Joining us for more is Michelle Jambresco, who sat in on that interview and wrote our Bloomberg news piece as well. She has Bloomberg Senior Asia Economy reporter with me in the Singapore studio. So, Michelle, he was talking about the global rainmakers. We were talking there about what actually happens in terms of accommodating lgbt Q plus workers in their spouses to what kind of struck out to you from the interview. Yeah, I mean this is a special opportunity,
by the way, Jules. I mean, the Manpower Ministry isn't known to be one of the most transparent ministries. They obviously want to keep their cards close to their chests in terms of what they're looking for in this global talent, because as Minister Tan remarked to us, he doesn't want to start a bidding war, uh if they're too specific about the fields that they're looking for. But a few things struck me from that interview and from his conversation
with some of us afterward. And you know, he really didn't want to see the salary threshold of the highlighted past the one so called one past five year visa for new top global talent. He didn't want that salary threshold to be h two over emphasis. As he said, salary is just one proxy. Uh, it is a very
high amount. As you were marked in the interview. This Singapore thirty thousand dollars a month, uh is just equates to about seven thousand or eight thousand of the current employment pass holders in Singapore, a country of five and a half. Yeah, the top five percent of that UPPERCRUSS So, um, it is a very small portion. But he didn't want that to kind of discourage or or kind of close people's thinking on what kind of talent they would be ringing.
And Minister Tanna, a medical doctor by training himself, talked about you know, different areas of of course medical fields, uh and other next generation and uh, you know, very highly sought after fields that he would they would be looking for. He included Mr and A in in that, and and talked about research and everything. So it was interesting to see how they wanted to open the door a little bit further to what they were looking for
in this global talent. Yeah. I think what was interesting and I think both you and I kind of tried to push him on these two is is are you going off to people from Hong Kong that exodus if it's that top five percent, which is predominantly papal in finance or fintic, are you trying to capitalize on the fact that expats do want to leave Hong Kong at the moment, Yeah, very hot issue and a question we
get a lot of very um. A tough one to quantify, and you won't often hear Singapore officials, Uh, you know, of course will not be celebrating any any sort of demise out of Hong Kong. Um and they they do have our time conveying any sort of volume terms or around how many Hong Kongers are coming here, but in terms of the talent they're seeking, uh, you know, what Minister Tan told us was that they're welcoming of that
talent from Hong Kong, but they won't target it. So you know, he he talked a little bit about with us after about Hong Kong and Singapore always bouncing back from crises and uh, you know, having flows back and forth of labor and talent, and and so he doesn't seem to worried about them in any case. But the nations and focus that they've been talking about lately are the ones that have updated their foreign worker views of policy.
Is so competition for Singapore including U A, E, UK, Germany and UH in this neighborhood Thailand, And just very quickly we also spoke about, you know, how does this kind of sit with the local population if you're trying to attract more foreign target and I guess more foreign workers, I should say, I guess again. He was saying, look, these are specific jobs. At at the moment, we don't have enough people in Singapore to to feel that's right.
And I think he's counting on and the other government officials are counting on kind of this message of look, we've come out of COVID, we now have a very tight labor market. It's not the labor market we were looking at a couple of years ago when they institute some tighter rules for foreign worker hiring. So some of those rules in fact have been reversed around the duration of having to post a job in Singapore for local workers. UH,
that sort of thing. So he does have a tough job, and especially Minister Tan because he has some responsibilities with m t I, which is more external facing ministry. But you know, he talked about this balance and and uh, you know, just emphasize that the government needs to be honest and open about it. Indeed, alright, Michelle, great collaborating with you on that. Bloomberg Peace. Michelle gen Rascoe, Bloomberg Senior Asia Economy reporter with US in Singapore.