JOB OPPORTUNITIES IN SINGAPORE

JOB OPPORTUNITIES IN SINGAPORE:

(Assistance to foreigners to take up): 11.

Mdm Ho Geok Choo asked the Minister for Manpower (a) what are the Ministry's plans to fill jobs with foreign and guest workers in light of the Singapore economy expecting to generate some 450,000 jobs in the next five years and the local workforce only filling half of these jobs; and (b) what efforts are being made to identify and help foreigners to come to Singapore to take up these jobs.

The Minister of State for Manpower (Mr Gan Kim Yong) (for the Minister for Manpower): Mr Speaker, Sir, our foreign worker policies are designed to be flexible and responsive to the demands of the market. The Government does not supply foreign workers to companies, but leaves it to them to recruit from various sources. MOM ensures that the prevailing foreign worker quotas are realistic, given the state of the economy.

As mentioned during MOM's Committee of Supply debate, we should not limit the growth of our economy only to what the local workforce can sustain. Various measures were also announced then. For example, the S Pass quota will be raised from 10% to 15% from 1st June 2007 to give businesses more access to mid-skilled manpower. Certain regulations in the construction and

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process sectors have also been eased to help meet the anticipated manpower needs, given the upcoming big projects. All these measures will help businesses meet their manpower needs.

Mdm Ho also asked what efforts are being made to identify and help foreigners to come to Singapore to take up these jobs. While the Government does not perform a job-matching service for foreign workers, we recognise that it is important in this era of global competition for talent, that we help companies by promoting Singapore to overseas talent. Our Employment Pass framework facilitates the entry of global talent recruited by companies, and there are no quota restrictions. MOM recently introduced the Personalised Employment Pass (PEP) to better attract and retain talented foreign professionals. There are already more than 700 PEP holders. In addition, Contact Singapore helps Singapore-based employers and economic agencies reach out to targeted talent groups overseas.

Mdm Ho Geok Choo: Sir, I have three supplementary questions for the MOS:

(1) What kind of guidelines is the Ministry drawing up to ensure that there will be organised programmes to bring about a more consistent performance standard among foreigners who come to work in Singapore?

(2) What is the Ministry doing with regard to programmes on integrating foreigners with the Singaporean workforce? and

(3) How does the Ministry go about ensuring that the foreign workforce in Singapore would be protected from unscrupulous employers?

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Mr Speaker, Sir, MOM has always been working very closely with our tripartite partners, ie, the NTUC, WDA, as well as the Singapore

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National Employers Federation, to look at how we could help train our foreign workers to prepare them better for the environment in Singapore. We also produce guidelines for both employers as well as employees, to help them integrate into our society so that they find their experience working in Singapore a pleasant one. Only by doing so will we be able to attract more foreign talent and to retain them in Singapore.

With regard to the last question on the protection of foreign workers, in fact, this has been a key focus of MOM over the years, and we want to make sure that for the foreign workers who are here to contribute to our economy, their interests are protected no less than our Singaporean workers.

Mr Zaqy Mohamad: Mr Speaker, Sir, a couple of supplementary questions:

(1) I know a lot of these jobs that we are trying to fill consist of a lot of mid-skilled and PMET jobs. What are the priority areas that the Ministry is looking at to upskill Singaporeans to fill in this higher-value job set?

(2) Do we have a projected percentage that we are looking to fill with Singaporeans, since we are also looking at a lot of these foreign jobs? and

(3) What is being done to ensure that Singaporeans are not left out of these jobs, particularly the higher value-added and PMET jobs?

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Mr Speaker, Sir, indeed, it is one of our key concerns to ensure that our Singaporeans will continue to be able to find good jobs as we create new opportunities for them. With regard specifically to PMETs, we announced recently the introduction of a professional conversion programme and this is targeted at mid-skilled Singaporeans, to train them for specific sectors that we foresee would have a

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rising demand. Through this conversion programme, we will help them to switch careers and equip them with the skills necessary for these new sectors of growth. This is one example, and we will continue to help them. But we also have to recognise that some of these PMET employees have their own individual needs which are different from the general workers. So we need to hold their hands more closely. We will find ways to help them as we go along.

With regard to Mr Zaqy's second question on the projected numbers that we are expecting to fill, either through the education system or future workforce, in terms of our projection, we mentioned that, over the next five years, we are going to create some 450,000 job opportunities. Among these 450,000 job opportunities that we are going to create, we do not have specific targets, because these are macro numbers. But we do believe that, because most of these jobs will be service-related and in the service sector in Singapore, by and large, the majority will continue to be Singaporeans and, therefore, most of these jobs will be Singaporean-based.