Foreign talent, and integrating permanent residents and new citizens into the society.
These are just some of the key concerns on population raised this year.
S Ramesh finds out more about challenge of national integration in 2010.
Singapore's population currently stands at nearly five million, including one million foreigners.
This raised eyebrows.
But the country's leaders say Singapore cannot do away with foreigners.
Deputy Secretary of the National Trades Union Congress, Halimah Yacob
"That kind of a policy will bring our economy to a standstill,
particularly in those areas where it is difficult to get Singaporeans
to work and in those areas where there continues to be a knowledge and
skills gap in the workforce."
A root cause of the problem - Singaporeans are not producing enough babies.
Nominated Member of Parliament, Associate Professor Paulin Straughan.
"If we do not augment the population with visitors from outside, we
will experience a shrinking of population in Singapore. In a nation
state which depends so much on manpower, that is a scary thought. So
right now we are in a happy position where Singapore continues to be an
attractive destination for immigrants from all walks of life."
The influx has also raised many concerns on the ground.
Dr Amy Khor is the Chairperson of the government's feedback unit, REACH.
"The worry at the individual and ground level really is about locals
seeing new immigrants coming, applying for the same jobs, same schools
and housing and they fear crowding out, they fear the competition. And
we got to continue to assure them that be it in terms of sharpening the
differences between PRs and citizens as well as appealing to them to
have open hearts and open minds to understand that even for new
citizens they have actually taken a big step forward, given up their
birth rights in their own country to set up home here"
So in September 2009, the Prime Minister said the Government will, over
time, sharpen the differentiation between citizens, PRs and foreigners
to reflect the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship.
The latest announcement from the Education Ministry is that it will put
in place measures to differentiate between Singapore Citizens and PRs
at the Primary One Registration Exercise from 2010 onwards.
For those sinking their roots in Singapore, a key challenge is to integrate them with the locals.
It's a long-term initiative and a work-in-progress.
In the final analysis, what's important is to assure Singaporeans that
the immigration policy is for the benefit of the people, with
Singaporeans always coming first.