Written by Our Correspondent
While Singapore continues to turn overseas, especially China for "foreign talent", the Chinese are coming here to lure talented Singaporeans to work in China.
Yesterday, a job fair was held at Suntec City by 18 Chinese financial institutions such as the China Bank, Shanghai Bank and major insurance companies to recruit Singaporeans for 117 vacant positions back in China which includes risk analysts, financial managers, accountants and network engineers.
The offered pay ranges from SGD$60,000 to SGD$250,000 annually. According to Chinese paper Shin Min Daily, about 1,000 Singaporeans turned up for the event.
The person in charge, Mr Zhang Jie for Shanghai said that one key reason why the Chinese companies decide to headhunt for financial professionals in Singapore is that its financial industry is more developed than China's.
Since China began to liberalize its economy in the world, Singapore's leaders, most notably MM Lee Kuan Yew had jumped onto the China bandwagon. China is now one of the largest trade partners of Singapore.
Thousands of mainland Chinese flock to Singapore yearly to study, work and live. Singapore's Ministry of Education also gives out scholarships to bright college Chinese students to study in local varsities.
It appears to be very easy for Chinese to obtain PR and citizenship in Singapore even if they are not really that "talented". Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng revealed that two out of three PR applicants are successful.
A Chinese National by the name of Zhang Yuanyuan, who worked as a Chinese language teacher in a private school, obtained her Singapore PR within 2 months of application.
Two weeks ago, the papers reported a Singapore PR and Chinese National Liu Gui Qing, who was sentenced to nine weeks of prison for setting fire to the fish farm owned by her lover. Astonishingly, her occupation is a cleaner.
According to the National Population Secretariat, there are over 90,000 PRs and 20,000 new citizens last year, a significant proportion of whom are mainland Chinese.
With citizens now making up only 64 per cent of Singapore's 5-million population, the percentage of native Singaporeans born and bred on the island may fall below 50 per cent one day if the current immigration rate continues unabated.
As China becomes more affluent and developed, it may become more difficult for Singapore to lure their "first-world" talent to Singapore and we risked being swarmed by their second or even third class citizens from the poorer regions.
Based on anecdotal evidence, there are fewer Chinese Nationals from the rich coastal cities of Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou who have made Singapore their home than their compatriots from the inner provinces like Hunan, Hubei, Henan, Hebei, Liaoning, Sichuan, Yunnan and Jiangxi.
Ironically, the brain drain may even be reversed in the near future as more and more Singaporeans go over to work in China.
Singaporeans are in a position to take advantage of China's breath-taking growth because of their bilingual education which makes them equally comfortable in both English and Mandarin.
Furthermore, due to similarities in language and culture, they have few difficulties adapting there. With a much lower cost of living, many Singaporeans will probably enjoy a more comfortable life in China than in Singapore.
Law Minister Shanmugam made an open plea to Singaporeans to understand that the need for foreign talent comes against the backdrop of a global ‘war for talent’ by citing a YaleGlobal Online article published in The Straits Times on how India and China are wooing their talented nationals back from the United States.
‘To succeed, we need to get investments into Singapore, encourage local entrepreneurship, become a sophisticated service centre and ensure safety, security and stability. Achieving this, in turn, requires a government that thinks long term, a talented population and collective effort between the people and the Government to implement these policies,” he said.
It will be a joke if Singapore is unable to retain its own talents and instead exchange them for "lesser" talents elsewhere to replenish the brain drain.
Copyright © The Temasek Review, 2009
While Singapore continues to turn overseas, especially China for "foreign talent", the Chinese are coming here to lure talented Singaporeans to work in China.
Yesterday, a job fair was held at Suntec City by 18 Chinese financial institutions such as the China Bank, Shanghai Bank and major insurance companies to recruit Singaporeans for 117 vacant positions back in China which includes risk analysts, financial managers, accountants and network engineers.
The offered pay ranges from SGD$60,000 to SGD$250,000 annually. According to Chinese paper Shin Min Daily, about 1,000 Singaporeans turned up for the event.
The person in charge, Mr Zhang Jie for Shanghai said that one key reason why the Chinese companies decide to headhunt for financial professionals in Singapore is that its financial industry is more developed than China's.
Since China began to liberalize its economy in the world, Singapore's leaders, most notably MM Lee Kuan Yew had jumped onto the China bandwagon. China is now one of the largest trade partners of Singapore.
Thousands of mainland Chinese flock to Singapore yearly to study, work and live. Singapore's Ministry of Education also gives out scholarships to bright college Chinese students to study in local varsities.
It appears to be very easy for Chinese to obtain PR and citizenship in Singapore even if they are not really that "talented". Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng revealed that two out of three PR applicants are successful.
A Chinese National by the name of Zhang Yuanyuan, who worked as a Chinese language teacher in a private school, obtained her Singapore PR within 2 months of application.
Two weeks ago, the papers reported a Singapore PR and Chinese National Liu Gui Qing, who was sentenced to nine weeks of prison for setting fire to the fish farm owned by her lover. Astonishingly, her occupation is a cleaner.
According to the National Population Secretariat, there are over 90,000 PRs and 20,000 new citizens last year, a significant proportion of whom are mainland Chinese.
With citizens now making up only 64 per cent of Singapore's 5-million population, the percentage of native Singaporeans born and bred on the island may fall below 50 per cent one day if the current immigration rate continues unabated.
As China becomes more affluent and developed, it may become more difficult for Singapore to lure their "first-world" talent to Singapore and we risked being swarmed by their second or even third class citizens from the poorer regions.
Based on anecdotal evidence, there are fewer Chinese Nationals from the rich coastal cities of Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou who have made Singapore their home than their compatriots from the inner provinces like Hunan, Hubei, Henan, Hebei, Liaoning, Sichuan, Yunnan and Jiangxi.
Ironically, the brain drain may even be reversed in the near future as more and more Singaporeans go over to work in China.
Singaporeans are in a position to take advantage of China's breath-taking growth because of their bilingual education which makes them equally comfortable in both English and Mandarin.
Furthermore, due to similarities in language and culture, they have few difficulties adapting there. With a much lower cost of living, many Singaporeans will probably enjoy a more comfortable life in China than in Singapore.
Law Minister Shanmugam made an open plea to Singaporeans to understand that the need for foreign talent comes against the backdrop of a global ‘war for talent’ by citing a YaleGlobal Online article published in The Straits Times on how India and China are wooing their talented nationals back from the United States.
‘To succeed, we need to get investments into Singapore, encourage local entrepreneurship, become a sophisticated service centre and ensure safety, security and stability. Achieving this, in turn, requires a government that thinks long term, a talented population and collective effort between the people and the Government to implement these policies,” he said.
It will be a joke if Singapore is unable to retain its own talents and instead exchange them for "lesser" talents elsewhere to replenish the brain drain.
Copyright © The Temasek Review, 2009
