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Oral Answer by Mr Tan Chuan-Jin, Acting Minister for Manpower, to Parliamentary Questions on Foreign Manpower Policies for Construction Sector

Notice Paper 75. Of 2014 For The Sitting On 03 March 2014
Question Nos. 1808 And 1809 For Oral Answer

NMP: Mr R Dhinakaran

To ask the Acting Minister for Manpower (a) whether Filipino and Sri Lankan construction workers are in addition to the supply of workers coming from regular source countries such as China, India, Thailand and Bangladesh or whether they will make up for the moderation of workers from these regular source countries; and (b) if the latter, which other countries will such workers come from and how much is the moderation.

To ask the Acting Minister for Manpower in light of better-skilled Filipino construction workers costing more, whether this signals a deliberate or permanent move by the Government to opt for quality over cost in its foreign manpower policy, particularly in the construction industry where the converse has been the norm.

Answer:

  1. Last year, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) appointed Singapore-based companies to set up Overseas Testing Centres (OTCs) in Sri Lanka and Philippines to enhance resilience in the supply of skilled construction workers. This is an exploratory approach, as we look for more sources of construction workers to meet the continued need for skilled manpower to deliver the public infrastructure projects and to boost construction productivity.
  2. We are indeed making a deliberate move to opt for quality over cost. We are achieving this in multiple ways, and not just in exploring more sources of construction workers. With the introduction of a Market-Based Skills Recognition framework for construction and further raising of the R2 “Basic Skilled” levy in July 2016, both announced in the Budget Statement, we are encouraging contractors to opt for more skilled and more experienced construction workers.
  3. MOM and MND/BCA will also be consulting the industry to explore having a minimum percentage of R1 “Higher Skilled” workers for each construction firm. These higher-skilled R1 workers will naturally command a higher salary than R2 “Basic Skilled” workers. But moving towards having a smaller pool of higher skilled and higher paid workers is the right direction for Singapore, rather than towards having a larger pool of more low-skilled but cheaper workers.