Commentary: Will new work pass make top talent ‘sit up, pay attention’ to Singapore?

SINGAPORE: Upon Monday (Aug 29), Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng announced a new Overseas Networks & Expertise Move to attract top worldwide talent from any sector to work within Singapore, along with other policy measures to keep the country competitive in the fight for talent.

This comes after Best Minister Lee Hsien Loong, at the Nationwide Day Rally on Aug 21, reiterated the strategic need for Singapore to stay open to the planet and to build up the “world-class talent pool”.

Switching insular is not an alternative for Singapore, inspite of the apparent retreat of globalisation arising from the particular COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical tensions and high inflation, all of which have got collectively disrupted trade and spurred protectionism across the world.

Our export-oriented economy means we thrive when you are relevant to the world . Singapore also owes a large part of its productive capacity in order to foreign investment plus global talent inside the ranks of its workforce.

RENEWING FOCUS ON THE PARTICULAR CONTEST FOR SKILL

The truth is that advanced and emerging economies are fighting for all the talent they can get.  

From antiquity to the present day, nations have thrived by taking in foreigners and tapping their own expertise and innovations. More than half of US start-ups valued at US$1 billion or more had been founded by immigrants, according to a 2022 report by the Nationwide Foundation for United states Policy.

Aside from the United Kingdom and Indonesia, cited in Mister Lee’s speech, Tiongkok launched a Thousand Talents Plan in 08, recently rebranded because the National High-end International Experts Recruitment Program. The French Passeport Skill allows employees and self-employed persons to call home in France for up to four years, with their spouses and children entitled to work.