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Letters | Singapore government has been very open on jobs data and standards of disclosure are high
- Recent requests for information in Parliament were duly fulfilled
- Singapore abides by high standards of disclosure, while also focusing on how the information is used
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Why you can trust SCMP
I refer to Ms Kok Xinghui’s article, “In Singapore, academics and opposition press the PAP to be less wary over releasing data” (January 19). In it, Associate Professor Terence Lee from Murdoch University in Perth asserted that the Singapore government was “deliberately evasive” and “unwilling to respect parliamentary protocols” in its exchange with Mr Pritam Singh in Parliament.
This is patently untrue. During the parliamentary sitting on January 6, Minister of State for Manpower Zaqy Mohamad responded to Mr Singh’s question with a breakdown of the number of new jobs filled by citizens, permanent residents and foreigners across the 23 Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs) from 2015 to 2018. The 23 ITMs comprise key sectors and cover 80 per cent of Singapore’s economy. These facts were reported widely in the news, and are available online.
In response to Mr Singh’s supplementary question on whether the government could provide a breakdown of the 60,000 overall increase in local employment between 2015 and 2018, Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing said the data would be provided. He subsequently released the data on January 16.
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The Singapore government publishes labour market statistics regularly, and our standards of disclosure are high. We will continue to provide access to relevant data sets to facilitate discussions and develop policies that better Singaporeans’ lives.
Beyond merely releasing data, we also focus on how the information is used to encourage constructive public discourse on difficult challenges and trade-offs, so that we can find common ground and move forward together as a nation.
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Lim Weilin, director, Corporate Communications Division, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Singapore
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