The race is on for attracting human capital of the world. In a bid to attract young and highly skilled foreign talent, the New Zealand government has introduced a new visa category, the ‘Silver Fern’ visa (effective April 2010). The visa will enable candidates to enter and stay in New Zealand for up to nine months to seek long-term employment. Once employed, they will then be issued with a further permit to stay another two years while they apply for residence. This pathway to residency serves to attract many potential highly skilled migrants. New Zealand’s second initiative is a new Entrepreneur Plus visa category(effective November 30 2009) that seeks to attract foreign entrepreneurs by offering them immediate residency upon application approval. Currently, foreign entrepreneurs are issued a long-term business permit and can apply for residency only after two years.

In Asia, Singapore leads the pack of countries that have implemented liberal immigration policies for attracting educated work force from other countries. As a result of the carefully crafted immigration policies, foreigners account for nearly 36% of the country’s population. Singapore’s work visa schemes and Permanent Resident schemes attract seasoned entrepreneurs and working professionals from around the world. Learning from Singapore’s success, it’s neighbor Malaysia has also recently announced that it will simplify the granting of permanent residence status to talented and skilled expatriates in order to drive the economy forward.

The benefits from immigration are becoming increasingly evident to governments around the world. Foreign entrepreneurs and talented professionals bring with them their expertise, skills, knowledge, experience, capital and international networks. A liberal immigration policy generally leads to increased investment in the local economy and enhances economic growth. It is no surprise that economies like Singapore continue to open their doors to foreigners despite immigration becoming the city-state’s dominant political issue, as highlighted in a recently published article by Economist.

Interested in doing business in Singapore? Find out how to register a Singapore company.