[moonrab]

Since I am in IT from graduation to now 26 years coming let me input some.

IT is a very wide field just like other profession. One particular role called software development is hard to get ppl to stay long. The nature of this job require constant upgrading and is very taxing on brain cells. This particular role find little attraction in local. Most just want to get past and move on to say IT QA Security Project Management role instead.

But software development role cannot be avoided as it is part of the whole IT system. So if no takers how? Import lor. This is why in the beginning many foreigner fill the locals don't want do software development. But as times go by these foreigners become smart liao why be workers here? I want to move up also and hence those IT roles locals enjoyed are at competition.

Me as local still stick to software development so safe and just got pay rise this year. Me a solo contributor role. Con is very few years need learn new programming language unlike project management and QA which are more generic in nature learn one skill can tahan more years.

"IT is a very wide field just like other profession. One particular role called software development is hard to get ppl to stay long. The nature of this job require constant upgrading and is very taxing on brain cells. This particular role find little attraction in local. Most just want to get past and move on to say IT QA Security Project Management role instead."

I know Singaporean friends and relatives in this field. Most find it difficult to sustain for long periods. 
Unlike other professions, the longer we worked, the better is our skill.

IT is a trade that evolves very fast, within a year or even months. 
Need to have a large population with many hungry upcoming youngs to pursue the skill and knowledge of new technologies. Very competitive. 
And it is a very expensive trade to  venture into. 

The MNC willing to invest $millions or $billion into a tiny Singapore with very low population. 3 million citizens. 
Definitely our human resource availability is not the top attractions for their ventures.
We are lucky when they are willing to adhere to our MOM citizen/pr ratio with foreign workers policy.