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graduates to Singapore. Mrs Lee herself is the Director of the Social Integration Management Service (SIMS), which is responsible for the integration of immigrants into Singapore society. All of these Committees, like IMAC, are concerned with the attraction of talented and qualified individuals throughout the world. There is no body solely concerned with immigration from Hong Kong.
5. I asked about the success of the measures announced last July extending Singapore permanent residence to blue collar workers. Mr Lee said that the Singapore Commission in Hong Kong was in touch with the Governor S office about this. She thought that some 15,000 applications had been submitted but this figure included professionals who were outside the 25,000 quota for the blue collar sheme. It almost certainly also included a number of blue collar workers who were exploring the possibility of emigrating to other destinations but wished to keep their options open. I asked whether there were
any plans
1
to raise the 25,000 ceiling. Mrs Lee said that this was a matter for political decision but reminded me of Lee Kuan Yew's remark that 25,000 was the number of families that Singapore could "comfortably absorb"
6. Turning to the question of the provision of passports for professionals of Hong Kong companies with links to Singapore mentioned by Lee Kuan Yew to the Governor, Mrs Lee explained that she thought the Prime Minister had been talking about the extension of citizenship (and thence passports to Hong Kong professionals who had already acquired Singapore permanent resident status under existing schemes. In order to acquire citizenship, it was normally necessary for a permanent resident to be physically settled in Singapore for a period of at least two years. But the Constitution gave the Registrar of Citizens discretion to take into account periods of absence from Singapore in calculating whether this requirement was met. The message had now gone out
from the Government that,
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as а rule of thumb, six months physical residence in Singapore ought to be sufficient in the case of professionals-employed by Hong Kong companies with links to Singapore. She emphasised, however, that the question of links with Singapore was Important. Citizenship would not be extended under these provisions to Hong Kong professionals whose companies had no significant links.
7. Finally, I asked about press reports that Singapore companies, many of them Government-owned, had plans to invest US$2 billion in Hong Kong as a confidence boosting measure. Mrs Lee said that she was in the dark about this. So far as she knew, no directive had issued from the Government Government-owned companies. The investment decisions of these and privately-owned companies would continue to be determined primarily by commercial considerations.
14 February 1990
at com.
TG PAXMAN
to
HEAD OF CHANCERY