Speaking in a Economic Society of Singapore’s forum at Regent Singapore hotel yesterday (18 Oct), Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said Singapore must stay open to foreign talent.
He noted that there has been ugly anti-foreigner sentiment surfacing in Singapore in recent years. Some may argue that while Singapore wants to stay open in principle, why not get rid of more foreigners so that Singaporeans can reclaim good jobs, he said.
“That thinking is fatally flawed. Getting rid of the foreigners does not mean that the jobs will automatically go to Singaporeans,” said Mr Wong. “If our policies become overly restrictive, global companies based here will simply find other places to operate in.”
“Our economy will contract, incomes will decline and go into a tailspin. And we will end up with far worse problems and, ultimately, it is Singaporeans who will pay the price,” he added.
He explained that attracting the best companies and top talent to Singapore will drive innovation and create more opportunities. “At the same time, do everything we can to develop our people.”
He said that the government will invest more in skills training. “We will do everything we can to give Singaporeans that extra advantage by investing heavily in their capabilities and skills,” he said. “We want them to be assured that the training they undertake will be of high quality, and will lead to skills that are in demand by employers and will also lead to better careers for themselves.”
Mr Wong also quoted a figure of more than 660,000 Singaporeans being benefited from SkillsFuture-supported programmes. But he didn’t say of the 660,000, how many have found a better job with higher pay after being trained.
Apart from skills training, He mentioned that the government will continually update manpower policies to manage the flow of work pass holders and ensure they are of the right calibre, as well as make sure employers adopt fair employment practices.
Last year, thanks to the persistent questioning by Non-Constituency MPs Leong Mun Wai and Hazel Poa in Parliament, the Manpower Minister was forced to reveal that the proportion of Employment Pass (EP) holders from one country – India – actually doubled to 25 percent in 2020 from 14 per cent in 2005, forming the majority among the EP expats. This is despite the fact that there are close to 200 countries in the world.
The revelation caused an uproar on social media with netizens questioning if the government is truly managing its manpower policies properly.
Getting rid of Singaporeans to give jobs to foreigners
Meanwhile, it was reported that some companies did try to get rid of Singaporeans so as to give their jobs to foreigners. As far back as 2013, then Manpower Minister Tan Chuan Jin has already brought up in Parliament some of the ill HR practices of companies attempting to discriminate against Singaporeans.
“We have heard anecdotes of how in certain cases, heads of business units or HR managers have a preference for candidates they are familiar with or of the same nationality, for reasons that are irrelevant to job performance and irrespective of whether they are more competent than other candidates,” Mr Tan said.
“We have also heard of situations where Singaporeans were retrenched or made to resign in the name of down-sizing, only to realise later that their positions were given to foreigners, who were coincidentally from the same countries as the business heads.”
“Let me be quite blunt. Would these practices not sound discriminatory? Would any respectable progressive company endorse these practices? If this hiring is indeed because they care only about choosing familiar candidates and not about hiring the ‘best man for the job’, then such practices have no place in Singapore’s workplaces… I know that Singaporeans perceive some outcomes to be against the principles of meritocracy and fairness, and I fully understand why we feel angry in the process.”
And in 2012, the Manpower Ministry also asserted in a public statement that it would ensure foreigners are of the right calibre to work in Singapore:
“Having an open and diversified workforce remains an important factor in keeping Singapore’s economy strong. It allows Singapore to remain competitive and it helps contribute to economic growth which generates jobs for Singaporeans. The enhanced Employment Pass (EP) framework announced last year ensures that EP holders are of the right calibre, adding needed expertise and complementing an increasingly qualified local workforce.”
Nine years later, the government is still grappling with the same issues and Mr Wong still talks about managing the flow of work pass holders to ensure they get the “right calibre” foreigners to come to Singapore.