Leader of Opposition Pritam Singh asked in Parliament on Monday (Sep 12) if the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) could promote and track the transfer of skills to Singaporeans by those holding the new Overseas Networks and Expertise (One) Pass.
The One Pass targets top foreign talent with a fixed monthly salary of S$30,000 or more from a single employer. Pass holders can hold multiple jobs or start one or more businesses.
“Individuals with outstanding achievements across the arts and culture, sports, science and technology, and research and academia, can also qualify even if they may not meet the salary criterion,” noted MOM when it revealed details to the One Pass on Aug 29.
Quoting The Sunday Times, Mr Singh said, “the solution is not only to import more talent, it needs to be a combination of upscaling and developing local talent alongside bridging in talent to support the building of capacity within Singapore.”
He also cited Dmitry Volkov, CEO of Singapore-based security vendor Group-IB, who said, “only local experts can effectively identify, monitor and respond to threats.
“His firm contributes to the ecosystem by exposing local talent to real cyber threats,” said Mr Singh.
“So these individuals understand that skills transfer to Singaporean workers must be at the centre of our foreign manpower policies to ensure that Singaporeans can avail themselves to good job opportunities from management to staffing positions.”
Mr Singh had two supplementary questions for Dr Tan; the first was on the previous Parliament debate on the motion on securing Singaporeans’ jobs and livelihoods and the foreign talent policy.
“The Workers’ Party raised several alternative proposals to alleviate the concerns of Singaporeans at the workplace and to ensure that the local-foreign employment divide does not become a permanent fault line.”
With the introduction of the One Pass and several changes to the employment pass framework, “how does the ministry intend to promote and track the transfer of skills to Singaporeans by employment pass holders such as the One pass?” he asked.
“Has the minister ruled out fixed-term employment passes or other schemes that incentivise such skills transfer to Singaporeans to address skills-related underemployment amongst other things?” he added.
He also asked whether there were other eligibility criteria for the One pass on top of the five published by MOM in a press release.
Manpower Minister Dr Tan See Leng referred Mr Singh to his earlier speech, noting “how beneficial in terms of the top talent bringing in and the potential spin-offs” the ministry has on local and foreign talent policies.
“Today, as we speak, there are many government programmes that support capability development,” said Dr Tan, mentioning a couple of examples.
On the capability transfer programme, Dr Tan said that “funding support is provided to companies to acquire global capabilities that are not available in Singapore.”
This can be done in various ways, such as bringing foreign specialists into Singapore to train locals in new capabilities or sending locals overseas for training.
Since its inception in 2017, he noted that the scheme has benefited more than 140 companies and more than 1,000 locals.
“Our locals have experienced expanded job scopes as they have acquired new skills.”
Dr Tan highlighted that with the reopening of borders, companies are welcome to tap into this scheme.
Answering Mr Singh’s second question on the One Pass eligibility criteria, Dr Tan said the ministry was working with other agencies to develop a framework to identify some of these criteria to target global talent with specific expertise.
More details will be released in due time before the One Pass scheme takes effect in January 2023. /TISG