Indeed, I don't know why Australians assume that Asian salaries are low. Perhaps unskilled salaries in Singapore (for cleaners, waiters, bus drivers and the sorts) are really low due to a combination of Singaporeans refusing to do such jobs and hundreds of millions of foreigners in neighbouring countries willing to do such jobs for very little, but skilled wages for anyone with some sort of a skill are by no means low. Especially since the pound and USD have depreciated significantly against the S$, the average graduate salary in the UK is now lower than the average SIN grad salary.
Capt Roo - regarding your comment:
No doubt we will argue and fight using our Euro-centric logic that for some reason we deserve European/American wages, when our economy is dependent on Asia and all our competitors are based there.
Most citizens of countries which reach a certain level of development will have a huge sense of entitlement to what they deserve in terms of compensation. Not just Aussies, but also Western Europeans, and most people in the first world, and even Singaporeans (perhaps even myself included) have a huge sense of entitlement as to what we deserve to be paid. That's because our parents' generation worked hard to get the country to where it is today, and my generation has not known poverty or strife etc, and thus believe that our standard of living and way of life is our god given right.
Also do bear in mind wages in the USA, which has the most productive workforce on earth, are not that high. They work long hours, have fewer public holidays and start with 2 weeks of leave a year. I have contacts who work with SIAEC and ST Aerospace who through their associate companies have operations in the USA. The engineer salaries in Singapore are slightly higher than those in the USA - and the US folks have fewer leave entitlements. The plunging US$ also makes the US a cheaper place to do business - so I can't understand why the US companies are outsourcing in such a big way to perceived "cheaper" countries.
I mean, all universities these days basically teach the same things and use the same textbooks, so I can't see how the average Singaporean engineering graduate would be better or worse than the average American or Australian engineering graduate.
Regarding corruption - I think the corruption indices measure things like ability to bribe public servants, influence tender processes through "unconventional" means, having a stringent and impartial judiciary in handling commercial and civil matters, and getting things done in business just because you know the right person (though I'd argue that knowing the right people in any country on earth does help).
In that regard, Singapore performs very well. Corruption should not be confused with political freedom.
These indices do not measure political freedom, which is different from corruption. In 99.9% of countries, those which rank poorly in political freedom are usually extremely corrupt. Singapore is thus the exception rather than the norm.