Lack of skilled labour considered as number one constraint to growth

The recently announced changes to foreign workers levy for the lower skilled worker will add up to business costs.

According to Grant Thornton's IBR, 41% of Singapore businesses said lack of skilled labour is the number one constraint to growth. This is a 14% point increase from last year's Grant Thornton's International Business Report.

Fast growing economies in the Asia Pacific region (excluding) Japan are faced with skills shortage dilemma.

Aw Eng Hai, partner of Foo Kon Tan Grant Thornton LLP said, “A clamour for skilled people will cause wages to rise and add onto business costs; invariably narrowing competitive edge. Not forgetting the recently announced changes to CPF and foreign workers levy for the lower skilled worker will all add up to business costs.”

Other factors cited by Singapore businesses being growth dampeners include shortage of orders/reduced demand (31%), shortage of working capital (27%), cost of finance (22%), ICT infrastructure (21%), shortage of long term finance (19%),regulations/red tape (16%) and transport infrastructure (13%).

Reaching the people who run Asia's businesses is harder than it used to be.

Inboxes are crowded. Attention is short. The executives you most want to reach — the founders, CFOs, and operators who actually move budgets — are the hardest to find through the usual channels. If you're building a company, a category, or a reputation, you already know this.

We've spent twenty years building the room they read. Singapore Business Review is where senior decision makers in Singapore and across Southeast Asia come for business coverage they can't get elsewhere — in print, online, and in person at the summits and roundtables we host across seven markets.

If you have something these readers should know about — a point of view worth publishing, a product worth their attention, an event worth their time — we'd like to hear what you're trying to do.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia