S'pore loses 1,000 top talents yearly: MM Lee
Clarissa Oon
Wed, Feb 13, 2008
The Straits Times
SINGAPORE is losing about 1,000 of its best and brightest every
year and the numbers are growing, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has
said, sounding the alarm on the severity of the brain drain.
And the main magnet for these talents is not regional powerhouse
China, but the United States and other developed English-speaking
countries, he told the United Press International news agency in an
interview earlier this month.
Citing figures of Singaporeans who gave up their citizenship and
took out their savings and CPF funds, he said this meant 'losing
about, at the top end, 1,000 a year, which is about - if you take
the top 30 per cent of the population - about four or five per
cent'.
Mr Lee believes this exodus could only grow because 'every year,
there are more people going abroad for their first or second
degree'.
Some of these Singaporean talents head for China, but return
eventually because, at the end of the day, they do not want to
compete with the Chinese, he said.
'You go to China, you're going to compete against 1,300 million
very bright fellows, hardworking, starving. Do you stand a chance
to be on top of that pole? No.'
'But if you go there as a Singaporean with a different base,
speaking English which they can't, with connections to the world,
then you've got a different platform.'
In comparison, the pull of US is difficult to reverse, he said,
noting that American firms recruited bright Singaporean students
straight out of universities there.
After acclimatising to life and work in the US, 'if they decide to
take the Green Card and settle in America, then I think we've lost
them', said Mr Lee.
Singaporeans who do not want the stiff competition in the US go to
Australia and Canada, he added.
The brain drain has been a regular issue addressed by MM Lee, who
has repeatedly said that this is Singapore's Achilles heel.
To stem this loss of talent, Singapore has wooed many top
professionals from China and India here, he said.
The draw for the Chinese is that their children can learn both
English and Chinese, while the Indians like Singapore because it is
close to home, yet a step up in terms of First World
infrastructure.
'The trouble is many of the Chinese then use us as a stepping stone
to go to America, where the grass is greener.'
'But even if we only keep 30 to 40 per cent and lose 60 to 70 per
cent, we're a net gainer,' he said. He said, however, that the
Chinese would cease to come in 20 to 30 years' time, when China's
living standards rise to match Singapore's.