Thesundaily.com, 22 Jun 2009
Figures just released by the National Population Secretariat showed that Singapore's birth rate dipped slightly to 1.28 children per woman in 2008, down from 1.29 a year earlier and far below the replacement level of 2.1.
"Without new citizens and permanent residents, we are going to be the last of the Mohicans. We will disappear," said Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, warning against a dependence on foreigners for raising the fertility rate.
"We've got to make this breakthrough internally. If we don't make the 2.1 [population replacement ratio], we will always be dependent," the founding father of modern Singapore said.
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