The Government has engaged more than 1,400 suppliers for ICT, finance and other professional services in 2020, out of which 86 percent of them are located in Singapore, said Finance Minister Lawrence Wong in a written reply to Parliamentary questions on Monday (2 August).
This means that 14 percent of the suppliers are based outside of Singapore.
Mr Wong said this in a response to questions raised by Progress Singapore Party’s (PSP) Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) Hazel Poa who asked the number of China and India headquartered companies in fields like finance, ICT and professional services sectors who are currently engaged by the Government as contractors.
She also asked the total value of these contracts as well as the number of Singaporeans employed by these companies.
Mr Wong said that of the 1,400 suppliers, 97 percent of them won approximately S$1.5 billion contract value awarded for these sectors, adding that the Government “do not track the headquarter locations” of its suppliers or their parent companies.
“The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) publishes statistics on the number of employed residents by industry sector in the Labour Force in Singapore reports which are published annually and available publicly on MOM’s website,” he said.
The Finance Minister also noted that the Government procurement is carried out based on the principle of “transparency, open and fair competition”.
“Contracts are awarded to suppliers who are best able to meet the requirements published in each call for tender and achieves value-for-money, regardless of nationality of their headquarters,” he explained.
