Decision Made To Reduce Foreign Worker Inflow Made In 2010

Do you know that the decision to tighten the inflow of foreign workers was made in 2010 before the general election in 2011? 

It has nothing to do with Workers' Party.

It took a few years before results became more visible. Why? Because policy change is not accomplished in one giant step. They are implemented gradually so as not to cause upheavals to businesses.

Businesses have to be given time to adjust to a reduction in the number of workers and to find new models of doing business. If businesses are hurt, ultimately it is Singaporeans who are hurt. 

Here's an excerpt from Budget Speech 2010: 

C.7. To complement investments in productivity, we must also manage the supply of foreign workers. If we make low cost foreign workers too readily available, employers will not have sufficient incentive to upgrade their operations and upskill their workers.....

C.11. We now need to take calibrated steps to manage our dependence on foreign workers. They already comprise almost a third of the total workforce, and there are social and physical limits to how many more we can absorb....we should moderate the growth of the foreign workforce, and avoid a continuous increase in its proportion to the total workforce.

C.12. The best way to do this is.....by raising foreign worker levies........We will phase in higher levies gradually over the next three years, so that companies know well in advance what will happen and have time to adjust.
 
C.13. The increase in levies will be complemented by the strong financial support from the Government, through tax benefits and grants to help businesses that invest to raise their employees’ skills, to improve efficiency or to create more value. In fact, over the next five years, the government financial support that the business sector will receive for productivity upgrading will be significantly larger than the additional payment they have to make in foreign worker levies.

Ref:  http://www.singaporebudget.gov.sg/budget_2010/speech_toc/pc.html#s6