Government responds to WP's Population Policy Paper

The Singapore government has issued its response to the Population Policy Paper released by the opposition Workers' Party, two weeks ago. 

It said if a realistic adjustment is applied to the Workers' Party's projections, the population would in fact, go up by more than 200,000 and go beyond 6 million in 2030. 

The WP's paper sketches out a projected population of about 5.8 million by that time. 

The government said one of the main differences is that the Workers' Party assumes a higher mortality rate and lower life expectancy of the citizen population. 

This could underestimate both the size of the population and the number of elderly in the population. 

The government added the WP's assumptions on labour force participation rates are also much higher than what's achieved by advanced developed economies today. 

It added there may be a need to make up for a 100,000 shortfall in the workforce, if the party's projected labour force participation rate is not achieved. 

The WP, it said, could also have underestimated the economic impact of its proposal to freeze the foreign workforce growth. 

The 0.5 percent per year difference in GDP growth between the WP's proposal and the Government's, it said, could disrupt the economy. 

And this, said the government, could impact wage growth and job opportunities.