Government agency job portal for overseas Singaporeans, Contact Singapore, has been shut down after it failed to attract overseas Singaporeans from returning. Set up in 2008 by the Economic Development Board (EDB) and the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), the government announced that the job portal will discontinue from April 1.
In response to media enquiries, a government spokesperson stated that the website has “succeeded its mission” but decline to comment on the number of overseas Singaporeans it successfully recruited:
“When the Contact Singapore alliance was formed in 2008, we wanted to make Singapore a place where global talent would call home, from which they could flourish and contribute. Nine years on, we think Contact Singapore has succeeded in its mission. When the alliance was formed nine years ago, there were fewer platforms available for employers and overseas talent to connect with one another easily. Today, various digital platforms have emerged allowing both companies and candidates to seek each other out with ease across geography.”
Contact Singapore will remain in EDB in name, as a support unit for overseas entrepreneurs who are interested in investing and setting up a business in Singapore.
Few overseas Singaporeans who have secured permanent residency in another country are interested in returning to Singapore due to low salaries, long working hours, lack of family-friendly policies and the lack of freedom in the authoritarian country.