How do you as a business leader see the latest tightening of Employment Pass and S Pass criteria?
Maren Schweizer
CEO
Schweizer World Pte Ltd
We are concerned as this comes in parallel to an anti-foreign sentiment. Talents are our business’s biggest asset. Therefore we need continued access to a diverse pool of qualified local and foreign talent.
Since incorporating our first firm Pentex-Schweizer in 1981, we relied on the workforce to expand our businesses. Almost certainly, if a no-foreign-talent policy were pursued instead, Singapore’s average growth rate would be less than the compound average GDP growth of 5 per cent.
For Singapore’s value as a hub and living lab model for emerging technologies, I urge that we safeguard our attractiveness for quality local and foreign talent. These days, we also have to ensure that foreign employees stay and continue transferring their knowledge to locals.
