Grow the pie instead of fighting over a lost slice: President Tharman

"We live in a world where the talk is about who's taking my slice of the pie or how I can get back the slice I believe is mine," said President Tharman Shanmugaratnam in response to a question on job creation amid uncertain times.

- Lin Suling

But leaders should take a step back to understand the larger context behind this jostling for growth.

"Starting from the global financial crisis, through the 2010s and even more so in the 2020s, the pie has been growing more slowly," he added, speaking at a panel discussion on jobs in Washington on April 22. President Tharman is in the US on a working visit to co-chair a meeting of the World Bank's High-Level Advisory Council on Jobs, and meet UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, members of the diplomatic community and leaders from the financial sector and think-tanks.

"It's only natural that when the pie grows more slowly, the arguments get sharper about who's taking whose slice or the larger slice," Mr Tharman said.