This call to assimilate foreign talent was made last night by Mr Philip Yeo, a former Economic Development Board chairman and national talent groomer.

'The assimilation of talent is something we don't pay much attention to,' he said.

'It's easy to bring in talent but if you don't take care of the social assimilation, they tend to feel isolated or left alone.'

He recruited top researchers and young scholars from other nations, particularly as chairman of A*Star, or the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, from 2001 to last year.

'Make sure that every agency that recruits foreign talent also makes them feel at home,' he said.

This can be done through clubs and other activities, he suggested.

When he chaired the National Science and Technology Board (NSTB) - now known as A*Star - he initiated a club for foreign scientists and they hosted their own activities.

Singaporeans are not known for warmly embracing outsiders, he observed. They 'ignore' people who do not speak their language.

But if talented foreigners feel excluded, 'they will not sink in roots', he said.

They will create 'clusters' with their own people.

Or they will leave instead of becoming permanent residents or Singapore citizens.

This is a great waste, he said, after the many years invested in them.

Assimiliation is easier if foreign talent is brought in when they are young, and trained in English.

In 2005, he started an A*Star programme to bring in bright 15-year-olds from non-English-speaking countries such as Vietnam.

They take a three-month crash course in the English language at the British Council in October and are then enrolled as Secondary 3 students in January.

'After one year, they speak English. They feel comfortable, they no longer feel left out.'

He also emphasises the importance of English for adult foreign talent.

'When I became chairman of NSTB in February 2001, I visited the labs. I found a very peculiar thing - the labs were very mono-ethnic,' he recalled.

'The rest who are English-speaking were ostracised or excluded. And that's worrisome.'

So he imposed a rule that English should be spoken at work.

In a recent interview with The Straits Times, he said that when the NSTB recruited scientists from China between 1994 and 2000, many spoke Mandarin in the laboratories and stuck together.

Yesterday, he added: 'The older they are, the harder for them to feel at home.'

Recruiting talent is the easy part, he indicated.

'It's not only recruiting them but helping them to feel welcome and cross the language barrier.'