Simon Tay quoted on foreign labour in Singapore

This story was featured in the Business Times (Singapore) newspaper and Channel NewsAsia on 11 October 2011.

Singapore’s dependence on foreign labour is currently the highest among East Asian economies.

This came through at a two-hour discussion on Tuesday among employers, union leaders and economic experts at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA).

They met to discuss issues regarding Singapore’s foreign labour policy as part of an ongoing research project by Senior Research Fellow Dr Chia Siow Yue.

The project is funded by the International Development Research Centre of Canada.

The discussion noted that increased foreign labour in Singapore has resulted in growing discontent among the resident labour force, which has voiced concerns over the large number of foreign workers entering the job market as well as the overcrowding of transport and housing services.

But those who attended also emphasised the need to recognise the importance of having foreign workers in a resource-scarce economy.

“Having agreed that foreign labour is important for Singapore, it is now about understanding how it can be managed to ensure the needs of resident Singaporeans are not neglected while making certain that foreign workers are not exploited either,” said chairman of the SIIA, Professor Simon Tay.

The meeting concluded with parties discussing ways to increase labour productivity so that foreign labour dependency can be reduced, and relations between resident and non-resident workforce can be improved.

A 2009 study showed that the highest levels of foreign worker dependency was in the construction industry, at 71 per cent, followed by the manufacturing industry, at 48 per cent.