Daily Briefing: Government to invest $25m to boost quantum engineering; Recruiters faced with bankers who fake their resume skills

And here’s why a recruiting firm owner was fined a total of $345,000.

From e27:

Government-backed National Research Foundation (NRF) will launch a $25m (US$18m) fund to step up the country’s quantum engineering capabilities, NRF chairman and finance minister Heng Swee Keat revealed.

Led by researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and overseas partners, the Quantum Engineering Program (QEP) will build upon 20 years of quantum science research from the country’s R&D facilities, to prototype and develop quantum technologies and devices.

QEP will focus on demonstrating use cases and applications in a range of domains such as cybersecurity and communications and diagnostics imaging.

Read more here.

From efinancialcareers:

As a result of the comparatively high demand for junior recruitment in Singapore and Hong Kong banks, recruiters have been struggling with young candidates who exaggerate their skills and experience in their resume.

“I’ve seen a junior relationship manager curriculum vitae (CV) that claimed he managed to complete a major deal,” says Lim Chaileng, director of banking and financial services at recruitment company Randstad in Singapore. “The deal was in fact put together and led by a senior RM, with the junior only contributing some due diligence and research work as support.”

Embellishment isn’t the only problem dogging junior banking CVs – young finance professionals in Asia often simply load their resumes with too much information in an effort to make themselves appear more experienced and impressive than they are.

Lim adds: “Their goal is to increase their chances of being shortlisted for a job, but when instances like this happen, banks can usually tell that they have inflated their job descriptions – it’s a major red-flag against the candidate.

Read more here.

From Channel News Asia:

Staffing Network owner Pauline Tan Siew Hoon was fined $345,000 which is twice the amount of the tax she evaded for over five years.

Between 2009 and 2013, she declared only S$444,633 in her income tax returns, when the net income earned was S$1,748,058.

Tan also did not notify the Comptroller of Goods and Services Tax (GST) when her company's taxable turnover exceeded a million dollars in 2009.

She did all the accounting work for Staffing Network herself and did not hire an accountant, said Mr Charles Li, senior tax prosecutor with the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS).

Read more here.