Parliament has had an intense debate on the Population White Paper over the past week. Many MPs spoke passionately about this difficult issue. I joined the debate this afternoon. The White Paper is about mitigating the problems of our aging population and low birth rates, so as to secure Singapore’s future. Our priority is to maintain a strong Singaporean core by encouraging Singaporeans to get married and have children. We will reduce inflow of foreign workers, moderate flow of new citizens and maintain PR population at about present size. We are not aiming for 6.9 million population – it is just a basis for us to plan our infrastructure.
The conversation on population does not end today, and we do not yet have answers to all the problems. I hope Singaporeans will continue to give us your feedback to allow us to improve our policies and Singaporeans’ lives. - LHL
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