NTUC wants one foreign worker to two Singaporeans

THE current ratio of one foreign worker to two Singaporeans is optimal and this has to be kept under firm control, even as employers complain that it is difficult to find enough staff, said Mr Yeo Guat Kwang, director for Quality Work-life and All Nationalities at the National Trades Union Congress. 

He added that the 1.05 million foreign workers here make up close to one-third of Singapore’s total workforce.

Such a statement coming from a member of NTUC is highly disturbing , Especially so when the purpose of a NATION TRADE UNION , is to defend the interest of its worker . Which in the case of NTUC , is the Singaporean Worker. There is without doubt that all along , Singapore has been reliant on foreign workers and its expertise. From the day of our independence we have made use of them for their economically expertise; Albert Winsemius to our need of manual labour ; China construction worker.

Yet today there is an implosion of their numbers , that even a country like Singapore who has an multicultural background and is used to foreign immigrant is getting sick and fatigue by it. At a ratio of 2 Singapore:1 Foreigner , are they really here to create jobs for singaporean? as mentioned by our esteem minister or here to steal them. With the lack of commitment , they are known to undercut local wages causing wages depression. Moreover with the lack of CPF and reservist they seem to be cheaper and perhaps more reliable to companies. Which is ironic in a certain sense , as they commitment to the nation is rewarded with disadvantage , not to mention the opportunity cost these Singaporean incur.

It is easy to paint an optimistic picture with statistical result of GDP growth and such , but are they real growthYet they posted impressive economical growth , is that the case for Singaporean too?. In fact if it maintain its impressive growth it economy could easily be larger then the US by 2035 , but even if it does . Do the growth trickle down to the general populace or is it just paper growth?

Which lead to a serious question on our current growth model . Where we aim to compete with labour cheap country with higher productivity , but is it ironic that our government uses massive imports of foreigners to achieve that goal?. Which led to no surprised when Singapore ranked quite lowly amongst developed nation for productivity , as instead of investing in technology and hire capable staff , companies look at short term gain and hire incompetent staff to “produce” their supplies , since its so cheap if needed we just hire more. Rather then develop innovative methods are investing in technology. There is no doubt such a direction is due to the government loose immigration policy. Look at Qian Hu , when there is a lack of worker the shift to technology . This one man may cost more due to him being higher skilled but its still more cost efficient.

There is no doubt that there are skilled foreigners , but are they all skilled or as productive, when their main advantage is them being cheaper?

So perhaps if the government expect us to to cheaper , why not perhaps lower your cost of living , before spouting nonsense again:) . Also your policies seems to be a contradiction where you planned to push Singapore into a economic where we require lesser but highly skilled worker , yet on the other hand you have massive import restricting such a switch in our economy.