Singapore’s government has projected that the tiny city-state’s population of 5.3 million – about the size of metropolitan Miami – will reach 6.9 million by 2030, almost half of which will be made up of foreigners as the citizen population continues to shrink with declining birth rates and an aging population.
Population growth, the government says, will help achieve gross domestic product growth of about 3-to-4% yearly up till 2020, and growth of about 2-to- 3% for the decade after that. In the more immediate term, Singapore’s population is expected to climb to about 6 million in the next seven years, a number that, according to government projections, will ensure the city-state’s workforce expands enough to meet ideal economic growth rates.
These projected numbers and the government’s rational behind its immigration and population policies were sketched out on Tuesday in a white paper by the National Population and Talent Division, a governmental body under Singapore’s deputy prime minister, Teo Chee Hean.
The issue of population – particularly the city-state’s reliance on a large foreign workforce to complement its dwindling number of citizens – has for years been a delicate political issue in Singapore. Disaffection towards the longtime ruling People’s Action Party – the only party in power since the young city-state’s independence in the 1960s – was further proved by its loss in a by-election over the weekend, which boosted opposition representation in parliament to a small but unprecedented seven out of 87 seats. Rising housing and transportation costs, seen as a direct result of more people in the already-crowded state, are among the core reasons for this unhappiness, and the government has been under increasing pressure to cut its dependence on foreign labor.
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