ISAS Special Report
27 November 2013 469A Bukit Timah Road
#07-01, Tower Block, Singapore 259770 Tel: 6516 6179 / 6516 4239
Fax: 6776 7505 / 6314 5447 Email: isassec@nus.edu.sg Website: www.isas.nus.edu.sg
SPEECH BY DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, COORDINATING MINISTER FOR NATIONAL SECURITY AND MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS TEO CHEE HEAN AT THE SECOND SOUTH ASIAN DIASPORA CONVENTION ON THURSDAY 21 NOVEMBER 2013 AT THE SUNTEC CONVENTION CENTRE, SINGAPORE
THE SOUTH ASIAN DIASPORA:
IN A GLOBAL WORLD
Ambassador Gopinath Pillai
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
1 It is my pleasure to join all of you at the Second South Asian Diaspora Convention. This Convention organised by the Institute of South Asian Studies has created an important platform to bring members of the South Asian diaspora together in Singapore – to network and exchange ideas, as well as to build links and forge deeper ties with South Asia. I am happy to see such a good turn-out and a strong line-up of speakers from around the world today.
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More People are Living Abroad
2 We are living in an age of unprecedented mobility. Globalisation has accelerated the flow of people, goods, services and ideas across borders.
The ease and relatively low cost of travel and communication allow people to move around quite readily, and to keep in touch from different parts of the world. A person may be born in one country, grow up in another, study in a third, work in a fourth, or even a fifth, and eventually return to his country of origin again.
3 According to UN data released in September 2013, there are some 232 million people – or more than 3 per cent of the world’s population – living outside the country in which they were born.1 This is up from 175 million people in 2000. If we put all these 232 million people in a single country, it would be the world’s fifth most populous country, falling somewhere between Indonesia (251 million) and Brazil (201 million).
4 Asia has seen the largest increase of those on the move, adding some 20 million people who have moved from other countries or regions since 2000. Apart from the movement of people from developing to developed countries, we are also seeing a growing number of people who choose to live in other developing countries. This so-called “South-South”
migration reflects new economic opportunities in the developing world.
Diasporas Make Important Contributions
5 Regardless of whether they are highly-skilled professionals, successful entrepreneurs, second generation migrants or workers seeking a
1 UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA), September 2013. The data cover international migrants of all ages. Where possible, the migrant stock is defined as the population who was born abroad. If information on the place of birth was not available, the number of international migrants is based on the foreign population, that is, those having foreign citizenship.
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better future, diasporas are now recognised as a significant resource, and potential agents for socio-economic transformation.
6 They advance the growth and development of their countries of origin, most visibly through the remittances they send home. Last year, officially recorded remittances world-wide topped US$530 billion, according to the World Bank. The amount has tripled in a decade, and is now more than three times the global aid budget. The actual figure could be even higher as billions of remittances go unrecorded through informal channels. India, for example, received the largest amount of remittances at US$70 billion in 2012, amounting to 3.7 per cent of its GDP2 and larger than India’s earnings from IT exports.3
7 Such inflows of money have uplifted millions of households, improving access to basic needs, healthcare and education. In some countries, they have also driven the growth of the middle class.
8 Diasporas have also made significant contributions to the development of their countries of origin through direct investments, as well as technology and knowledge transfers in fields such as science, IT and medicine. They serve as a bridge connecting their country of origin to other parts of the world.
9 Perhaps the best and most well-known illustration is the Indian IT industry. To a large extent, its success can be attributed to the trust, reputation-building and networking by Indian IT professionals in Silicon Valley. They were instrumental in getting foreign MNCs to set up subsidiaries and offshore centres in India. Many of them also started their
2 The World Bank, Migration and Remittances Data, Bilateral Remittance Matrix 2012 (http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPROSPECTS/Resources/334934-
10315015165/Bilateral_Remittances_Matrix_2012.xlsx
3 The World Bank, Migration and Development Brief, “Migration and Remittance Flows: Recent Trends and Outlook, 2013-2016”, 2 October 2013. (http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPROSPECTS /Resources/334934-1288990760745/MigrationandDevelopmentBrief21.pdf)
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own IT companies in India or provided venture capital for startups, stimulating an entrepreneurial culture in India. Today, Indian IT giants like Infosys and Wipro are recognised as global technology leaders.
10 Host countries benefit too. The US has benefitted from the welcome it extends to migrants. For example, more than 40 percent of America’s Fortune 500 companies were founded by an immigrant or a child of an immigrant.4 Household names like Google, Yahoo!, eBay, YouTube, and Intel were all started by immigrants.5 A Duke University study (2007) showed that foreign-born persons founded a quarter of the US’s technology and engineering firms. These companies employed 450,000 workers and generated US$52 billion in sales in 2005.6 And I am quite sure that the numbers have increased since then. The South Asian diaspora figured significantly in these numbers.
11 Diasporas also help to promote the concept of a global commons for values, ideas, art, and science. They build greater cross-cultural appreciation and mutual respect. The achievements of the South Asian diaspora – entrepreneurs, IT professionals, CEOs, Nobel Laureates and prize- winning writers, musicians and filmmakers have helped to enrich cultures and build bridges.
Singapore – a Place to Make Connections and Build Bonds
12 Singapore has had a long association with the South Asian diaspora who have come to our region and Singapore in several waves – as traders from as early as around 200 to 300 B.C, and during the colonial period of the 19th and 20th centuries. These early migrants played pioneering roles in
4 The Partnership for a New American Economy and The Partnership for New York City, “Not Coming to America: Why the US is Falling Behind in the Global Race for Talent”, May 2012.
(http://www.renewoureconomy.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/not-coming-to-america.pdf)
5 Reform Immigration for America website, “What Companies Would Not Have Started Without Immigrants?” (http://www.reformimmigrationforamerica.org/blog/item/1204-27what-companies-would- not-have-started-without-immigrants.html)
6 “America’s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs” Vivek Wadhwa, AnnaLee Saxenian, Ben Rissing and Gary Gereffi, Duke University-U.C Berkeley (2007)
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various aspects of our social, economic and political development. Today, South Asians continue to come to Singapore, and make important contributions here. Many are actively engaged in business, professional services, and entrepreneurship, as well as in our civic and political life. Your presence has also added to Singapore’s cultural richness and diversity.
13 Yet, the South Asian diaspora is just one part of what makes up multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-lingual Singapore. On the economic front, there are about 67,000 foreign companies registered in Singapore,7 including 6,000 from India, 7,000 from China, 4,000 from Japan, 12,000 from Europe, and 4,000 from the US. Many Singapore companies also run their regional and global operations from here. Singapore thus serves as a unique meeting place where diasporas from different origins can make connections and form linkages with people from other parts of the world, sparking new ideas, creating new opportunities. This exemplifies the positive role that diasporas can play in bridging different parts of the world, and creating a commons for values and ideas.
14 The South Asian Diaspora Convention is a good example of how Singapore can play a part in building connections and creating value. Our geographical position at the heart of Asia and the cross-roads between the East and the West has allowed us to develop into a regional and global transport, financial and telecommunications node. We are a natural springboard for the South Asian diaspora to engage the rest of Asia and the world. Just as we remain open to people and businesses from other parts of the world, who want to get to know our region better and explore the many opportunities in a fast-growing Asia.
7 Data from the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA)’s company registration information. The 67,000 companies are those with more than 50% foreign capital share. Some of these companies may not be in operation currently.
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15 I wish all of you a good conference, and hope you make many new connections in Singapore and beyond.
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