The comparison of policies to attract foreign talents for Singapore and New Zealand.

This passage is intended to compare the policies used by both Singapore and New Zealand governments to attract foreign talents to illustrate the importance of oversea human resources to the economies of both countries. The author's intention is only to narrate objectively about the policies or strategies, but not to give right and wrong appraisal of the policies.

Geography Characters

Singapore is a small island, stretched 42km from east to west and 23km from south to north, with a total land area of 649 square km.

While New Zealand consists of two islands in the south-west of Pacific, the land area is about 400 times of that of Singapore, which is 270000 square km.

Population

Singapore has a population about 3.6m, consisting of dominant Chinese (76.8%), Malays (13.9%), Indians (7.9%), and other ethnic groups (1.4%).

The population in New Zealand is more than 3.7m(source: the New Zealand Official Yearbook 2002).

New Zealand

Satellite image of New Zealand in December 2002.

New Zealand panorama

The largest ethnic group is European, which is 80% of the population. One in seven people are Maori people, and about 7% are Asian people, the rest consists of Pacific people and other ethnic groups.

Another astonishing fact is that 100% Singapore population is urbanized, 99% living in the Singapore City. Only 85% of New Zealand people are living in the cities, and the largest city in New Zealand is Auckland, which has a population of 1m.

Political

Both of the countries are practicing democratic system, and the general elections are very normal. All the people are enjoying the freedom of religion and expression.

Economy

Singapore is one of the richest countries in the Asian-Pacific Area, known as one of the four little dragons in Asia. (The other three are Taiwan, South Korea and Thailand)

New Zealand is also one of the richest countries in this region, with a...