Why Singapore’s “Loss” Is Actually Johor’s Gain (And Why BOTH Economies Win)

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]Good evening, and a welcome to today's latest episode on my YouTube video series. And today I want to talk about some of the recent news that happened or was happening in Singapore, right? Which which is not so nice news. So this the date of this video is 20th May, right?

[00:00:12]And I just the headlines in Singapore are not so nice, you know? Meta Facebook just fired some people, right? And I think some of those roles are in Singapore. And we also saw the news that Gardenia the bread right? Is also firing some people in Singapore and moving their production to Johor, right? And actually this the Gardenia news is one in the latest string of news of similar stories. Like for example, earlier this week or last week we had the news that a fashion retail H&M was cutting jobs in Singapore and moving these positions to KL in Malaysia, right? Also, I think maybe a month back we had like Tiger Beer, right? Tiger Beer is a Singapore made beer, right? Singapore brand, right?

[00:00:56]Also saying they'll relocate production to Johor and Selangor in Malaysia, right? So cutting some jobs in Singapore as well, right? And I think also recently there was a Yeo's Yeo's which is a drink the packaged drinks and the canned drinks that we buy right? Popular, right? This brand also similar things cutting manufacturing in Singapore and moving across to Malaysia, right? And I think also Vietnam if I'm not wrong. So a lot of this production manufacturing is moving from Singapore where of course costs are high, right?

[00:01:23]And moving over to countries where production is cheaper, right? Malaysia being one example, right? The nearest and most common example that they have seen recently, right? A lot of these jobs go to Malaysia because Malaysia is cheaper, right? And a lot more cost efficient for what they do, right? And of course the other thing about Malaysia is nearby, right? so a lot of Singapore companies like the idea that you know, people speak English, the factories are nearby not that far away, right?

[00:01:47]especially if they're placed in Johor which is a lot of the the team that we're seeing with the Johor Singapore special economic zone where manufacturing is done in Malaysia where it's cheaper, but these companies are still Singaporean companies or where their HQ's are based in Singapore. And if you pay attention to my videos for the past few years, right? Actually, this is not new thing, right? I mean, I spoke about it as early as Coca-Cola, you know, Coca-Cola in Singapore is no longer bottled, no longer bottled in Singapore. All the Coca-Cola that you drink in Singapore today is actually bottled in Johor, right?

[00:02:15]There are also other things like Old Chang Kee, right? They have a central kitchen in Malaysia as well.

[00:02:21]Paris Baguette, right? Also has a central kitchen in Johor, right?

[00:02:26]And yeah, there are many examples of these kinds of F&B situations, right?

[00:02:29]Where F&B's an easy thing to say because F&B refers to brands that many of us know very well, right? Because we see them in the market every day, right? In our lives. So, some people, of course, when they see this kind of news, they feel very sad. Oh, Singapore is in trouble, you know, they complain um Singapore's not competitive and things like that. But I want to differ, right?

[00:02:50]Or share my two cents on this. So, I'm a Malaysian, right? And I've been in Singapore for many, many years, right?

[00:02:54]And I can say that this is part of the Singapore economy transforming, right?

[00:02:57]You can't expect this kind of F&B things, manufacturing to happen in Singapore and do it well, right?

[00:03:04]Definitely, as business owners, people will focus on the P&L and it can't really be profitable doing this kind of lower-end manufacturing in in Singapore. I'll give you an example, right?

[00:03:14]We had a joke about it. Like Gardenia bread, right? Which is the main topic of today's news, right? Is if you buy Gardenia bread in Singapore, it's like $2.50, right? I think so. This is what my my helper buys when he buys from the the the vending machine, right? $2.50 in Singapore. Do you know how much Gardenia bread costs in Malaysia? Gardenia bread cost in Malaysia is like 3 ringgit 50 cents, right? Which is So, you can compare. $2.50 to 3 ringgit 50 cents. So, there was a joke, right? I was telling Benjamin, my partner in Good Life, recently this story. And Ben was saying we should buy all the Gardenia in Malaysia and sell in Singapore because you you 2 ringgit 50 cents in Malaysia just times three is 7 cent, right? Which is a huge margin.

[00:03:55]Um if you if you sell if you can sell this in in in Singapore, right? Take Malaysia Gardenia, sell in Singapore. So, to him was like the the gap in price was so big, right? That for a typical loaf of bread, right? Which is what Gardenia produces. So, I mean there are many examples like this, right? And you can't blame taxes or things like that. It's just that the cost of manufacturing in Singapore is too high, right? so which is why like I said special economic zones exist, right?

[00:04:20]These are examples of why special economic zones exist that you Singapore own companies do the production in Malaysia where it's more the P&L is more better better for these companies, right? But and which is what we're seeing recently is now a lot of industrial industrial companies a lot of factories are moving over to Malaysia, right? If you if you today are still not convinced by this, I hope this recent string of news convinces convinces you, all right? But is it the end of Singapore? Is it bad for Singapore? Now, I want to highlight that the Singapore economy is transforming, right? So, what what do I mean by transformation, right? So, in a way there are a few things that Singapore government or Singapore does very well, right? There are other countries that Malaysia or Thailand or Vietnam we can never compete in in Singapore in some things. So, number one is of course the financial industry, right? The wealth management industry as as you know, right? Family offices, you know, they have grown like many many you know, many many family offices in Singapore now, right?

[00:05:15]If you see in Singapore, you're wondering who are these guys in Singapore they are so high income they can buy property in Singapore. Usually, if you ask me, they are financial industry related. Either they are the bankers or the staff in the in the the family offices or the lawyers servicing them or the accountants servicing them.

[00:05:29]These people are making good money, right? In Singapore because this industry is growing, right? A lot of rich people put money in Singapore. This is a fact, right? Whether you are money from Malaysia, money from Singapore, money from Indonesia, money from China, right? Money from the Middle East, right? When you want to Who is the Switzerland of Asia, right? This is Singapore, right? So, of course, um if you if you feel that you want to upgrade, right? Going to the financial industry in Singapore is always a good thing to be because this is the strong the strength, right?

[00:05:57]Rich guys in Singa you know, super rich guys, the billionaire level people are never going to put big money in KL, for example, right? If they do put money in KL, it will not be as big as whatever money they put in Singapore, right? So, this is a fact. So, this is where one segment that Singapore's doing well.

[00:06:10]There are things that are like tech, right? I think tech is also a place where Singapore will do well because I give you an example like um she's popular in the news recently. You know, there's a AI company called Manas from China, right? They moved to Singapore last year, 2025, right? And they are AI company, right? They have a product called Butterfly Effect or something like that. I I I don't really pay attention, but they chose to move to Singapore. Why? Because Singapore is a a good hybrid position, right? Where fairly tax-friendly, right? Have access to Western capital, right? And but still in the Asian China time zone. So, they came to to Malaysia to Singapore, right?

[00:06:42]And they hire definitely lots of this kind of jobs for people who work in here. Definitely are very high uh income jobs. So, these are the industries uh that they will still choose Singapore, right? They will never choose Malaysia for this kind of expansion, right? Even if they put something in Malaysia, very likely it's a back end kind of situation, right? A back end office or support function or data centers, right? Like data centers are back end back end functions, right? So, all these will sit in Malaysia, right?

[00:07:06]Whereas the highest income paid jobs are all going to be in uh places like Singapore. So, this is where Singapore wins, right? Another example where Singapore has an undisputed uh number one position, if you ask me, is the being a hub, right? Being a logistical hub, being a connectivity hub, right? This is a very clear by why the Singapore government invest so much money in Changi Airport Terminal 5, right? Which is uh doubling the size of Changi Airport because uh Changi has a very strong uh flight connectivity in the world, right? I mean, I get this all the time where people tell me uh they prefer to fly to Changi because Changi Airport is nicer, right? And because Changi got more flights, right? Than KLA, right? this is in terms of far distance, right? And this is understandable, right? So, everybody don't want to people prefer direct flights, especially if you are a rich guy, you got you don't have you don't want to waste time on layovers, right? So, in this sense, this is why Singapore government invest into Chinese Terminal 5. And the other thing is about Tuas Mega Port, right? Because Singapore's one of the top ports in the world. I think number one, number two, number three position. I think not number one. I think it's number three or something like that, right? But Singapore is a top port in the world, right? And because of Singapore's geographical position, right? In the Straits of Malacca, right? Which is undisputed, right?

[00:08:19]Even the Johor Port number 11 or number like 15, 16, right? And then Port Port Klang right and Klang Port is at number 11. So, we we as Malaysian ports cannot fight Singapore Port, right? So, although there are some market share, right? But Singapore remains undisputed number one. And again, Singapore government invest into this via the Tuas Mega Port where billions of dollars are being built, right? This infrastructure projects, which will complete around 2030 onwards, right? Will cement Singapore's position further. So, all the the focus is there. And this is things that where other countries cannot easily replicate, right? Or defeat or beat Singapore at this time. So, if you ask me, right? This will also create thousands of jobs. You can go and see my other video which I'll share up here where I talked about this, why these industries will also create a lot of jobs in Singapore.

[00:09:05]But primarily, I'm referring to a lot of Malaysians who work in Singapore, right?

[00:09:09]Who are going to be in the the a lot of the blue collar or semi-blue collar positions for these kind of industries, right? So, Singapore is economy is evolving, right? And you as an individual, you have to decide what kind of position you are in. If you are in an industry that low-end manufacturing, then you are gone case in Singapore because these kind of industries will not survive very long in Singapore. If you are doing back end, you know, work, right? In Singapore, these kind of industries these kind of jobs also will not be safe in Singapore because a lot of them you know might will be will be relocated to places like Malaysia. Right, so you have to see your position in the market and adjust accordingly there, right? So I think that is the unfortunate truth of life, right? That unfortunate unfortunate of life. The other thing is that you as individual also you also have a position or or a place a decision that you can make, right?

[00:10:02]Where to put your own capital, right?

[00:10:04]Today I was having a discussion with some Singaporean high network people, some Indonesian high network people and increasingly, right? I hear a lot of people from this category high network tell me they should put assets in Ringgit, right? They tell me, "Ryan, I want to buy a condo in Johor, right? And I want to buy a property in Johor, right? Because I think it's a good asset to hold and in Ringgit, right? And they they talk about the RTS, the gap of the RTS, right? Why RTS will support JB prices and they think why Ringgit is a good asset, right? Compared to the other currencies that they're holding, right?

[00:10:36]And they don't mind to put a certain percentage of their assets into this investment over here, right? Even though in technically speaking a condo in Johor Bahru doesn't give very high use of 4% plus minus, right? Which is not high, right? Which is just average, I guess, by property rental use standards, right?

[00:10:50]But they want a safe asset. They will feel that the asset has a good chance of increasing price because of RTS in the future, right? And they're confident in the Malaysian economy, right? And they're confident, you know, in in a lot of the job creation and economic factor economic activity going on in Johor Bahru right now. So more and more, you know, like 3 4 years ago, right? If I if I tell people buy Ringgit, right? I get a lot of this comment that Ringgit will depreciate, very very comfortable to laugh at me and say bad things about the Malaysian economy, say bad things about the Malaysian Ringgit, right? And um recently this kind of comments are less and less. Do you realize no one really makes fun of the Ringgit anymore, right?

[00:11:28]You still get a few people here and there, but the the majority of these comments have largely disappeared, right? I still remember when I did my YouTube videos in 2021 to 2022, a lot of people say don't buy JB property because ringgit will depreciate, right? In fact, they've been wrong because the ringgit has been appreciated very strongly against the Singapore dollar in the past 2 years.

[00:11:47]So, yeah. So, I I suggest you as an investor, if you are someone sitting on some capital in Singapore, right? I think putting some capital into the Malaysian economy, putting some capital into the ringgit or Johor Bahru is a good bet right now because like I said, RTS is coming, right? In fact, there was an video that came out by Asian Boss. I don't know how many of you guys watch Asian Boss. It's a fairly popular YouTube channel. It has over 4 million followers, right? They did a 40-over minute video on the Johor Bahru-Singapore Causeway recently, right? And that video has already achieved, I think, um tens of thousands of views right in just 1 day, right? I think 80, 90,000 views already in 1 day as as a point of this video, right? And um it does a very good job of explaining the history the history behind the Johor Bahru-Singapore Causeway, right? Why it exists, right? And why do thousands of Malaysians, hundreds of thousands of Malaysians travel from Malaysia to Singapore to work, and why tens of thousands of Singaporeans travel from Singapore to Malaysia or to Johor Bahru to spend money, right? I think the video does a very good job and helps educate and spread the awareness of this situation uh to more people. Because he was giving an example like the the busiest border crossing in uh US, right? Which is the Mexico-US border crossing, only has about 100,000 uh people crossing daily, right? And in Johor, we do this we do double this number uh in many cases, I think almost triple this number in fact, daily, right? So, uh there's a lot of reasons why JB-Singapore border crossing happens, right? And the advent of the RTS, right? Which is by January next year, will make even more border crossings happen, right? And make border crossings easier, right? And that can only be good for uh JB. So, I think uh like I said, if you're an investor, you have some capital, it does make sense to hold some assets in ringgit right now, right? Um and furthermore, if you have some own use case scenarios as well, especially if you're considering retirement in Malaysia in the longer term, right? Um yeah. So, that's my two cents for today's sharing, right? I When I see the news happening, uh today's news, right? Uh I know a lot of the typical comments to feel bad and feel sad about it and blame Singapore government and things like that. But, I think you need to understand that some of these things are out of control, right?

[00:13:59]How much can a Singapore government do, right? Uh you can be a first world high-income city if you don't have high cost, right? How do you escape that, right? You want to be high income, it has to be a high cost uh city as well. I think the issue that Singaporeans you need to accept or Singapore residents need to accept is that you must have a hinterland to work on, and I think that Johor works very well as a hinterland where some costs can be lower. So, don't look at uh Johor win or Malaysia win, Singapore lose scenario. It's a win-win situation, right? The people who operating in JB right now or the people who choose to operate in JB right now are are also winners, right? You don't You don't have to be so patriotic to just everything put in Singapore, okay?

[00:14:39]And uh and don't think about the implications, right? About putting assets in in places that can make uh can that diversify assets or make money as well as well, okay? Um yeah. So, thank you very much. I hope that was my share That's my sharing uh my rambling for a few minutes, right?

[00:14:53]Hope that makes sense to you, right? And give you guys more confidence into why, right?

[00:14:59]I think putting money in JB is a good idea right now, right? Uh recently, right? Uh if I have not shared already, I just opened a self-service laundry uh called Washlah in RF Princess Cove, right? Uh it's just near my office only.

[00:15:10]So, I opened a laundry because I know that there's high density of people living in the city center right now. A lot of these Malaysians who work in Singapore, right? They They have They may not have time to wash clothes. Even if they have time to wash clothes, they may not have time to dry clothes. So, cuz weather can be erratic, right? Hot, cold, raining all the time. So, um I think uh self-service laundry will do very well in season. So, I opened one with my partner, Benjamin, right? Uh and uh we have just finished our first month operations, I think so far so good, right? We are happy with the performance so far, and hope it'll continue for months to come. So, like I said, everything's all about positioning, right? Uh I had many people come and congratulate me, you know, they thought it was a very good idea to open a self-service laundry, and say, "Why they didn't think about it earlier?" I said, "Yeah, sometimes things are some of that, right? You need to have perspective, right? Uh to do this."

[00:15:53]And I think uh the Singapore economy is also the situation of Singapore economy right now is also you must have perspective, right? Uh which industries are losing, which industries are doing better, and how to position yourself uh in in the face of it, okay? So, thank you very much. I hope you enjoyed this video. If you do like our content, please like, share, and subscribe to our YouTube channel, right? Uh and you can hope to see uh if you like the things I share, you can watch other videos here on my YouTube channel, and I hope they're useful to you, too. Okay? Thank you very much, and bye-bye.