Mar., 13/ There are at least 300 jobs coming up in the precision engineering industry in the next few months, and these are just from six multinational companies in Singapore.

In Singapore's current rising unemployment situation, the precision engineering industry paradoxically has a hard time finding workers.

Specifically, it has problems recruiting Singaporeans and has to rely on foreign labour to help run its plants.

Six MNCs alone say they need 100 tooling and machining specialists and 200 technicians this year.

Industry players told Channel NewsAsia that Singaporeans shun these jobs because they do not want to dirty their hands and are too impatient to undergo training.

To attract "O" and "N" level school leavers to the precision engineering industry, the Economic Development Board and the Institute of Technical Education will launch a new 2-year traineeship programme.

The first intake of 64 students will be in July.

Some 20 firms have already offered to train 100 people.

At the moment, ITE enrols about 700 precision engineering students a year.

The new programme will also help meet EDB's goal of doubling the industry's output to about S$25 billion in the next 10 years.

Ko Kheng Hwa, Managing Director, Economic Development Board, said, "There will be manpower increase, but I don't expect it to be double because we have to move into more productive, high value added precision engineering services."

And one of the companies expanding here is Japan's Matsushita Refrigeration Industries or Maris.

This maker of compressors for refrigerators is shifting its R&D, accounting and sales functions from Japan to Singapore.

Managing Director of Maris, Hiroshi Kawai, says Singapore has good engineers and advanced technology, so it is ideal to set up an R&D centre here.

This will also help the company cut production costs.

Maris will spend S$23 million this year to upgrade its equipment.

There are also plans to expand its die development centre.

The company, which turned 30 on Friday, currently produces 9 million compressors a year. To boost its market share, it will increase its production in Malaysia and China.