Chan Chun Sing on raising the salary criteria for EP and S Pass holders: We want quality

The new rules to limit foreign worker visas won’t affect Singapore’s status as a business hub, Mr Chan said Friday in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin.

In another interview with CNA on Saturday, Mr Chan said: “The way to interpret the recent changes is this, we are making a move towards quality, rather than quantity … and this is what we have done progressively over the years.

“Whenever the economic conditions require it, we will progressively adjust the qualifying salaries for the foreign employees coming into Singapore because 𝐢𝐧 𝐝𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬, 𝐰𝐞 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞, 𝐢𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝.”

He added: in doing this, we raise the headroom for Singaporeans to compete while at the same time, it doesn’t affect the really top tier of talent that we want to attract from the world.