldCom, it has become evident that reform in the traditional corporate operations and objectives was to be encompassed in the organisations corporate strategies. Indeed throughout the years, companies main objectives were defined primarily as being economic objectives, Multinationals developed with sight of profit maximisations regardless to the other incentives, Friedman considered that to be the foundation for a well-managed company, it was further considered that the financing of any other sort of social corporate activities rather unnecessary. The expenses were regarded as expenditures for the owners and investors; this was a time where shareholders rights were regarded as conflicting with other constituents namely the employees, creditors, customers or the community in general. However this interpretation is seen as rather inadequate due to the nature of the amalgamated relation between both constituents. Stakeholders in modern corporate doctrine are considered as a core apparatus for the well functioning of a business. It is however often argued that the only way for a corporation to achieve better results and maximise its profits is to include other people in the process, individuals or organisations with direct or indirect interest in the well performance of the company, that is the reason why modern regulations and codes include a number of stakeholders other than the

The party-state monitoring of the state-owned enterprise in China remains a puzzle to most of the observers as the party state aims at creating the actual market economy. The neo-liberal privatization of the SOEs should run by entirely independent legal individuals with some anonymity to operate on the commercial basis. However, various factors influence the corporate governance in China with the critical pillars including respect for the stakeholders in the enterprise and legal protection of disclosure and transparency. Irrespective of the essence of corporate government transparency, the irony remains that the government is operated without anyone checking what is being done. The importance of the business-government in China has become a heated topic of discussion in the policy, academic and business decision makers throughout the country. The corporate governance is closely linked to the ongoing economic reforms in most of the state-owned enterprises, as well as the development of financial and security markets (Leng, 2009). The country has experienced new revisions regarding safety and company laws that focus more on government including the shareholder 's fiduciary duties and voting rights. The above rules significantly determine the roles that the corporate directors and the board play to ensure a balance of responsibilities between the directors and officers.

For the purpose of this report, corporate governance is defined as the relationship that exists between company management, stakeholders and the board. Objectives of the company are usually set, attained and monitored through the structure corporate governance provides. (Balgobin 2008).The Guyana Corporate Code of Governance is similar to the UK codes of corporate governance and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD 2004).These principles serve as a reference point that can be used by companies to develop their own frameworks for corporate governance that reflect their own circumstances or situations.

The South Korean corporate governance structure was known for its technical and ethical inefficiency well before the crisis. The existence of a small number of large business conglomerates, chaebols, is widely considered to be one of the biggest problems in South Korean society. This governance system was fertile ground for inefficiency and corruption. A study shows that only 27percent of the 570 non-financial firms created shareholder value during the five years before the crises.

A corporation does do business within a vacuum; rather exist as part of larger collective framework of society, stakeholders and a global business community. I believe that corporations which are profitable, and promote moral and ethical standards are the benchmark of success; additionally, corporations bear a great social responsibility to the society it exists within, an simply working within “the basic rules of society, both those embodied in law and those embodied in ethical custom” is not enough (Friedman, 1991). While Robert Solomon and Milton Friedman both champion the use of ethics and morality in business, they disagree on industry’s responsibility to society, and corporations role to include communal obligation while crafting policies and guiding principles for their business decisions.

3 4 11 FOREWORD INTRODUCTION - Getting to know Singapore OVERVIEW OF LEGAL ENVIRONMENT - Legal Framework - Handling Civil Disputes - Employment - Immigration - Competition Act - Singapore's Free Trade Agreement (FTAs) STARTING A BUSINESS BANKING RELATIONSHIP IN SINGAPORE - Introduction to the Financial Landscape in Singapore - Banking in Singapore - Business Credit Facilities - Business Protection TYPES OF BUSINESS ORGANISATIONS - Sole Proprietorships and General Partnerships - Limited Liability Partnerships - Limited Partnerships - Companies - Joint Ventures - Foreign Companies - Representative Offices - Incorporating a Company - Annual Requirements for

Hong Kong’s position as an international economic and financial center is attributed to its exemplary corporate governance. With Hong Kong’s various authorities and regulatory bodies emphasizing on transparency and accountability for listed companies, Hong Kong was ranked first for corporate governance among 11 Asian countries in 2007. (Refer to Appendix 1)