Speech by Minister Indranee Rajah on Population at the Committee of Supply Debate 2024

Supporting a Stronger Singaporean Citizenry for our Shared Future

Mr Chairman, I thank Members for their cuts.

Our vision for Singapore’s population is: a thriving people, a dynamic economy, an inclusive society, and a resilient nation; a Singapore where all Singaporeans can:

• Achieve their personal and family aspirations;

• Have good jobs, good incomes and good careers; and

• Live fulfilling lives.

We must also lay the foundations for future generations to do the same.

However, we are confronted with the twin demographic challenges of a persistently low fertility rate and an ageing population.

These challenges are not unique to Singapore. Many other advanced societies also face rapidly declining fertility.

South Korea continues to grapple with a fertility rate below 1.0, far below the replacement level of 2.1.

Closer to home, Malaysia and Thailand saw their fertility rates fall in 2022.

European countries such as Italy and Spain continue to see record lows in births year on year.

Mr Patrick Tay and Mr Yip Hon Weng asked about the key population outcomes we want and our strategies for achieving them.

Fundamentally, we need more Singaporeans. A strong Singapore citizenry is the bedrock and wellspring of a thriving nation. We must hence continue to support Singaporeans in starting and raising families.

Second, we must manage the practical impact of slowing local workforce growth and an ageing population on our society and economy. This is where our immigration, foreign workforce, and integration strategies come in.

Third, we must understand that this task cannot be undertaken by the Government alone. We can only succeed through our collective efforts.

Mr Gerald Giam asked about our population projections and how we plan our population policies.

As indicated at last year’s COS, our total population is likely to be below 6.9 million by 2030. This planning parameter remains relevant for the 2030s. Beyond that, our population size will depend on various demographic trends, such as birth rates, life expectancies, deaths, and migration, as well as future social and economic needs. In planning for the longer term, we develop various scenarios to ensure that we are adequately prepared for a range of possible outcomes, rather than focus on a single number.

In all scenarios, however, supporting marriage and parenthood remains a fundamental priority. We have been and will continue to invest heavily in families as this is an existential issue for us.

Also, our efforts to raise fertility will take time to show results. A carefully managed immigration policy is hence an important supporting measure to moderate the impact of low birth rates and an ageing population on our society and economy.

So let me now elaborate on our population strategies, the trade-offs we face, and the whole-of-society effort needed.

Implications of Our Population Challenges

At the core of our population vision are strong and stable families.

Last year, there were 26,500 resident marriages. We were also delighted to welcome 30,500 resident births.

Overall, however, there were fewer resident marriages and births annually on average over the last five years, as compared to the preceding five-year period.

Our resident total fertility rate, or TFR, has continued to decline. Preliminary estimates indicate a resident TFR of 0.97 in 2023, the first time it has dropped below 1.0.

There are various reasons for Singapore’s low fertility. Some are temporal, for instance, couples that had their marriage plans disrupted by COVID-19, which may in turn have delayed their parenthood plans.

Others cite concerns about the financial costs of child-raising, pressures to be an excellent parent, or difficulties managing work and family commitments.

More broadly though, our low fertility reflects a global phenomenon where individual priorities and societal norms have shifted.

This can be seen from a slew of articles on the TFRs of other countries.

These articles reflect a generational change in priorities and how young people around the world are increasingly finding meaning in other pursuits. They may not even see marriage or parenthood as important life goals.

Our falling TFR has serious implications for Singapore’s future.

We are already seeing the impact of our falling TFR on our society.

Families today are smaller than before, with more sandwiched couples having to care for both the young and old.

A growing proportion of Singaporeans are remaining single, and will have weaker familial support networks when they grow older.

Our falling TFR will also impact our economy.

As several Members have mentioned, a strong and vibrant economy is critical for Singapore, as it helps raise our standard of living and gives us resources to tackle challenges.

However, a vibrant economy is ultimately driven by people. With fewer births, we will face a shrinking workforce. It will be increasingly challenging to maintain our dynamism, attract global businesses, and create opportunities for the next generation.

This has been the experience of countries like South Korea and Italy, who are grappling with economic slowdowns and declining wages, further compounded by low fertility and resulting demographic changes.

We are therefore determined to address these challenges.

Supporting Families Through Every Stage of Life

The bright side is that our young Singaporeans still aspire towards marriage and parenthood. However, as several Members have noted, they may not proactively plan towards these goals.

As a Government, we respect Singaporeans’ personal decisions on marriage and parenthood. But there is no denying that starting a family becomes more challenging with age.

Singaporeans may prioritise their education or careers in young adulthood, only to face difficulty conceiving when they eventually try for children.

We therefore strongly encourage young Singaporeans to actively build and develop relationships, and intentionally factor marriage and parenthood into their life plans early on.

Several Members have asked how we will support marriage and parenthood. We will provide a conducive environment for couples who wish to start, grow and nurture their families.

We made significant moves in this regard at Budget 2023.

To support working parents, we doubled Government-Paid Paternity Leave to four weeks on a voluntary basis.

We also increased Unpaid Infant Care Leave to 12 days per parent per year in their child’s first two years.

To strengthen financial support for young families, we enhanced the Baby Bonus Cash Gift for all birth orders. We also enhanced the Child Development Account, or CDA, by increasing the First Step Grant and raising the Government co-matching caps.

We are continuing to address the housing needs of Singaporean couples and families.

HDB has ramped up BTO supply, and remains on track to launch 100,000 BTO flats from 2021 to 2025.

Furthermore, HDB is catching up on BTO projects delayed by the pandemic, having delivered 80% of such projects as of end-2023.

As announced at the National Day Rally last year, the new framework of Standard, Plus and Prime flats will take effect later this year, and cater to Singaporean families’ different budgets and needs.

MND will help families awaiting the completion of their BTO flats by doubling the supply of flats under the Parenthood Provisional Housing Scheme, or PPHS, to 4,000 units by 2025.

In the meantime, as announced at Budget 2024, MND will also introduce a one-year PPHS (Open Market) Voucher, to support PPHS-eligible families to rent an HDB flat or bedroom from the open market, and MND will share more at its COS.

As Mr Yip Hon Weng highlighted, some couples may also face fertility issues.

Couples undergoing Assisted Conception Procedures at our public hospitals can tap on Government co-funding, and use their MediSave to offset treatment costs.

MOH is also studying the merits of extending co-funding to the private sector, taking into account clinical outcomes and costs.

He asked about elective egg-freezing. Based on preliminary data, approximately 200 women underwent elective egg-freezing since it was implemented in June last year. But whilst this may be an available option for women, we still do encourage them to try for children earlier, to reduce age-related risks of conceiving and carrying a baby successfully to term.

Ms Ng Ling Ling and Ms Hany Soh asked about support to alleviate Singaporeans’ concerns regarding child-raising costs. The Government is investing heavily to ensure preschool, education and healthcare remain affordable for families.

MSF will lower childcare fee caps in Anchor and Partner Operator Preschools by $40 in 2025, and will lower them again in 2026. MSF will share more at their COS.

Today, a Singaporean child can receive around $200,000 worth of education subsidies, including preschool subsidies, by the time the child completes secondary school. And of course, there are significant subsidies for studying in the IHLs.

In addition, all Singaporean babies are covered by Medishield Life from birth, and their parents receive a Medisave Grant for Newborns to help with the premiums. And Singaporean children also enjoy fully-subsidised nationally-recommended childhood vaccinations and developmental screenings at polyclinics and GP clinics under the Community Health Assist Scheme.

We had just enhanced the Baby Bonus Scheme last year, and will consider the suggestions raised, bearing in mind the overall suite of grants and subsidies available.

Support for Fathers

Next, we are also focusing on supporting men in their role as husbands and fathers. Members on both sides of the House support this, and Mr Louis Ng in particular has been an active advocate and champion.

Our leave provisions are differentiated between mothers and fathers to meet their respective needs. For example, maternity leave is longer to allow mothers to recuperate physically from childbirth, and to care for and bond with their newborns.

Nevertheless, parenthood is a shared responsibility. This is especially so as more women want to continue to work while raising their children.

Currently, around half of our eligible fathers take paternity leave. We encourage more to do so, and play a part in caring for your newborns.

Studies have shown that children benefit physically, cognitively and emotionally when their fathers are more involved in parenting.

At Budget 2023, we increased Government-Paid Paternity Leave by two weeks effective from 1st January 2024, for fathers whose employers are ready to provide it.

One father, Mr Daniel Lim, looks forward to this. He and his wife have two children, and are expecting another in April this year. Daniel welcomes the additional paternity leave as it allows him to focus on supporting his wife and caring for his children during this important period.

Mr Louis Ng asked when we will mandate this additional paternity leave. We will do so as soon as possible, to benefit more fathers.

In the meantime, we encourage all employers to start adjusting to ensure a smoother transition when the mandatory provision eventually kicks in.

Support for Parents with Infants

During our Forward Singapore engagements, parents shared that care needs are greatest during a child’s first 18 months.

We will continue to strengthen support for parents during this critical period.

MSF has been ramping up infant care capacity.

It also plans to grow childminding services as an additional infant care option for families. MSF will share more at their COS.

That said, we know many Singaporean parents prefer to care for their infants themselves, and have asked if more leave can be given.

We have studied the leave provisions of other developed countries like France and Denmark which have higher TFRs.

These countries tend to provide parents with longer periods of leave during their child’s infancy, sometimes at reduced pay.

Parents appreciate the greater peace of mind, as they can care for their infants for longer while remaining employed. They can then return to work more easily once their children are older.

We are therefore actively exploring how to increase paid parental leave.

We must recognise that this requires workplace adjustments, and that employers may face challenges in making arrangements to cover for employees’ extended absences.

We will therefore closely engage Tripartite Partners on further enhancements, and pace out any proposed changes.

Support at Workplaces

Caring for and raising our children is a long-term endeavour. As Ms Hany Soh and Ms Rachel Ong have pointed out, this can be especially challenging when children fall sick, or for certain groups such as parents of children with severe disabilities or rare disorders.

Hence, beyond leave provisions, we are exploring other sustainable ways to help parents better manage work and family commitments. These include flexible work arrangements, or FWAs.

We must strengthen workplace flexibility in a manner that meets the needs of both employees and employers.

As Ms Carrie Tan mentioned, we want to provide parents with flexibility to optimise their energies as they navigate the demands of work and family. At the same time, employers’ ability to meet their business needs will be critical in sustaining such flexibility. Through open communication and mutual trust, employers and employees can work out arrangements that meet both their needs.

MOM is working with Tripartite Partners to develop new Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangement Requests. MOM will share more at their COS.

Ms Yeo Wan Ling asked about Government support for employers.

We recognise that some companies, including SMEs, may find it more challenging to adopt FWAs. We will consider ways to help all employers implement FWAs well and manage their teams productively. These are HR capabilities that will enable our employers to optimise their workforce and position themselves as employers of choice.

We are glad to see more employers distinguishing themselves by implementing family-friendly practices and features.

One such local company is Hegen, which develops infant care products. Hegen offers its employees various forms of workplace flexibility, including work-from-home arrangements, staggered hours, part-time work and compressed work schedules. Hegen’s family-friendly culture has helped the company to attract and retain talent, showing that businesses can pursue excellence and innovation while at the same time implementing family-friendly practices.

We encourage all employers to establish family-friendly workplaces, and make a difference in practical ways.

For example, fathers ought to feel supported when taking time off for their families. A CNA report cited an example of a father who wanted to take paternity leave, but encountered resistance from his female manager. She made passive-aggressive comments and pointed to the backlog of work he would accumulate if he did so. It would have been more helpful to discuss a mutually satisfactory covering arrangement instead.

Employer support can also include family-friendly office features such as lactation rooms, which Mr Louis Ng spoke about.

The Building and Construction Authority, or BCA, has progressively enhanced the building design requirements for lactation rooms, and will continue to review them.

We encourage building owners to voluntarily provide such family-friendly features beyond the minimum Code requirements. Premises which lack space for separate lactation facilities can consider lactation pods which are commercially available.

Building owners, lessors and lessees of eligible private developments may also tap on BCA’s Accessibility Fund to co-fund the construction costs of such features, as well as lactation pods. BCA has actively promoted the Fund via press releases, social media posts, industry seminars and targeted engagements. They will continue to reach out to building owners to encourage adoption.

But ultimately, it will require a whole-of-society effort to build the family-friendly workplace culture that Members have called for. All of us have a role to play, whether as parents, employers or co-workers.

We want parents to be able to tap on workplace flexibilities without fear of stigma. Every small act counts, from exercising patience when a colleague’s child interrupts a work call, to being understanding when a co-worker takes time off at short notice to care for their children.

We also trust that parents will tap on these flexibilities responsibly, and stand ready to reciprocate when other colleagues have urgent personal or family needs to attend to.

Together, we can make Singapore a great place for all to work and live in, for generations to come.

Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked about supporting the needs of an ageing population. Indeed, a key thrust of Forward Singapore is enabling our seniors to age well.

Primarily, we want our seniors to have good health. Good health is a lifelong commitment, as lifestyles in earlier years affect how healthy we are in our golden years.

Therefore, we will step up the preventive health focus through Healthier SG, to empower Singaporeans to live healthily with support from their regular family doctor.

We also want our seniors to age well in their homes and the community. This is the key purpose of Age Well SG, which complements Healthier SG by anchoring ageing well in the community.

Through Age Well SG, we will encourage active ageing, improve support for seniors with care needs, and make our homes and neighbourhoods more senior friendly.

MOH, MND and MOT will share more information on their Age Well SG plans during their respective COS segments.

Mr Gan asked about the number of Migrant Domestic Workers, or MDWs, needed to support our ageing population.

We expect that demand for elderly caregiving services will rise in the coming years, and MDWs play an important role in supporting households with caregiving needs. However, the scale of this increase is uncertain. It will be dependent on a host of factors, including how well our society ages and other efforts to support seniors with care needs.

Strengthening our Citizen Population

Even as we strive to support Singaporeans in their marriage and parenthood aspirations, and help seniors live healthier and more fulfilling lives, low birth rates and ageing will undeniably impact our economy and society.

Our immigration policies play an important role in mitigating this.

In 2023, we granted about 23,500 new citizenships, including about 1,300 to children born overseas to Singaporean parents. We also granted about 34,500 new Permanent Residencies (PRs).

We continue to maintain a measured and stable pace of immigration, which moderates the impact of demographic trends on the size and age profile of the citizen population.

The average number of new citizenships and new PRs granted per year since 2019 is slightly higher than that over the preceding period.

We grant PR or citizenship to those who can integrate well, contribute to Singapore, and are committed to making Singapore their home.

Our immigration policy also helps us to meet our future population needs.

For example, in recent years we have granted a higher number of PRs to healthcare workers to support our growing healthcare needs.

One such immigrant is Ms Josephine Marie Baljon Celis, who was granted PR in 2023. She has been a valued staff nurse at SingHealth Community Hospitals for almost 15 years, consistently delivering a high standard of care to her patients. Josephine’s colleagues describe her as friendly, positive, and dedicated to her work. Beyond her core nursing duties, she has served as a Clinical Instructor for many years, guiding and training numerous batches of nursing students to help meet Singapore’s healthcare needs. She also does volunteer work.

Like our forefathers, many immigrants have found their way here and stayed on because they hope for a better life in Singapore. With time, they become our friends, and ultimately our fellow countrymen who will work alongside us to build a brighter shared future.

Growing Opportunities for Singaporeans

But crucial to this brighter shared future is a strong economy, supported by a dynamic and productive workforce.

As Mr Patrick Tay, Ms Joan Pereira, and Mr Yip Hon Weng have noted, for Singaporeans to have good jobs, good incomes and access to services for high quality of life, we need a strong economy.

Our low birth rates and ageing population have resulted in slowing local workforce growth.

Even with immigrants, we do not have enough working locals to support continued good economic growth.

We must therefore remain open to a diverse foreign workforce that complements the local workforce. Foreign workers create value for Singaporeans, for example by filling manpower gaps in sectors that Singaporeans are less keen to work in, or in disciplines where we may need more time to develop our own pool of local workers. They can also generate opportunities for Singaporeans by bringing in new investments, networks, and expertise.

So even as we welcome these complementary foreign workers, we will continue to strengthen the development of the local workforce.

As detailed in the Forward Singapore report, SkillsFuture is a key pillar of our social compact.

We will also support Singaporeans in gaining overseas work experience, to provide opportunities for career development and progression. More information will be provided during MTI’s and MOM’s COS segments, and we encourage all Singaporeans to make the most of these opportunities.

Strengthening Solidarity and Building a More Resilient, Cohesive Society

Mr Chairman, I have outlined how our marriage and parenthood, immigration, and workforce policies work in tandem to help us overcome our population challenges.

However, these policies can only succeed if we remain an inclusive society.

Globally, sentiments of disenfranchisement and xenophobia have gained momentum.

A growing number of politicians across the world have stoked xenophobia to gain popular support. Some have been voted into office, the result of which has been division and instability.

We must not go down that path.

The well-being of Singaporeans remains at the heart of what we do. But this does not prevent us from welcoming foreigners who can contribute to our economy and add richness to our multicultural society. And we must of course also work hard at integration.

This response extends to the enquiry Mr Faisal Manap made about how we can welcome Malays and others from the region to come and join us. All that I said earlier about welcoming foreigners here extends to those groups as well.

A Resilient Nation

So, in conclusion, Mr Chairman, Singaporeans and their well-being are at the heart of our population strategies. These strategies aim to build a resilient nation, anchored on the key thrusts of the Forward Singapore Report: opportunities, assurance, and collective responsibility.

The Government is committed to building an economy that will provide opportunities for all to achieve their aspirations.

The Government will also provide assurance for Singaporeans at every stage of life. We will not let up on efforts to support Singaporeans in starting and raising families, so that we may forge a strong Singaporean citizenry.

For this to happen, we need everyone to do their part. While some of the bolder changes and mindset shifts may require more time, I call on everyone – individuals, families, employers, and communities, to contribute towards shaping a Singapore that is Made For Families so that we can secure our future and thrive for years to come.