At the moment, over one third of the entire working population in Singapore is made up of foreign nationals. Many of these foreign professionals are permanent residents as well. Also Singapore being an important global business hub, there are a number of foreign entrepreneurs working in the country as well. Singapore's population has grown over the past decade or so mainly thanks to its immigration policy and so far Singapore was using its immigration policy as an economic tool.
Singapore is known for being the easiest place on earth to do business. The country made it as simple as possible for a foreign company to enter the country or for a foreign entrepreneur to setup a business in Singapore. Thanks to the number of foreign owned companies entering the country each year coupled with a fast growing domestic economy, there were a number of jobs created in Singapore with not enough supply. Singapore's own population was considered as too small to keep up with the economic demands and hence Singapore followed an open door policy for high skilled professionals from overseas and also had special visas for foreigners that could be considered in the lower skills category.
However things have started to change in Singapore and of late the immigration policy of the country has gone through a few amendments. Firstly the entrepreneur visa eligibility criteria became much stricter than before. Now foreign entrepreneurs are required to invest at least SGD $ 50,000 as paid up capital in their Singapore companies. They must also have an excellent relevant business background. Their Singapore Company must be able to create jobs for locals and their entrepreneur visa renewal would depend upon their contribution to Singapore's economy and the number of jobs created.
At the same time, it is expected that the number of overseas professionals entering the country would also be consciously slowed down in the near future. Already there are some amendments on the lower skills category and Singapore aims to maintain a liberal immigration policy, just that it will ensure only the best minds from overseas enter Singapore and the number of people entering would be lower than before. Overall most analysts believe this was a much needed move by Singapore and it won't affect the country too much. When there was heavy demand for staff, obviously Singapore allowed more foreigners to come in and now that most of the jobs have been filled, it is but natural that fewer foreigners will be able to find a suitable job in Singapore. The country's immigration policy is one of the most liberal in the world even after all the amendments and Singapore remains a hotspot for foreign entrepreneur activity.
Bryan Wong is a business analyst in the Asia-Pacific region and in his free time writes business articles. In this article, Bryan talks about Singapore Company Setup and Singapore Employment Pass.
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