Friday, August 10, 2007
Speech
Good morning ladies and gentlemen,
It is my pleasure here to address the issue on foreign talent here in Singapore. Singapore has thrived with the introduction of foreign talents and there is no doubt that they have made huge contributions to our society.
Firstly, we are just a small and young nation without many talents. Our 4 million population is not enough to challenge strong countries like China and the USA, so our burden of progressing and developing quickly have to fall in the hands of the foreign talent. China has a population of a few billion. They are better than us in almost everything, even with the help of our foreign talents. Can you imagine what it would be like without our foreign talents?
Secondly, many foreign talents have come to Singapore to ply their trade. They have not only helped us improve in various segments (eg. economic, sports), but their contributions also allowed us to progress from a fishing village to a first world country. An example is our foreign talent scheme in sports. Since this scheme has been adopted, many young talents have flocked over to Singapore to play for us. They have helped greatly in improving our status in sports and raked in many medals for us. Tao Li is a notable example. Last year, she became the first Singaporean to win the gold medal in the Asian Games in 24 years. Without foreign talents like her, are we confident that we can achieve this?
As a small nation, Singapore needs foreign talent in order to progress. There is no doubt that the foreign talents have contributed greatly to our society. Therefore, we should open our doors to foreign talent and this is the only way if we want to move on and achieve great things.
Thank you.
Nick
------ 12:12 PM ------
