The 20-man council is headed by the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, who gave the list of members during a community walkabout.

The others are private sector representatives, grassroots leaders, community leaders, media professionals and academics.

The council, announced in February, was formed to help new immigrants here to integrate.

Last year, about 20,513 foreigners took up citizenship in Singapore while 79,167 became permanent residents. These figures are an increase of about 20 per cent over the previous year.

Speaking to reporters, Dr Balakrishnan said a deliberate decision was made to have the majority of the team come from the 'people sector'.

'Right now, too many of our initiatives are top-down, government initiatives or government programmes.

'I want to encourage a bottoms-up approach so that in schools, in companies, in the media and in all the other natural areas where people meet and interact, they'll think about programmes or projects which they can launch to give people the opportunity to meet.'

The main thrust of the measures will be to promote mutual trust and foster a common sense of belonging.

He said: 'We need to build a sense of understanding that, look, you may not have been born in Singapore but you have chosen out of your free will to commit to Singapore. And once you've made the decision, it's like marriage. You are now part of the family.' His advice to new citizens on the best way to fit in: Volunteer. 'The best way to build trust is...to contribute your services,' he said.

Read the full story in Monday's edition of The Straits Times.