RATIO OF CIVIL SERVICE WORKFORCE

Mr Kenneth Chen Koon Lap asked the Minister for Finance what is the ratio of the workforce in the civil service compared to the private sector; and whether this compares favourably with Germany or Japan which has a ratio of 1.4% and UK which has a ratio of 1.9%.

Dr Richard Hu Tsu Tau: The Singapore Civil Service staff strength in 1997 was 65,575. If statutory board employees were also included, the total public sector staff strength would be 114,466. As a percentage of the national labour force, these figures work out to 3.5% and 6.1% respectively.

It is hard to meaningfully compare these figures with those of other countries. Operating environments for countries differ with size of population, level of development and the needs of the populace. The structure of government also affects the computation of such figures. For instance, the UK civil service constituted 475,200 or 1.7% of the national labour force in 1997 but if local authorities are included, the figure would be 8.7% of the national labour force.

In regard to the size of the civil service, Government's goal has always been to keep it lean and trim so as to release more manpower to the private sector which is the engine of economic growth. While this is so, it is also important that the civil service should be efficient and effective at the same time. In this regard, Members of Parliament would be pleased to know that our civil service has been rated the least bureaucratic in a 1998 survey of businessmen conducted by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd. The US-based Business Environment Risk Intelligence (BERI) has also ranked Singapore top among the 47 countries worldwide in government proficiency in 1997, for the 5th year running.