New Permits for Singapore Temporary Foreign Workers

A Hong Kong based financial consultancy ‘Zetland’ reported that Singapore government recently announced a few changes in the work permit system as it has reconfigured the permit system for Temporary foreign workers because of a flood of labourers from abroad in Singapore. The professional visit pass was abolished by the Singapore government on February 1st and they issue two new work passes instead which will be valid for upto 60 days and the work permit would have a maximum duration of about 6 months. Adding to that, foreigners can now enter Singapore without a work pass and can take part in some skill based activities for a short period of time.

However this decision has made the native Singaporeans dislike the decision which is why the Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, appealed that Singapore people should take it positively and acknowledge the contribution made by them positively. Urging to that he said, “We have the foreign workers here, and that's why our economy has grown enormously, that's why the companies are here. That's why Singaporeans have jobs in such big numbers”. In Singapore the foreigners make up about one third of the national workforce which is why the companies in Singapore are allowed to hire about 50% of foreign workers out of the total labour force, of which the Chinese workers contribute the largest to the total population of Skilled foreign workers in Singapore. The Prime Minister urged that the foreign workers are hard working and they accept working for longer hours than others. However, the flow of foreign workers would be controlled by putting up a certain limit on the total number on each category which would help the Singaporeans also keep an edge on the job front. “They are not here to steal our jobs but to help us enlarge the economic pie,” said the Prime Minister.
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