Association of Small and Medium Enterprises hits out at Workers' Party population paper

The Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME) has hit out at the Workers' Party's population paper calling it "another blow to the local SME community".

It took issue especially with the WP's proposal to grow the resident workforce by 1 per cent a year by attracting more women and older Singaporeans back to the workforce and to freeze foreign worker numbers at the present level.

These were among the proposals in the WP's 38-page paper issued on Saturday, which summarises the key arguments made by its Members of Parliament during the Population White Paper debate earlier this month.

On raising resident labour force participation rate, the ASME said: "This is easier said than done as there is an element of mismatch between available jobs and workers' expectations."