When interviewed by media reporters over if the ruling party PAP’s
6.9 million population target is going to stay, former Defence
Minister Ng Eng Hen said that it is about accepting slower economic
growth and adding that businesses are “feeling the pain”:
“The issue had to be looked at as a whole, and “that’s what a
Government has to do. The trade-off is never about numbers in
a population. The trade-off is: How do you accept slower growth
when your local workforce will stop growing after 2020.
The Government has been tightening foreign labour numbers, but
businesses are feeling the pain. This is not something you can
address with just one line and with one question, because it
affects jobs, it affects the daily lives of Singaporeans … These
are not simple questions that you can slogan away.”
Photo of Ng Eng Hen from Today
According to the PAP candidate for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC, Ng Eng Hen
tacitly admitted that GDP growth in Singapore is propelled by
population growth. Under the ruling party PAP, Singapore’s economic
growth model has been cutting back on productivity and relying on
the influx of cheap foreign labour for businesses to be
profitable.
The Singapore government introduce Workfare to help companies
subsidize wages for low income workers and has since been heavily
dependent on population growth. If every election ends well for the
ruling party, 6.9 million population will be achieved by 2030.
