SINGAPORE needs to pursue a twin strategy – of staying open and developing local – in order to continue thriving, said Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Tuesday (Oct 18).

“Openness is in fact the basic driver of human progress,” Wong said at the Singapore Economic Policy Forum 2022 held at Regent Singapore. “History is full of examples of large empires and civilisations that flourished when they were open to new ideas, people and technologies; and that went into decline when they put up barriers.”

One example, he said, is ancient China, which stagnated in the 15th century after it closed itself to the world. The reason the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution started in Western Europe is that the region happened to be the most open.

“This is not the story of the triumph of the West; it is the story of the triumph of openness,” he said. “And we in Singapore are the embodiment of the story. We have thrived on being open.”

He warned against populism and economic nationalism, as well as proposals that are “too good to be true”, adding that Singapore too is not immune to such populist claims.

For example, getting rid of foreigners does not mean the jobs would automatically go to Singaporeans, he said, noting that many Singaporeans’ jobs would instead be lost if the Republic became overly restrictive on global companies based here.

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Wong, who is also finance minister, said he hopes conversations conducted through the Forward Singapore exercise would help Singaporeans better understand the need to stay open and “reject any attempts to move us away from this basic, fundamental orientation”.

Emphasising the need for a “double-barrel strategy” to “stay open and develop local”, Wong said the Republic must continue to attract the best companies and top talent to Singapore so that it can have the best teams here to do “cutting-edge work and push the frontiers of possibilities”.

At the same time, the government’s assurance to Singaporeans is that it will redouble efforts to develop and support every worker and professional, he said.

This will be done through continually updated manpower policies to manage the flow of work-pass holders and to ensure employers adopt fair employment practices, although he added that a “fundamental upgrading” of Singapore’s training ecosystem is needed.

This is because for many workers, short bouts of upskilling from time to time would not be enough when industries are undergoing dramatic change.

It may thus be necessary to provide more through SkillsFuture Credit, giving employees peace of mind, time off and support to focus solely on upgrading. It should also be coupled with close partnership between industry and training providers, he said.

“We have studied many countries – there are very few good models, in this case. Some good practices in certain industries, but no country has a comprehensive nationwide system of adult education and training that achieves all that I just described,” he said.

Singapore is distilling best practices from around the world, he added, in its quest to build a more effective and comprehensive SkillsFuture system.

While the government is also looking to better support displaced workers, Wong said it is important to design this support properly, as a welfare system could inadvertently become a disincentive for displaced workers to stay employed.

Singapore also needs to strengthen multiple pathways of progression, allowing people with different talents to flourish, he said, adding that broader change would need to happen in the economy.

“It still places too much of a premium on cognitive abilities – what we deem ‘head’ work – and does not value sufficiently those engaging in other forms of work, such as technical roles which tend to be more ‘hands-on’ work, or service and community care roles which tend to be more ‘heart’ work,” he said.

He added this is seen “worryingly” in the growing divergence in the starting pay for vocational, polytechnic and university graduates, and this earning gap increases over their lifetimes.

The government is tackling this in a few ways, such as by increasing the Local Qualifying Salaries and by uplifting the wages of lower-income workers through the Progressive Wage Model.

He said: “Ultimately, our promise must be this: regardless of which path you take, as long as you work hard and continually upskill, you will be accorded recognition for your skills, given opportunities to advance and be rewarded fairly for your effort.”

The forum, organised by the Economic Society of Singapore, was attended by about 180 participants, including academics, educators and economists from the public and private sector.