The Chinese restaurant group is one of the thousands of businesses struggling with a labour crunch caused by foreign worker curbs, that threaten the city-state's already feeble growth rates. The city's restaurants, hotels and retailers have become the biggest casualties of the labour crunch since Singapore accelerated restrictions on foreign workers in 2011 as political disquiet about immigration grew. To encourage adoption, Singapore this year announced plans to spend S$450 million ($333 million) over three years to fund robot development and deployment. Weak capital expenditure amid the global economic slowdown has made it difficult for a virtuous robot development cycle to rev up in Singapore. "In a hypothetical situation where there were no foreign manpower curbs, then (domestic) growth may have been a little bit higher," said Selena Ling, head of treasury research for OCBC.

Source: The Edge Markets August 14, 2016 23:03 UTC