Commentaries, Politics, Top Story - February 9, 2010 - 678 views - 28 Comments

Conflicting signals from Government over foreign manpower policy

By Ng E-Jay

The government appears to be sending out conflicting signals over its foreign manpower policy, a possible indication that rising concerns over the liberal import of foreign workers in recent years are starting to overwhelm decision makers in the PAP cabinet.

Last Sunday, Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong told the media during a visit to Nee Soon Central that when scaling down our dependence on foreign workers, we have to take into account business cycles. [1]

Mr Gan said that when the economy is doing very well, we need to allow it (the import of foreign labour) to expand a little bit within some limits.

In his own words as quoted by Channel News Asia: “In a recession, we have to monitor the situation and allow the foreign worker population to come down, but when the economy recovers, we have to be very careful, (and) calibrate our response carefully, otherwise you may stifle the economic recovery.”

The Manpower Minister appears to be articulating the point that the government will adjust the inflow of foreign workers according to economic conditions so as to balance the supply and demand of labour. Continue…