BY SUE-ANN CHIA

CONTRARY to some media reports, the Economic Strategies Committee (ESC) is not recommending a cut in foreign worker numbers.

This was made clear by Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong (pictured above), who chaired the ESC sub-committee which looked at managing the size of the foreign workforce to ensure it does not hinder the push for productivity.

Mr Gan explained that foreigners will continue to make up one-third of Singapore's workforce, about the same as the current proportion.

'Our objective is looking at a balance between local and foreign to make sure that it's sustainable,' he told The Straits Times in an interview a day after the ESC released its recommendations.

'But this is not an exact science. We have to bear in mind that there will be business cycles.

'The boom time, we may need to increase a little bit; in a recession like what happened last year, the foreign worker numbers have come down.

'But in the next 10 years, the aim is to maintain it at about one-third of the overall workforce.'

One thing is for sure: Foreign workers will get more costly to hire, with the ESC proposing a gradual increase in their levy.

The extent of the increase will be disclosed later during the Budget, but yesterday, Mr Gan explained how it works.

Foreign workers can make up only a specified proportion of a company's workforce. For instance, it is 50 per cent for service sector companies.

While this ceiling will not change, there are now tiers, with each having a different levy. The tiers and levy price are likely to be tweaked.

So one tier could set the ceiling at 30 per cent of foreigners, with a certain levy. If companies want to hire more foreign workers, they have to pay a higher levy.

When asked whether the levy will be raised to ensure the wages of foreign workers are on par with Singaporean workers in similar jobs, Mr Gan said: 'It won't be so simple.'

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