Debated in Parliament on 12 Nov 2013.
Mr R Dhinakaran asked the Acting Minister for Manpower (a) how many foreign employment passes were not renewed in the first half of this year; and (b) what was the breakdown in terms of the type of employment pass and which were the industries/professions that the employment pass holders belonged to.
Mdm Speaker, in the first half of 2013, about 2,600 Employment Passes (EPs) have not been renewed, of which slightly more than half were Q1 Pass holders. The top industries for these EP holders were Wholesale and Retail Trade, Professional Services and Information and Communications. This is very likely due to the tightening of the EP qualifying criteria implemented in January 2012, as part of the Government's effort to raise the quality profile of foreign professionals working here.
Madam, I would like to ask the Acting Minister whether MOM has received any complaints from MNCs which are engaged in this kind of industries because of the tight labour market; whether they are complaining saying that they want to move out of Singapore which may adversely affect our citizens' employment opportunities.
Mdm Speaker, we are constantly in dialogue with the various chambers of commerce. As a result of tightening, I would suggest that it is not just foreign companies but local companies as well, that have expressed concerns. As the Member has rightly pointed out, this is one consideration that companies will look at. I have said before in this House that the competitiveness that Singapore offers extends beyond a diverse and open labour market. There are many pluses that are going our way: rule of law, transparency, flexibility, the infrastructure and so on. All these go into the consideration of any company operating here.
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Having an open diverse workforce is beneficial and it does eventually benefit Singaporeans as well. So, these are ongoing discussions we have with various companies, both local and foreign. We are very mindful of their concerns. That is why I think we do take a calibrated approach and we proceed quite carefully on this front.
The overall message is consistent. We do need to tighten and we do need to move on to a much more productivity-led growth as well as a more manpower-lean approach towards growth.
PAPERCUTS