SINGAPORE — An upcoming two-year programme designed to attract foreign tech talent to Singapore's shores could be extended to other fields beyond technology-driven ones, Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing said on Thursday (Aug 1).

Through offering increased flexibility in Employment Pass applications, the scheme would make it easier for qualifying companies in sectors such as digital, medical technology (medtech) and financial technology (fintech) to hire talents from overseas.

Mr Chan said in an interview with Bloomberg Television that he is prepared to extend the programme beyond the deep tech ecosystem into other areas, although he did not say what these areas are.

“Singapore has never limited top talent coming into Singapore”, he said, although it has been “tightening” its intake of lower- and mid-skilled workers in order to be more manpower-lean.

“These are the people that we are looking at who can run huge project teams of hundreds and thousands of programmers. These are the people who can take technology companies to the next lap,” he said.

“These are not people competing with the average Singaporean, these are the people who are competing for Singapore.”

Mr Chan also reiterated an earlier point made by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat that the Government is not expecting a recession just yet. Mr Heng had also said that the state is ready to deploy a package to aid businesses and workers should the economy take a turn for the worse.

The official 2019 economic growth forecast by the Ministry of Trade and Industry is between 1.5 and 2.5 per cent, although the authorities are expected to revise this prediction, following the disappointing 0.1 per cent year-on-year growth estimate for the second quarter.

Asked about this, Mr Chan said that the numbers will be out soon, but remains a “state secret” at this point in time.

“The Government will be ready to step in and help our companies and businesses adjust if need be,” he said, adding that he was “quietly confident” of Singapore’s outlook.

“In a world where there might be a bifurcation or a fragmentation of the global trading system, our job is to make sure that Singapore businesses can continue to access opportunities across the entire globe,” he said, highlighting the Government’s efforts to sign as many free-trade agreements with as many countries as possible.

Mr Chan also addressed a tweet by United States President Donald Trump, who noted that seven of the world’s 10 wealthiest economies claim developing country status and argued that these countries “avoid WTO (World Trade Organisation) rules and get special treatment”. This included Singapore.

The WTO gives special privileges to governments of developing nations, such as longer timelines for implementing free-trade commitments, as well as the ability to protect domestic industries by restricting imports.

Mr Chan said that the US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer understood Singapore’s position on its developing-nation status, in that Singapore does not take advantage of its status to reap benefits.

“As far as our work with the US is concerned, we don’t avail ourselves to the special and differential treatment,” Mr Chan said.