| By Peh Shing Huei, China Bureau Chief | ||
 |  | MM Lee (second from left) observing a training room for government officials at the China Executive Leadership Academy in Pudong with Shanghai Vice-Mayor Yin Yi Cui (third from left) yesterday. -- PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO |
That is because the country is certain it will be lacking in skilled people once the recession is over.
'You don't educate them now, we have no time later. You would have lost a few years,' he said during a meeting with Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng.
'In Singapore, we have decided that although unemployment is rising, we are training more people, more graduates, more technicians at every level, because we are quite certain that once the economy recovers, we will be quite short of these people.'
In Singapore, unemployment among residents hit a five-year high of 4.8 per cent for the first quarter this year, up from the previous quarter's 2.5 per cent.
Mr Lee believes that the outsourcing trend which was popular before the crisis will return, bringing jobs back to Asia.
'There's a lot of union pressure now in America and Europe to keep the work in their own countries first because of rising unemployment,' he said on the last day of his four-day visit to China.
'But this cannot last because some countries that recover faster, like Germany, they will begin to outsource. And once they start and the prices of their goods will go down, become more competitive, the others will have to follow.'
He urged Mr Han to use this 'vacant period' to beef up the city's specialist skills because the quality of a workforce takes the longest to improve.
Mr Lee advised the mayor against taking the foot off the pedal when it comes to education and to continue beefing up its university graduate population.
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