There has been a lot of media attention on what the 2030 population numbers in this white paper represent – is it a target? is it a projection? or, quote-unquote, a ‘worst case scenario’? Yes, the Minister has taken great pains to explain that the white paper is very much an exercise in infrastructure planning for Singapore.
But make no mistake. The 6.5 to 6.9 million population figure range for 2030 is a planning target set by the government. Subjected to the economic situation in the next 15 or so years, but a target nevertheless. The Minister has given us his justifications for this target set.
As such, the Singapore People’s Party opposes the recommendations of the white paper.
We are also deeply disappointed at the white paper which, as one public policy academic pointed out, did not even contain a References section to show what research the writers of the paper had done, or the methodology employed.[1] In fact, the only citations we found in this white paper prepared by the National Population and Talent Division, were 7 of their own papers and briefs. Talk about cyclical reasoning. Full speech
