Jobs Created by New Investments Brought in by EDB in Last Three Years, their Profile and Preparedness of Local Workforce for this Growth

Mr Sharael Taha asked the Minister for Trade and Industry (a) how has the profile of investments in Singapore changed over the past 10 years; (b) given that electronics and biomedical manufacturing are the top two sources of investments in 2021, how well is our local workforce prepared for this growth; and (c) how can we continue to attract local talent in the electronics and manufacturing industries.

EDB attracts investments in a wide range of sectors including manufacturing, professional services and infocommunications and media. Over the years, the profile of investments has moved towards higher value-added and innovation-focused activities, including in the semiconductor and biomedical manufacturing industries. For example, best-in-class companies, such as GlobalFoundries, Arkema and Sanofi, have chosen Singapore for their new manufacturing investments. We expect to attract more investments in advanced manufacturing, the digital economy and the green economy in the coming years.

We attract these investments so that Singaporeans can benefit from the jobs that these investments create and to secure our economic future and resilience. Each investment strengthens our ecosystem and competitiveness, each investment creates more opportunities for firms to collaborate with one another, including between our SMEs and MNCs, and these, together, make Singapore more relevant to the world.

Over the last three years, EDB attracted investments which created about 54,000 jobs across functions, such as production, digital, business services and innovation. These include jobs, such as software engineers, data scientists, lab technicians and consultants, and the majority of these are good paying jobs which are filled by locals.

One reason why companies choose Singapore is our talent pool of local and complementary global talent. The Government and Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) work closely with industry and the Labour Movement to equip our local workforce with relevant skills which companies need. By doing so, we can respond swiftly to the changing global economic landscape and opportunities. For example, Workforce Singapore's Career Conversion Programmes help locals to take on jobs in growth areas, as well as in redesigned job roles due to technological changes.

The Government also works with larger companies to become "Queen Bees" by providing training opportunities for the whole ecosystem. For example, Bosch Rexroth partnered Singapore Polytechnic, Singapore-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce, SSG and JTC to establish the Bosch Rexroth Regional Training Centre, which aims to train 1,500 workers in Industry 4.0 methods and technologies over the next five years. Last year, Siemens also expanded their Advance Manufacturing Transformation Centre (AMTC), in partnership with JTC, SSG and other partners. AMTC will showcase Siemens' digital and industrial software, provide R&D platforms and resources for SMEs, expand training facilities and curricula to help upskill local and regional talent in Industry 4.0 capabilities.

Besides training, MTI has also been working with industry players and IHLs to make engineering and manufacturing careers more attractive to locals, as part of our Manufacturing 2030 strategy. More details will be announced in due course.

Even as we continue to grow our local timber, employers have provided feedback that they find it increasingly challenging to access the talent they require, especially in areas where there are skill shortages. This is a critical challenge we must overcome together, given the slowing growth in our local workforce and the aggressive competition posed by many cities and tech hubs for talent from all around the world.

To stay competitive and resilient, Singapore must remain open to complementary talent. The Government will continue to calibrate changes in our foreign manpower policies to allow companies to access the talent and skills they need to grow our economy and to also ensure that these growth opportunities will create even better jobs for Singaporeans.

Thank you, Speaker. I would like to thank the Minister of State for his reply. I have two supplementary questions.

The first is: of the 54,000 jobs that were created in the last three years from the investments brought in by EDB, that Minister of State has mentioned, could he share, specifically, what is the percentage of these jobs that went to Singaporeans?

Also, related to that question is, for jobs where Singaporeans are currently without the skills or for areas where there are few qualified Singaporeans, how is EDB structuring the new investments such that firms are incentivised to tie the training of local staff and localisation of key positions to their business plans?

I thank the Member for her questions. If I could share about the commitments of the companies and also the incremental number of jobs that will be created when the investments are fully realised, for the investments that EDB has attracted – and I focus on 2021 and these are the companies' own projections – approximately 80% of the jobs with salaries of more than $4,000 will be held by locals. However, this will, obviously, ultimately, depend on prevailing labour market conditions and also the ability of the companies themselves to identify suitable local talent.

On the Member's question how do we then encourage or put our local workforce in the best possible stead to take on these jobs, I want to assure the Member that we take a multi-pronged approach to ensure that Singaporeans can benefit from all of these investments and all of these jobs that are being created. EDB and other agencies, like ESG, SSG and WSG, partner our companies on initiatives to develop their workforce and to create better career pathways for Singaporeans. Bosch and Siemens, which I mentioned in my main reply earlier, are such examples.

We will also continue investing in Singaporeans through our education system and through various continuous education and training programmes such as Adapt and Grow, the Professional Conversion Programmes and SkillsFuture initiatives, for Singaporeans to upgrade themselves and to gain the relevant skills and experience to access these new jobs that we have brought in and the new jobs that are being created.

We also have strong measures in place to ensure that Singaporeans are not discriminated against recruitment practices, such as the Fair Consideration Framework.

I also wanted to supplement this by saying that we regularly get feedback from companies on their challenges to find and also retain talent. Our agencies will continue their efforts to ensure that Singaporeans are equipped with the relevant experience and skills to seize these new opportunities that agencies like EDB bring in and create.

At the same time, this highlights also the necessity of welcoming complementary global talent with the skills, networks and expertise to enable our businesses to grow.

We are also being more focused to attract investments which are capital- and skills-intensive, rather than labour-intensive. In fact, many of the investments that we attracted last year – for example, those from Global Foundries, Sanifi, Dell Technologies – are expected to be highly productive and also to operate with lean workforces.