By Sue-Ann Chia, Senior Political Correspondent

TWO ministers yesterday cautioned against calls to reduce employers' access to foreign workers as a way to improve the productivity of the Singapore worker.

Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong said it may be too simplistic to assume that such a move will automatically lead to higher worker output.

Echoing this view, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said at another event: 'Just zeroing in on foreign workers alone is not the total solution.'

But he conceded that 'it is something that needs to be looked at'.

Their comments come a day after labour MP Josephine Teo called on the Government to re-tune foreign worker policies, saying easy access to foreigners could be a reason productivity is sliding.

It dipped 15.4 per cent in the first quarter, compared with the same period last year, continuing a steady decline since the last quarter of 2007.

Responding to Mrs Teo, Mr Gan said such policies must be calibrated carefully.

'If we are not careful, it will instead create rigidity and distortion in the labour market, add costs to businesses and undermine their competitiveness,' he said in a speech at his ministry's National Day observance ceremony.

'To achieve real sustainable growth in productivity, there is no alternative to concerted efforts by all parties and a lot of hard work on the ground.'

The issue of reducing reliance on foreign workers also cropped up at the National Day ceremony at NTUC's Employment and Employability Institute, which Mr Mah attended.

Citing the construction sector, he told reporters: 'Just reducing the dependence on massive amounts of cheap labour is not the answer to our productivity problems...We need to make the job more attractive, make the industry more attractive.'

The Government has begun to boost productivity with an inter-agency task force.

Set up in February, it is focusing on raising output in three industries in the service sector. They are retail, hotels, and food and beverage.

The issue is also being tackled by the Economic Strategies Committee which, among other things, is looking at having a 'sustainable foreign worker population that complements the local workforce and supports a high productivity economy'.

Mr Gan heads its labour sub-group.

Yesterday, he also responded to a finding of a new survey by government feedback unit Reach, released on Thursday. It shows that some Singaporeans were dissatisfied with employment policies relating to older workers and foreigners.

Said Mr Gan: 'Their anxiety is expected given the severe downturn and the uncertainty we are facing this year.'

But he assured Singaporeans there are jobs available and new ones will continue to be created. For two years, from January this year, about 45,000 new jobs are estimated to come onstream.

Some job seekers, however, may not have the skills for the new jobs, he noted.

'It is therefore very important that we help job seekers in a targeted way, by addressing their skills gap, managing their expectations and preparing them better for their new jobs.

'I also encourage job seekers to be patient and work with us so that we can help them more effectively.'

Government measures such as the Jobs Credit scheme and Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (Spur) have also helped people cope with the downturn, he said.

Citing Jobs Credit, he said the subsidy for employers' wage bills has minimised or deferred layoffs at three-quarters of companies polled in a new survey.

'This means most companies viewed retrenchments as a last resort,' said Mr Gan, referring to the survey his ministry did over the last three months.

About 4,200 companies, employing a total of 930,000 workers, were polled.

Another finding is that more than 70 per cent of the companies know of Spur, which provides subsidised training.

But four in 10 have no plans to send their workers for such training. Some felt it was not relevant while others said they have in-house training programmes.

Said Mr Gan: 'There is no one-size-fits-all solution but refinements, if any, can be done for Spur to reach out to more companies and workers.'

Additional reporting by Jessica Cheam

This article was first published in The Straits Times.