SINGAPORE: Former Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has expressed concerns over Singapore's low fertility rate.
He was speaking in Mandarin and English at the Tanjong Pagar-Tiong Bahru National Day celebration dinner on Saturday.
Mr Lee said Singapore's birth rates have been steadily declining.
He stressed that Singaporeans are not reproducing themselves.
Giving some simple statistics, Mr Lee said the Chinese reproduction rate is 1.08 - with two Chinese becoming one in the next generation.
For the Indians, the rate is 1.09, and for the Malays - 1.64.
"If we go on like that, this place will fold up, because there'll be no original citizens left to form the majority, and we cannot have new citizens, new PRs to settle our social ethos, our social spirit, our social norms. So my message is a simple one. The answer is very difficult but the problems, if we don't find the answers, are enormous," said Mr Lee.
- CNA/ir
He was speaking in Mandarin and English at the Tanjong Pagar-Tiong Bahru National Day celebration dinner on Saturday.
Mr Lee said Singapore's birth rates have been steadily declining.
He stressed that Singaporeans are not reproducing themselves.
Giving some simple statistics, Mr Lee said the Chinese reproduction rate is 1.08 - with two Chinese becoming one in the next generation.
For the Indians, the rate is 1.09, and for the Malays - 1.64.
"If we go on like that, this place will fold up, because there'll be no original citizens left to form the majority, and we cannot have new citizens, new PRs to settle our social ethos, our social spirit, our social norms. So my message is a simple one. The answer is very difficult but the problems, if we don't find the answers, are enormous," said Mr Lee.
- CNA/ir