[ArielCasper]

The government's job is to attract FDIs.....the MNCs, which it succeeded in doing with flying colours.

These MNCs chose Singapore and not Malaysia or Indonesia.

How did it do it?
1.  Fiscal policies....for eg preferential tax rates, or a competitive tax regime

2.  Stable government

3.  Ease of doing business

4.  Access to global talents.

Last point above:  the hiring is not done by PAP.  It is done by the MNCs.  It only stands to reason that a MNC would do a robust recruitment process after pumping billion of dollars here.  I know the popular joke - ah! get an Uptron degree and you will earn $66K a month.

Let's not be childish.

As to your last question, the answer is a resounding YESSSS!~ We did become a more intelligent nation.  We had been able to compete with countries far bigger than us only because our workforce is really composed of the best minds from around the world.

If you subscribe to the chanting:  Jobs for FTs, Grab food delivery for sinkies, and you want Pritam to be the PM, kick all the FTs out and give their jobs to the Grab deliveryman, let me put it bluntly, I shant mince words, it will be the fall of Singapore.

Let's not be childish. While hiring is not done by PAP, hiring policies or practises are shaped by PAP policies.

Yes, some might say if our policies are unfriendly, the job might just be ship out of Singapore. Then it bring to the next question. Is it better to have the job in Singapore, but taken by a FT, or the job is totally gone in Singapore? Everyone has a different answer to this.. For sure, your answer and mine will be different..

As for your answering with resounding YESSSS!~, the issue is how do you qualify and quantify that? To add more complexity to your YESSSS!~, how do we know the FT that we are bring in now are smarter and better in genes that the earlier batches of FT we brought in prior generation? If the FT that we used to bring in and settle in Sinkie land has IQ of 150 on average, are we measuring now the IQ of the new batch of FT? Are they above 150 or below? If we bring in below 150, we are making the nation dumber, not smarter based on your logic.

Jobs for FTs, Grab food delivery/security guards for sinkies is a valid chant.. If our local human resources are fully developed and utilized, we wouldn't be seeing so many local doing Grab food delivery/security guards. Did they do it willingly or unwillingly? So far, govt has not been able to give convincing answer on that.