Why Singapore’s workforce needs both openness and a strong local core

[SINGAPORE] In the latest IMD World Competitiveness rankings released in June, Singapore ranked first overall. Yet, the global business executives surveyed identified the adequacy of the country’s labour force as a key weakness for sustaining long-term growth.

While productivity gains and artificial intelligence will help, no advanced economy has fully offset a shrinking and ageing workforce through productivity alone. For Singapore, manpower will increasingly be the binding constraint.

That is why openness to foreign manpower is a matter of economic necessity.