[ValkyrieLenneth]

SINGAPORE will go the way of the dinosaurs, without the influx of permanent residents and new citizens, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong warned on Saturday night.

Making a compelling case for the need to take in more new immigrants, he trotted out various sets of figures to drive home the stark reality Singapore is facing: 'In the last 10 years, the number of people aged 65 and above has grown by about 100,000 while the number of children aged below 15 had shrunk by about 50,000.'

And despite all the efforts to encourage marriage and procreation, the total fertility rate climbed only marginally from 1.26 in 2004 to 1.28 last year - far short of the 2.1 needed to replace father and mother. In absolute terms, Singapore needs about 60,000 babies per year, but last year only 32,400 citizen babies were added.

Calling this an 'unsustainable demographic structure,' SM Goh told residents and grassroots leaders at a Deepa Thirunal event at the Braddell Heights Community Club: 'If we do not take in any more new immigrants, our population will begin to shrink in 2020. That is only 11 years away!

'To sustain our present standard of living, we need to top up our population with immigrants, particularly those with skills, entrepreneurial drive and talent. Without them... our growth rate would be easily 1 to 2 percentage points lower.

'Without the foreign workforce, our flats and MRT will not be built, our buses will come to a standstill, our healthcare services will degrade, and many investors, including Singaporean ones, will uproot and go where talent is abundant. Instead of sacrificing just 1-2 percentage points of growth, our economy will shrink, and our quality of life decline.'

Beyond just sustaining the quality of life here, immigrants enrich the society, said Mr Goh, adding:' Immigrants inject a certain vitality and diversity to our society, adding vibrancy to our economy, and broadening our horizons in other fields like the arts, music, sports, and philanthropy.'

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking...ry_451508.html

[Senator1]

where's our swiss standard of living?

[toomanyhaters]

The government will reap what they sow. The aging population was the result of their draconian population control measures that they enacted during the 1970s. I wonder what Singapore will be with these politicians selling out our crown jewels to any Tom Dick and Harry so that they can continue to stay in power and earn fat salaries while the average Singaporean worker continues to slave away with his/her retirement age ever increasing and CPF locked away.

[Squirrel<3Nuts]

Whatever lah, give up liao. Do what you want. Oh.. they always do what they want anyway. *Shrugs*

[Uyoku]

ehhh so if we have more people in sg, there will be more senior citizen, are the government ready for it?
Previously if im not wrong, there was a time when SG have to find ways to entertain the senior citizens

[Squirrel<3Nuts]

Originally Posted by Uyoku

ehhh so if we have more people in sg, there will be more senior citizen, are the government ready for it?
Previously if im not wrong, there was a time when SG have to find ways to entertain the senior citizens

More than ready. Just import more people loh.

[opuktun]

Originally Posted by ValkyrieLenneth

Without the foreign workforce, our flats and MRT will not be built, our buses will come to a standstill, our healthcare services will degrade, and many investors, including Singaporean ones, will uproot and go where talent is abundant. Instead of sacrificing just 1-2 percentage points of growth, our economy will shrink, and our quality of life decline.'

While the point of maintaining the quality of life was valid, increasing the proportion of FTs abruptly is absurd. The sudden jump from 500,000 (in 1997) to 700,000 (in 1998) to 800,000 (in 2005) to finally 1,200,000 (today) is too drastic!

A more stringent selection of FTs should be done progressively. Probably increment of 50,000 per year would be fine over the decade. Allowing the local Singaporeans to slowly get used to the changes would have minimized the stress that they have been encountering today. It appears to me that the notion was passed without giving much thoughts to the local citizens. The locals were dumped into the sudden predicament of finding their homeland unusually unfamiliar at some point of time.

Another point of note is that the sudden influx could have resulted in the lax selection of FTs into the nation. If the stringent selection has been enforced in the first place, the Zhang Yuan Yuan fiasco could have been avoided! An analogy would be synonymous to entering a club. Supposedly a bouncer of the club were to be stringent and select people to enter, we will usually find long queues and higher demand of entry by the public. Those who got admitted were often of a higher quality (be it in looks or wealth) and the demand to enter this particular club would be higher as well.

[vangel]

all good liah, if immigrants are consumers like us then good for everyone. more biz etc. but if they cheapskate save 90% of income and western union it home thats crap. its understandable to send some and for the contract workers they obviously have to. but all those pros and cons earning so much cannot liah. Kill business, kill jobs then go home wtf !

[ValkyrieLenneth]

Originally Posted by toomanyhaters

The government will reap what they sow. The aging population was the result of their draconian population control measures that they enacted during the 1970s. I wonder what Singapore will be with these politicians selling out our crown jewels to any Tom Dick and Harry so that they can continue to stay in power and earn fat salaries while the average Singaporean worker continues to slave away with his/her retirement age ever increasing and CPF locked away.

n we r the one to take on the dmgs done by their 'foresight'

[christmas_]

Originally Posted by toomanyhaters

The government will reap what they sow. The aging population was the result of their draconian population control measures that they enacted during the 1970s. I wonder what Singapore will be with these politicians selling out our crown jewels to any Tom Dick and Harry so that they can continue to stay in power and earn fat salaries while the average Singaporean worker continues to slave away with his/her retirement age ever increasing and CPF locked away.

agree with you !

the roots of many problems now can be traced back to the govt's policies of the 1960s, 1970s...

[devon]

If the concern is our ageing workforce, i think our elderly citizen still can be employed. Just need to invest in technology that will make work less physically demanding, e.g. McDonald's elderly friendly kiosk ordering system.

[SugarFree]

WHY...because everything: price level is high. Singaporeans curb down or think how they are going to afford if they have children...

[ParamountAssets]

Originally Posted by christmas_

agree with you !

the roots of many problems now can be traced back to the govt's policies of the 1960s, 1970s...

I think it's from the hailed hero Mr LEE KUAN YEW.

[Shi Yuen]

Root cost of baby problem is not of the policy is because of the standard of living now.
LKY sure no complain he got alot of money to spend on babies, but he NEVER EVER bring himself down to a typical singaporean lvl.
WE are starving away most of the time to just earn enough money for ourselves and to pay off loans for the house, so do u think we got enough money to pay for the ever-rising cost of baby products?
And don't think 1 big can of milk powder or 1 big packet of diapers can last for 1 year, It can only last for weeks, at most 2 weeks.
Unless the gov don't do anything about the cost of raising a baby, not many parents will even think of having one unless they accidentally made one =p

[UncleBeng]

In the first place, the govt failed miserably by creating a situation that do not encourage marriage and of course, giving birth. Example of situation they create are, high of cost of living, long hours working with stress, materialism environment, etc etc...

Nevertheless, the govt never blame themselve for it, and to solve the problem with a quick solution, foreign infusion is the key to it, and as long as the base of the problem of the diminishing local population is addressed and altered, foreign infusion will continue till a United Nation rule this country.

[typeX]

Originally Posted by Uyoku

ehhh so if we have more people in sg, there will be more senior citizen, are the government ready for it?
Previously if im not wrong, there was a time when SG have to find ways to entertain the senior citizens

Don't need... Khaw said to ship them all over the JB and let them retire there!

“My personal view is, our land is expensive. But we have nearby neighbours in Johor, Batam and Bintan. The elderly want to reach their doctors within half to one hour. So retirement villages in neighbouring countries is possible, barring the cross-border hassle. It is best to find cheap land on short leases.”

[shingshing]

Many of us may not like it but we have to live with it.

In 10yrs-20yrs time, those foreigners will talk like us, dress like us, think like us and behave like typical Singaporeans and once again, we're all one big family again.

[Darkhao]

high cost of living is the main reason
they shld consider abt doing more for sg economy

[shypineapple]

& that is why I don't wanna have kids. >.>
all they have to do is to admit their mistakes back in the 70's back then. ( regarding the one child policy back then ).

[JeForceX]

The government is always right.
The citizens' opinions are always wrong.

What to do, we have no choice but to obey the gods' command.