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24-07-13, 18:42
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/premium/singapore/entrepreneurs-urge-govt-review-foreign-worker-quota-20130724
Published July 24, 2013
Entrepreneurs urge govt to review foreign worker quota
By malminderjit singh
ENTREPRENEURS here called for the government to review and ease its quota on foreign workers as the lack of available talent surfaced as a key concern for the start-up community in Singapore.
They see this as a key constraint to expanding their businesses here, a more pressing concern than the availability of government grants.
The big problem of course is the lack of talent as start-ups have to compete for the small pool of qualified Singaporeans to choose from, participants at the first dialogue session held by the Entrepreneurship Review Committee (EnRC) yesterday said.
"A lot of locals are attracted to MNCs (to work) as we are all taught since our schooldays that the MNCs will be the preferred employer. So, we are losing all the talent to bigger companies and because we are a start-up, we cannot afford to pay the sort of salaries the MNCs are paying," Jan Tan from Globehoppers Inc told The Business Times.
Ms Tan said that the next best alternative was for start-ups to look into bringing in foreigners to work in their companies. "However, with the kind of policies for the foreign worker levies and quota, it is making it difficult for the start-ups here to survive."
In some instances, particularly in the service sector, it is more frustrating for the start-ups, as the foreign candidates for the positions they are looking to hire are immensely qualified but have to be turned away, adding to the unavailability of talent.
"The issue that Singapore companies in service industries face is that Singaporeans do not want to work in our kind of industries. Sometimes, for fresh graduates, we offer them $3,000 (monthly) pay to join as a management trainee and be a store-manager, but they often reject because they either choose to join an MNC or an administrative job so the locals don't want to work in the service industry," said Wong Kai Jun, managing director of the Play Nation Group.
On the other hand, Ms Wong added, the quality of foreign applicants is very high. "We receive about 100 resumes every day out of which about 90 per cent are from foreigners and some of them have good qualifications, even first-class degree holders. So, we see the talent but we are not able to take them in."
She said that while there are business opportunities and money to be made in Singapore, but due to the current government regulations on the tightening of foreign manpower, businesses here cannot grow as there are not enough qualified people to work for them.
This constraint for start-ups to expand could also hurt the future of value-added jobs for Singaporeans, explained Dr Ong Peng Tsin, chairman of Infocomm Investments and a member of the EnRC.
Many of these start-ups involve high value-added work, he said, and since they have not been able to expand here due to this constraint on bringing in foreign expertise to work in their set-up, it also means that top local graduates in these fields have to venture abroad to find these jobs. As a result, Dr Ong added, many of Singapore's top computer science graduates have moved to the Silicon Valley to get jobs, which pay them as much as six-figure salaries, as there is no critical mass of such companies here for them to thrive in.
The problem may also lie with the way foreign manpower is measured in Singapore, said Finian Tan, chairman of Vickers Financial Group and also a member of the EnRC. "The way we measure the worth of our foreign talent is through salary - certain salary caps for different types of employment permits. But that doesn't work for start-ups as start-ups don't pay people (high) salaries, they pay people low salaries and ask you to believe in them and give you work-life balance, shares and options. How then do you measure all this and to see if the person qualifies, so that needs to be rethinked."
Moreover, Dr Tan added, what was most important now was for Singapore companies to internationalise, but the restriction on foreign hires may restrict these start-ups from doing so. "Just because we speak Chinese, it doesn't mean that we can go into China as we will need to know the culture, the way of doing business and their lifestyle. For this, we may need to hire someone from China and give him a share of the business."
Yesterday's EnRC dialogue session was held with 30 entrepreneurs from the start-up community. Teo Ser Luck, Minister of State for Trade and Industry and chairman of the Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE) which is spearheading the review effort, was also present at the session and was encouraged that the participants did not focus on getting more government grants but instead wanted assistance in helping them become more resourceful and create platform for opportunities for them. As such, he said that ACE will review how to better use its resources and issue grants, in a way that it does not hamper the development of entrepreneurs here if it becomes spoon-feeding them.
The next EnRC session will be held on Aug 13 with the venture capitalist community. Members of the public may email [email protected] to provide feedback for the review process.
Published July 24, 2013
Entrepreneurs urge govt to review foreign worker quota
By malminderjit singh
ENTREPRENEURS here called for the government to review and ease its quota on foreign workers as the lack of available talent surfaced as a key concern for the start-up community in Singapore.
They see this as a key constraint to expanding their businesses here, a more pressing concern than the availability of government grants.
The big problem of course is the lack of talent as start-ups have to compete for the small pool of qualified Singaporeans to choose from, participants at the first dialogue session held by the Entrepreneurship Review Committee (EnRC) yesterday said.
"A lot of locals are attracted to MNCs (to work) as we are all taught since our schooldays that the MNCs will be the preferred employer. So, we are losing all the talent to bigger companies and because we are a start-up, we cannot afford to pay the sort of salaries the MNCs are paying," Jan Tan from Globehoppers Inc told The Business Times.
Ms Tan said that the next best alternative was for start-ups to look into bringing in foreigners to work in their companies. "However, with the kind of policies for the foreign worker levies and quota, it is making it difficult for the start-ups here to survive."
In some instances, particularly in the service sector, it is more frustrating for the start-ups, as the foreign candidates for the positions they are looking to hire are immensely qualified but have to be turned away, adding to the unavailability of talent.
"The issue that Singapore companies in service industries face is that Singaporeans do not want to work in our kind of industries. Sometimes, for fresh graduates, we offer them $3,000 (monthly) pay to join as a management trainee and be a store-manager, but they often reject because they either choose to join an MNC or an administrative job so the locals don't want to work in the service industry," said Wong Kai Jun, managing director of the Play Nation Group.
On the other hand, Ms Wong added, the quality of foreign applicants is very high. "We receive about 100 resumes every day out of which about 90 per cent are from foreigners and some of them have good qualifications, even first-class degree holders. So, we see the talent but we are not able to take them in."
She said that while there are business opportunities and money to be made in Singapore, but due to the current government regulations on the tightening of foreign manpower, businesses here cannot grow as there are not enough qualified people to work for them.
This constraint for start-ups to expand could also hurt the future of value-added jobs for Singaporeans, explained Dr Ong Peng Tsin, chairman of Infocomm Investments and a member of the EnRC.
Many of these start-ups involve high value-added work, he said, and since they have not been able to expand here due to this constraint on bringing in foreign expertise to work in their set-up, it also means that top local graduates in these fields have to venture abroad to find these jobs. As a result, Dr Ong added, many of Singapore's top computer science graduates have moved to the Silicon Valley to get jobs, which pay them as much as six-figure salaries, as there is no critical mass of such companies here for them to thrive in.
The problem may also lie with the way foreign manpower is measured in Singapore, said Finian Tan, chairman of Vickers Financial Group and also a member of the EnRC. "The way we measure the worth of our foreign talent is through salary - certain salary caps for different types of employment permits. But that doesn't work for start-ups as start-ups don't pay people (high) salaries, they pay people low salaries and ask you to believe in them and give you work-life balance, shares and options. How then do you measure all this and to see if the person qualifies, so that needs to be rethinked."
Moreover, Dr Tan added, what was most important now was for Singapore companies to internationalise, but the restriction on foreign hires may restrict these start-ups from doing so. "Just because we speak Chinese, it doesn't mean that we can go into China as we will need to know the culture, the way of doing business and their lifestyle. For this, we may need to hire someone from China and give him a share of the business."
Yesterday's EnRC dialogue session was held with 30 entrepreneurs from the start-up community. Teo Ser Luck, Minister of State for Trade and Industry and chairman of the Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE) which is spearheading the review effort, was also present at the session and was encouraged that the participants did not focus on getting more government grants but instead wanted assistance in helping them become more resourceful and create platform for opportunities for them. As such, he said that ACE will review how to better use its resources and issue grants, in a way that it does not hamper the development of entrepreneurs here if it becomes spoon-feeding them.
The next EnRC session will be held on Aug 13 with the venture capitalist community. Members of the public may email [email protected] to provide feedback for the review process.