Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has rejected criticisms against his government's policies on the employment of foreign workers, saying that the domestic economy has actually benefited from foreign hires in local industries.

Citing as an example an electronics plant whose inauguration he led on Thursday, Mr Lee said that for every one foreign worker employed at the facility put up by IM Flash Singapore, a venture owned by US technology majors Intel and Micron, one and a half jobs that were created went to the locals.

Two-thirds of the managerial and professional positions at the state-of-the-art wafer fab facility are held by Singaporeans and permanent residents, while foreign employees account for two-thirds of the technical and manufacturing jobs.

"Without the foreign workers, we would not have attracted this US$3 billion investment, and Intel and Micron would have built its wafer fab elsewhere," Mr Lee was quoted by the Straits Times daily as saying.

The IM Flash Singapore plant, which has 1,200 employees, will produce NAND Flash memory chips for use in smartphones and tablet computers.

Mr Lee raised the matter of foreign workers in his remarks during the plant's opening in response to recent concerns about foreign workers elbowing out Singaporeans for jobs in the city-state.

The simmering worry has also been raised by some members of the political opposition ahead of the May 7 parliamentary general election, which could mean more discussions on the matter in the coming days.

Mr Lee had pointed out during an earlier television debate that his government was "controlling the number of foreigners so that Singaporeans would not be squeezed out of good jobs," the Straits Times reported.

Singapore has also recently raised levies on the hiring of foreign works as a control against any big rise in their numbers, Mr Lee said.

Another measure, according to Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, was a "strengthening of monetary policy" that, while easing the need for more foreign workers, also dampened exports.

Instead of going for a higher economic growth that would have meant requiring a much larger number of such workers, said Mr Goh, the government opted for "trade-offs" to moderate the inflow of foreign workers and immigrants who are deemed to already have "quite a big presence in Singapore."

According to government statistics, out of the total 3.1 million individuals employed in Singapore at end-2010, some 1.99 million were Singaporeans and around 1.11 million were foreign workers (including about 137,000 foreign domestic helpers employed in households).

Foreign employment increased by 59,700 workers in 2010, which reversed the decline of 4,200 in the preceding year.

On the other hand, the number of local employees expanded by 56,200 last year, an acceleration over the 41,800 increase the previous year, according to the government data.