Chan Chun Sing says Singapore must do more to attract international talent

Singapore—On July 29, Monday, the country’s Minister for Trade and Industry, Chan Chun Sing, said that the country needs to do more specifically in the area of attracting talent from all over the world.

This could even include schemes to fast-track visas, as well as other strategies, he said at the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*Star) Scholarship Award Ceremony at the Matrix building in Biopolis, which is an annual event.

The Trade and Industry Minister said, “We will need to step up to the competition,” giving the examples of the French Tech Visa, as well as the Technology Talent Admission Scheme in Hong Kong, aimed to entice those in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields, as examples of such schemes.

This is because Mr Chan believes that rapidly developing companies should have the assurance of a highly-skilled talent pool from around the globe, made up of both Singaporeans and non-Singaporeans. Mr Chan said,  “We will need to assure them that they will have access to highly-skilled global talent, both Singaporean and non-Singaporean.”

“Singapore must continue to welcome global talent to work alongside Singaporeans in globally competitive teams and advance the frontiers of innovation together,” the Trade and Industry Minister added.

If these kinds of companies flourish on Singapore’s shores, there will be more even opportunities for growth.

The push to welcome new international talent is but one of the fivefold talent strategy that Mr Chan discussed.

However, the most important of the thrusts is to develop Singapore’s own talent pool, through consistent upskilling and training, and also through schemes such as A*Star scholarships, which aid in bringing local talent to light.

Nearly 100 individuals were given scholarships at the event on Monday night, including 11 people who received the A*Star Computing and Information Science Scholarship. These awardees are to pursue PhDs in artificial intelligence (AI) and computer science.

Since the scholarships were started, around1,600 Singaporeans have availed of different A*Star scholarships to pursue PhDs.

Mr Chan congratulated all the recipients of the scholarships on his Facebook page.

“Congratulations to all recipients of this year’s A*STAR’s Scholarship Award! At the award ceremony, I spoke about Singapore’s talent strategy – of which the A*STAR scholarship is but one part. With the increasingly fragmented and volatile global economic environment today, competition to develop and grow talent networks has become the most critical success factor for a country’s development.

Singapore takes a five-prong talent strategy to meet our challenges. Besides growing our Singaporean talent pool, we must also allow our best to excel to their potential. And while we welcome global talent to work alongside Singaporeans in globally competitive teams and advance the frontiers of innovation together, we must also build networks- connecting Singaporeans with the world, and the world to Singapore. This will bring exciting opportunities at the global and regional frontiers to Singaporeans. Last but not least, Singapore must continue to position itself as a safe harbour for talent, so as to attract overseas Singaporeans and regional talent back to this region.

I wish our A*STAR scholars all the best and look forward to their contributions, not just in Singapore but around the world. CCS”/ TISG

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