TABLET OF CONTENT

CONTENT

PAGE

TABLETS OF CONTENTS

1.0 INTRODUCTION

2.0 FOREIGN TALENTS POLICY

3.0 IMPORTANT OF FOREIGN TALENTS IN SINGAPORE

4.0 IMPACT

4.1 TABLE 4.1

5.0 COMPARATION

6.0 VIEWS

7.0 REFERENCES

1.0 INTRODUCTION
Singapore officially Republic of Singapore is situated at the south of the Peninsular Malaysia
near Johor Darul Takzim and being separated by the straits of Johor. Singapore is the world only
sovereign city state that is also an island country. The National Day of Singapore is celebrated every
year on 9 August every year in commemoration of Singapores independence from Malaysia in 1965.
Nowadays, Lee Hsien Long is the current Prime Minister of Singapore.
Now days, Singapore has become the worlds fourth leading financial centre and its parts is one
of the five busiest ports in the world. Their economy depends heavily on exports and refining imported
goods. [1]
Since Singapore reach their first independent day on 1965, immigration and immigrant who want
to work in Singapore must follow their law to reinforce Singapores identity as a sovereign state. The
countrys ruling People Action Party (PAP) characterized migration as a periodic, short term tool to
supplement the long term development of Singapores domestic labour force. [2] Singapore needs
foreign talents to be competitive and survive in modern world. Various policies have been formed and
launched to attract them.

2.0 FOREIGN TALENTS POLICY

There are various policies that are used to attract foreign talents to work and live at Singapore.
Foreign talents refers to the foreigners with higher or professional qualifications working at the higher
end of Singapores economy. The policy that have been used are CONTACT SINGAPORE, The
Singapore Talent Recruitment (STAR) Committee and International Manpower Program of the
Economic Development Board. Beside policies, schemes for housing foreign talent (SHIFT) are also
being introduced with the aim of providing affordable accommodations. Furthermore, the government
also formed Employment Pass Eligibility Certificate (EPEC) scheme to encourage qualified foreign
talents to find a suitable job in Singapore. [3]
All this type of policies are been formed because Singapore is a very small country and in order
to survive in modern world. Thus, foreign talents are important in order to increase the population and
also maintain Singapores competitive in its economy.
Singapore Senior Minister, Lee Kuan Yew said that if they do not attract, welcome and make
foreign talent feel comfortable in Singapore, they will not be a global city like the other country.

3.0 IMPORTANT OF FOREIGN TALENTS TO SINGAPORE

Foreign talent in Singapore refers to the foreigners that come from Pakistan, India, Australia,
Peoples Republic of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Europe, New
Zealand and United States. [3]
Although the policies look tighted, Singapore government has always stressed the important of
immigrant workers and talents to Singapores economy and development. Totally, Singapore needs
foreign talents because Singapore is a very small country. They lack of natural resources such as oil,
land and even water. Therefore, foreign talent policy is introduced in order to increase the population
and more importantly to help keep Singapore's economy competitive. This is because these foreign
talents each have experties in their own respective areas, therefore they can share their experiences with
Singapore's workforce, sharpening their skills, thus allowing Singapore's workforce to remain
competitive in its economy. [4]
With this foreign talent, absolutely they can share their work experiences with the locals, helping
them to gain necessary skills and knowledge to keep Singapores economy be more competitive.
Besides that, foreign talents also can bring in new ideas and technologies and will make Singapore
improve constantly with other countries.
4.0 IMPACT
Foreign talents have been a major issue among government and Singapores people. This is
because Singaporeans must compete with foreign talents for the job. This result will increase the jobless
Singaporeans. With this foreign talent, absolutely the government tends to neglect to local talent and
spend more of the funds on foreign talents which results in brain drain of local talents. This shows a
sheer lack of national pride and total disrespect towards local talents who might not have the same
opportunities to develop.
Another worrying issue is the infusion of foreign talents cultures and influences that could give
damage to Singaporeans. Besides that, there could be many other reason that would cite unhappiness
among Singaporeans and affect their lives. [5]
Over the ten year period, Singapores resident employment has risen by 0.5 percent despite an
average annual immigration of 39,000 foreign workers. Nowadays, theres are questions among
Singaporeans whether this growth of foreign talent in the workforce has continued or not. Statistic from
Singapores Ministry of Manpower show that Singapores non citizen workforce has grown by an
annual average of only 3.2 percent from 2000-2009 reaching 1.04 million in 2009. While the citizen
workers have grown at annual average of less than two percent roughly equal to the growth of the
overall population.
3

TABLE 4.1 UNEMPLOYMENT AND LABOUR IMMIGRATION 1999-2009

LABOUR

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
YEAR

OVERALL

RESIDENTS

IMMIGRATION
(THOUSANDS)

1999

2.8

3.8

-1.8

2000

2.7

3.7

50.1

2001

3.6

3.7

-1.4

2002

4.0

4.8

-42.3

2003

3.4

5.2

-27.9

2004

3.4

4.4

21.5

2005

3.1

4.1

49.8

2006

2.7

3.6

85.1

2007

2.1

3.0

144.5

2008

2.2

3.2

156.9

2009

3.0

4.3

-4.2

AVERAGE

39.1
Source (Minister of Manpower 2010 )

The table 4.1 show that Singapores annual unemployment rate against numerical flows of
migrant workers over the period 1999-2009. [3]

5.0 COMPARATION
Compared to Malaysia, Singapore are totally depends on foreign talents where their expertise
and skills can make they competitive and survive in modern world. As we know, Malaysia have their
own talent whether in industry, business or sports. For example, Jimmy Chew is Malaysian citizen that
already famous in Europe in shoes industry. He has become one the famous shoes maker for artists and
other people in the world. This show that Malaysia not lack of talents people and mostly Malaysians
citizen have their own work and business.
Nowadays as we saw, Malaysias has growth up rapidly and competitive in modern world with
their own talents especially in doing business.

6.0 VIEW
For me, this issues is a positive because foreign talents is the one who contributes to the
Singapore economy, who initiates ways and means to sustain the economy and to further expand it by
their talents, creativeness, ideas, suggestions, implementation and make critical decision. There are only
foreign talents that all countries have either it is in manufacturing or services.[6] Foreign workers and
talents totally have helped to strength the Singapores economy in many ways.
In conclusion, the foreign talents policy is extremely important to Singapores progress as a
nation country. It is just what Mr Lee Kuan Yew had mentioned The foreign talents policy is
Singapores future. Although there are quite a lot of disadvantages and impacts of having foreign
talents, it is absolutely essential for Singapore to continue all the policies because of the reason as I state
before. If there are no foreign talents, Singapores economy will most likely be less competitive and the
technological advancements will also be slower and because of that, Singapore will hardly to survive in
our modern world that fully with challenges.

7.0 REFERENCES
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore
[2] http://krisageneve.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/terauds-e762-paper.pdf
[3] http://therealsingapore.com/content/foreign-talent-issue-head
[4] http://foreigntalents.wikispaces.com/Evaluating+The+Foreign+Talent+Policy
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Singapore
[6] http://www.tremeritus.com/2013/07/21/what-exactly-determines-a-foreign-talent/