Limiting dependence on foreign workforce eyed

Singapore should keep the number of foreign workers at current levels, as recommended by the government's economic strategies committee.

"We cannot increase the number of foreign workers as liberally as we did over the last decade, or else we will run up against real physical and social limits," the committee said in a report according to Reuters.

Led by Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the committee set up during the height of last year's recession recommended the city-state tighten its policies on foreign workers to avoid significant increase in the number. Committee member and Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong said, "We want to maintain the current balance as it is, which is about one-third" of the total workforce.

Other recommendations include raising productivity growth to 2-3 percent per annum from 1 percent in the last decade and helping domestic firms expand abroad by setting up a financial institution similar to an export-import bank. The committee's recommendations are up for debate during the upcoming budget on 22 February 2010.