SINGAPORE — The Government is seeking a “careful balance” between the need to supplement the Republic’s ageing workforce with foreigners and infrastructure constraints, said Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean today.

The recently-released Population White Paper “focuses on the interests and benefits of Singaporeans”, he stressed.

Commenting on Singaporeans’ response to the White Paper, Mr Teo observed that many were “focused on the headline number” of a projected 6.9 million people by 2030.

“That’s quite understandable, people are concerned about job competition … and also whether there are infrastructure constraints,” he said.

Some commentators had also questioned the value of planning for 2030 while Singaporeans faced infrastructural problems presently, especially in housing and transport.

Mr Teo responded: “While the Government looks to the future, we are also placing a lot of priority to addressing these immediate concerns.”

He cited public transport as an example, where more buses are being put into service and one new segment of MRT line would be opening every year over the next five years.

Mr Teo also painted two scenarios for Singapore’s future demographics.

The first was that if immigration stopped, “our workforce will shrink, businesses will find it harder to get workers, investments may dry up … new good jobs may be difficult to come by, especially for younger Singaporeans”.

The other scenario was that if Singapore’s workforce continued to grow at present rates, “the total population will grow well beyond the numbers that we are talking about in the White Paper” and would “put very serious pressure on Singapore well beyond our constraints”.

Neither scenario “would actually produce for us desirable outcomes”, hence the Government has to strike a “careful balance” between the two extremes, said the DPM.

Instead of relying on workforce growth to boost the economy, the focus has shifted to “high productivity growth”. This proposal put forth by the White Paper thus represented a “major shift in our economic gears”, he said.

“The White Paper focuses on the interest and benefits of Singaporeans,” he said, and it ultimately aims to “bring better lives to Singaporeans, good jobs and good wages”.

Mr Teo was speaking to reporters today on the sidelines of a groundbreaking event for the new Home Team Tactical Centre in Mandai.

Developed jointly by the Singapore Police Force and Singapore Civil Defense Force, the 29-hectare complex will house training facilities for both forces when it is completed in 2018.

These facilities include a replica ship, industrial complexes and collapsed buildings meant to simulate real-life scenarios.