16 Feb 2010 - Temasek Review
Written by Our Correspondent
During a visit to Swissotel The Stamford last Sunday, where he
was briefed on the “exciting developments” taking place in the
hospitality sector, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said:
“We have to think of all these ways of adjusting to a new
situation, because we want the tourism industry to grow. It has a
lot of potential, and it can create a lot of jobs… jobs for
Singaporeans, and there will also be some proportion of jobs for
non-Singaporeans because they need a whole range of skills and
abilities.”
Foreigners make up more than one third of Singapore’s workforce,
especially in the F&B, retail and tourism industry. Local
employers often complain that they have “no choice” but to turn to
foreigners as Singaporeans are not keen to take up the jobs on
offer.
The recently opened Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) IR is rumored to
have a significant number of foreigners on its payroll out of the
10,000 workers it is expected to employ when it is fully
operational.
Even before it was officially opened, Philipines President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said in April last year that RWS will open
about 5,000 new jobs for Filipinos.
She had sent a delegation to Singapore to explore possible
job opportunities for migrant Filipino
and they went to discuss available slots for Filipino workers such
as workers for hotels, casinos and performers with Tan Hee
Teck, CEO of RWS. (read report here)
PM Lee also brought up the issue of Singapore’s low
productivity level which was only 60 to 70 per cent that of other
developed economies such as the United States, Japan and Hong Kong
and expressed optimism that Singapore can catch up with
them.
“So if we invest, if we train, if we organise
ourselves properly, I am sure we can do that over time…..’If the
productivity doesn’t go up, and we don’t get the growth, you may
feel that while you are relaxing a bit more, the mood, the
buoyancy, the optimism, will be quite different,” he
added.
A key reason for Singapore’s low productivity is its
over-reliance on cheap foreign workers as demonstrated by the graph
below:
[Source: Kojakbt, 3in1kopitiam moderator]
Due to the easy availability of foreign workers, companies often
take the easy way out by hiring more to reduce costs rather than
think of innovative ways to do so by increasing productivity.
Though there is a quota for local workers to fill before an
employer can hire foreigners, this can be easily circumvented by
applying PRs for earlier arrivals thereby converting them into
“locals” and freeing a slot for another foreigner.
In Singapore, both citizens and PRs are lumped together in one
single category “local”.
PM Lee should be reminded that it is not the business of
Singapore to create jobs for foreigners. Our priority must lie with
Singaporeans first.
While other countries like Australia and Britain are actively
taking measures to curbed the inflow of even skilled foreign
migrants to protect the livelihoods of their own citizens, the
ruling party continues to import large number of foreigners to
compete directly with Singaporeans.
Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said lately that there will not be
a “turnaround” in the ruling party’s pro-foreigner policy and the
number of foreign workers may actually increase in the next few
years.