Singapore needs more babies, immigrants, PM says

SINGAPORE, Aug 20 (Reuters) Singapore's Prime Minister today urged Singaporeans to have more babies and said his government would try to lure more immigrants in order to avoid a critical population shortage and ensure economic survival.

''To sustain our growth and prosperity, we need to have enough people living and working in Singapore. This means we must encourage families to have more children, and also attract more new immigrants here,'' Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a televised National Day Rally speech.

The government has introduced tax rebates, baby bonuses, and longer maternity leave in the last two years to encourage women to have more babies, but with no sign of reversing the trend towards smaller families among its 4.4 million people.

The number of babies born each year is well below the 2.1 per woman needed to replenish its population. Last year, the rate fell to 1.24, compared with six in the late 1950s.

Lee, son of the city-state's founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, also addressed a range of economic and social issues in his third national day address.

Prime Minister Lee said that the economic outlook remained good, with growth in the next few years set to beat the government's long-term sustainable estimate of between three to five percent. The government earlier this month forecast growth of 6.5 to 7.5 per cent for 2006.

He urged more Singaporeans to apply for manufacturing jobs -- which tend to be unpopular because of the long shifts -- so that the city-state can switch from low-technology industries and replace them with high-tech areas such as making wafer fabs.

Manufacturing accounts for a quarter of the country's 118 billion dollars economy.

Prime Minister Lee said that Singaporeans are free to criticise government policies, provided such debates are conducted in a serious way.

The prime minister referred to a popular blogger, whose column in a state-owned newspaper was axed recently after he satirised government policies, saying that the government needed to signal that airing such views in the mass media was not appropriate.

Reuters BDP GC2058