Reduce reliance on low-skilled foreign labour: Mr Lim Hng Kiang

The Minister for Trade and Industry cited this as among the things Singapore needs to do for more sustainable and inclusive growth.

In a speech on 29 September 2011, Mr Lim Hng Kiang said, “We need to move towards a productivity-driven growth strategy. On top of that, we must also step up our efforts in innovation, upgrading the skill sets of our workforce and reducing our reliance on low-skilled foreign labour for more sustainable and inclusive growth.” This is, according to the Minister, to enable Singapore to capitalize the growth opportunities in emerging Asian markets.

Here’s an excerpt of the speech:

Last year, the Government has established the National Productivity and Continuing Education Council (NPCEC) to oversee and drive the national effort to boost productivity. A National Productivity Fund (NPF) was also set up to support this push to improve productivity levels. All in all, productivity plans across ten industry sectors of Singapore’s economy have been endorsed by the NPCEC.

The need to constantly innovate and improve is particularly important for the small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) as they play a crucial role in our economy. Today, SMEs in Singapore employ seven out of every 10 workers and contribute 60 per cent of national GDP. But just how should SMEs ride on the current growth momentum to grow their businesses and accelerate their pace of internationalization? How do local businesses deliver greater value-add to a global marketplace and strive to distinguish themselves? These could be just some of the vital questions that SMEs should be thinking about.

To help these enterprises along, SPRING Singapore, as part of its EnterpriseOne network, has set up a total of five Enterprise Development Centres (EDCs) that offer SMEs the use of the Productivity Management Programme (PMP).

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