WHEN the economy grew strongly over the past few years, Singapore's non-resident population also rose to meet the manpower needs, especially in labour-intensive industries like construction.

But as the Singapore economy is expected to contract this year, the non-resident population may slow down or even dip in its current proportion to the total population size, said Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng in Parliament on Tuesday.

Said Mr Wong, who is Minister-in-Charge of population issues: 'As we enter into a period of economic contraction, our non-resident population is unlikely to grow at the same rate as in the past. The current proportion of non-resident population of 25 per cent may decline.'

Mr Wong, who is also Home Affairs Minister, cited figures from the Population Trends 2008 which showed that as of last June, 65 per cent of the 4.84 million population were Singaporeans while 10 per cent were permanent residents.

The remaining 25 per cent were referred to as the non-resident population, comprising transcient foreigners working, studying and living in Singapore. They numbered around 1.2 million as of last June - a spike of 19 per cent over the previous year.

This showed that Singapore's foreign manpower needs are highly dependent on the economy, said Mr Wong.

'The demand for foreign manpower fluctuates with the growth of the Singapore economy,' he added. 'The increase in the non-resident population over the past few years reflects our strong economic growth, especially in labour-intensive industries such as the construction sector.'

Mr Wong was responding to queries from Madam Ho Geok Choo (MP for West Coast GRC) on the population trends and immigration policies, in light of population figures which showed that one in three persons here are foreigners.

She asked if the figure would rise in light of Singapore's foreign talent recruitment policies and the measures or programmes in place to strengthen communal bonds between Singaporeans and new immigrants.

Mr Wong said that given Singapore's total fertility rate - which was 1.29 last year but still far from the 2.1 replacement rate - immigration is still needed to boost the population size.

He said: 'This will be done on a selective basis, taking in consideration the contributions or potential contributions of the immigrants to our economy.'

He pointed to how over the last five years, 58,000 permanent residents became new citizens while 242,000 were added to the pool of PRs.

This also underscores the importance to continue integrating new citizens and PRs into the Singapore society so that communal bonds will be fostered and social cohesion enhanced, said Mr Wong.

On this, he pointed to several existing integration efforts at the workplaces, schools and community at large.

This include 600 Integration and Naturalisation Champions, mostly grassroots leaders, who spearhead the People's Association (PA)'s integration process by helping new immigrants settle down in their neighbourhoods.

But successful integration should not be carried out by the Government alone, said Mr Wong.

'It is a two-way process. Singaporeans should support and welcome new immigrants into our community,' he added. 'New immigrants will need to make an effort to integrate among us.'

Mr Wong said the Government is working out a proposal to further facilitate the integration of new and locally-born citizens, and remains open to ideas and suggestions to strengthen existing programmes.