Integrating foreigners into Singapore should start at the workplace

Workplace integration programmes can strengthen social cohesion and help Singapore stay ahead in the fight for global talent.

- Musa Fazal

The war for global talent is ruthless and opinions change quickly.

In February, Bloomberg reported that multinational corporations are increasingly choosing Singapore over Hong Kong for their Asia headquarters to tap our broader talent pool. Then barely five months later, it published an opinion piece arguing that Singapore's recent manpower policies risked "turn(ing) foreign companies away".

Perceptions shift in the blink of an eye. It's small wonder, then, that the top five economies in Swiss business school IMD's World Competitiveness Ranking (Singapore, Switzerland, Denmark, Ireland and Hong Kong) keep switching the pole position among themselves, with Singapore claiming top spot this year. All are small, open economies with similar strengths, credited for being nimble and agile, and well-known for being diverse, cosmopolitan and welcoming to global talent.

Competition for global talent is now coming even from countries that were traditionally thought of as net exporters of talent. Recent findings from Indeed.com show that searches for jobs in India surged by 60 per cent between June 2021 and June 2024, while outbound job searches declined by 17 per cent over the same period as more Indian professionals chose to take up opportunities at home.

As I highlighted in an opinion piece in The Straits Times earlier this year, Singapore needs to grow its foreign manpower to realise its 2 to 3 per cent economic growth targets. This is just simple mathematics for a country with limited local manpower, and a fertility rate that has dropped to historic lows.