SINGAPORE — The body representing small- and medium-sized firms yesterday voiced concerns over proposals made in the Workers’ Party (WP) population paper, calling the document “another blow” to small businesses here and warning that the suggestions, if implemented, could lead to fewer jobs being created for Singaporean Professionals, Managers and Executives (PMEs).

In a statement, the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME) felt the WP has proposed “an even more drastic deceleration”, even as SMEs here have “painfully learned” to accept that there will be no U-turn in the Government’s “drastic tightening” of foreign manpower inflow.

In its 38-page population paper released on Saturday, the WP proposed growing the resident workforce at 1 per cent a year and if this target is met, foreign worker numbers should be frozen at the current level.

The ASME yesterday said the WP’s proposal is based on increasing the labour force participation rate to 78.7 per cent, up from the present 66.6 per cent.

“This is easier said than done as there is an element of mismatch between available jobs and workers’ expectations,” the association, which represents 6,500 SMEs, said.

The ASME felt that similar to the Government’s foreign worker reduction policy changes, the WP has chosen not to address “this very real problem and lumped foreign labour and foreign talent into one big basket”.

“The void in the workforce cannot be filled by Singapore PMEs who wish for higher level, higher paying and higher comfort jobs,” ASME said, as it noted that the construction industry, the food and beverage industry and others in the service sector are having difficulties in recruiting Singaporeans.

This may lead to SMEs closing down, which will be felt as an “upward spiralling effect” by other PMEs who work in companies that provide their services to. “This inevitably leads to reduction in PME jobs for the growing number of Singapore PMEs, and hence impacting the overall quality of living of Singaporeans,” ASME said.

It felt that increasing resident workforce growth should complement a gradual tightening of the inflow of foreign workers. ASME also called for the tightening of inflow of foreign worker to be carried out “progressively”, together with more incentives and aid to help SMEs in the face of the current economic transition. SMEs are the cornerstone of the Singapore economy: They employ seven out of every 10 workers, and contribute over 50 per cent of the national Gross Domestic Product, according to SPRING Singapore.

Speaking on the sidelines of a community event yesterday, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen welcomed ideas from various groups, such as political parties, civic groups or ordinary Singaporeans, on the population issues Singapore faces. The ideas raised, however, should be sound, he stressed.

Dr Ng said: “If you slow down foreign workers, SMEs go bust and Singaporeans lose their jobs - they are not trivial problems, they are real problems. So how do you solve things like that? I’m afraid there won’t be any magic bullet. It is not so easy, these are real challenges.”

Asked for his views on the WP’s paper at the sidelines of a community event last night, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean said, “I really have nothing to add. It didn’t say anything new, so I really have nothing to add to what’s been said.” - Additional reporting by Wong Wei Han and Alvina Soh