Singapore has to manage inflow of foreign workers: PM Lee

SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said that Singapore will have to manage the inflow of foreign workers to ease the strain on infrastructure even though the country's SMEs faces manpower shortage.

"We have to manage the inflow, we have to manage what we can accommodate in Singapore," Lee told some 400 delegates at Malay Muslim SME conference yesterday.

Singapore has been tightening the inflow of foreign workers in the past few years to help ease the strain on infrastructure, according to a report in The Straits Times today.

Lee, however, acknowledged the shortage of manpower faced by local, small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

He pledged to help local SMEs boost their productivity and make jobs more attractive to locals.

The prime minister said that the government has put in place schemes and grants to address these concerns.

The programmes include state-funded training for students and Productivity and Innovation Credit provides which tax incentives to SMEs investing in equipment that boosts productivity.

The twin thrusts of hiring better workers and raising productivity would put SMEs in a stronger position to venture overseas, Lee said.

The government has made available grants for offsetting upfront costs of market research and for setting up overseas businesses.