\n<\/p>\n
Mr Wong said that due to the realities of Singapore\u2019s fertility rates, the country has to remain open as a society to having more foreigners come here for work, albeit with some limitations in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should then have some of them who share our values and way of life to become Singaporeans, just as many of us, all of us in fact, trace our roots not just here, but trace our roots to countries further afield,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
However, while Singapore maintains that posture as an open society and an immigrant nation, \u201ccertainly we will control the flows\u201d, said Mr Wong.<\/p>\n
The aim is not to raise the population to a \u201cvery high figure at all\u201d, but is instead about \u201cmaintaining stability\u201d for Singapore, he reiterated.<\/p>\n
Mr Wong noted that this immigrant question links back to the issue of technology and artificial intelligence (AI).<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we are not going to be able to have that many new immigrants, new arrivals, that access to people, then all the more we need to harness technology well in order to do the things we want to do, and to become more productive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the dialogue, Mr Wong was asked whether small states like Singapore are better or worse off in the AI age.<\/p>\n
To this, Mr Wong said AI can be a \u201cgame changer\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall we see this as positive, because we can harness AI well to really transform processes and operations to become far more productive, and in a city like Singapore, where we are always labour short,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talk to companies and employers, they are always looking for people, and we cannot afford to just keep importing labour. We need to be more productive. I think AI can be a game changer.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Monday, Mr Wong also responded to a question on whether a Cabinet reshuffle was on the cards, saying that he is always thinking about how to strengthen his team, and that the Cabinet composition is \u201cnever a finished product\u201d.<\/p>\n
Factors he considers include which Cabinet member can be better deployed into different roles, who could be brought into political office from the backbenches, and also about \u201crecruiting for the next round\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s always on my mind, and when I have any updates, I’ll be sure to share them with Singaporeans in due course,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
SINGAPORE IS AN OPEN SOCIETY Mr Wong said that due to the realities of Singapore\u2019s fertility rates, the country has to remain open as a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--mKp-UF-e--\/c_crop,h_900,w_1600,x_0,y_92\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/fl_relative,g_south_east,l_mediacorp:cna:watermark:2021-08:cna,w_0.1\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/06\/08\/llt_8399_1.jpg?itok=XU3QgmW6","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[170,250,3574,825,16643,899,1209,78],"class_list":["post-59125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-answers","tag-challenge","tag-declining","tag-efforts","tag-fertility","tag-global","tag-wong","tag-worth","wpcat-2-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/59126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}