Cranes dot the landscape around Singapore's Marina Bay. Right next to the island state's muscular financial district a series of massive developments are underway.

Once finished they will transform the reclaimed waterfront from an empty tract beside some of the globe's prime office space into a bustling residential, recreational and lifestyle centre intended as a magnet for foreign investors, workers and tourists.

Local office worker Isa Mudin says the developments, which among them include a $5 billion casino resort complex and several 50-plus story apartment towers, will bring in jobs.

"That's good, but we don't have a lot of say - all this is the government's plan."

He's right. Singapore's paternalistic leaders have set a target - to boost the population from 4.4 to 6.5 million by the middle of the century, the aim being to sustain the island's workforce and pump economic growth.

But to do so - in the face of declining birthrates and an exodus of young workers overseas - it will have to open the gates to about a million foreigners.

So it is giving itself a radical makeover - cleaning up its waterways, doubling the amount of accessible greenspace and making it easier for a range of recreational activities such as cycling, hiking, kayaking and windsurfing.

It is also loosening immigration rules and heavily marketing itself internationally in key sectors like education.

Business New Zealand chief executive Phil O'Reilly says that kind of aggressive approach is symptomatic of increased global competition for skilled people.

"The bar is being raised very very rapidly indeed, because most of the developed economies in the world are facing the same kind of labour market crunch that we are."

He is referring to the phenomenon of an ageing population, low unemployment and a persistently strong world economy.

And he says New Zealand, with a 3.5 percent jobless rate, needs to do more to make itself attractive to the workers it wants to drive the economy.

"We are fooling ourselves if we think all these people want to come to New Zealand because it's clean and green and a long, long way away.

"In fact for many of them the fact that it's a long way away and it's small is a downside because they are ambitious and want to succeed on a world stage."

He says New Zealand has some strong selling points, but it needs to market itself better and make it easier for people to come and settle here permanently.

Association of Investment and Migration chairman Richard Howard says the Government approved 47,000 new permanent residents last year - about 8000 fewer than it could have.

He thinks the Government should let more people stay, but he says it is doing a good job in some areas.

As well as permanent residents it has been allowing large numbers of people in on temporary visas - student or working holiday or seasonal work - in the hope that some will choose to stay.

Howard, who runs an immigration consultancy in Hamilton, says the benefit of the strategy is that those who decide to stay have already sampled the country and are likely to stay long-term.

About 80 percent of last year's new residents came from temporary categories.

But he says if such a strategy is to work the Government needs to make sure it is pulling people into its feeder streams. In the case of students, he says, that hasn't been the case - the number of Chinese students has dropped and Indian student numbers have plateaued.

He says that is to do with the quality of courses on offer and aggressive marketing and competition overseas.

"The Government needs to do something that reignites that market."

Immigration Minister Clayton Cosgrove says the Government has just made it easier for students to stay in New Zealand after they graduate - extending the period of time they can stay on and look for a related job from six months to a year.

He says that is one of several things it is doing to ensure the flow of people to New Zealand's shores - for example responding to skill shortages through the use of temporary permits.

While resident places are capped, temporary permits are not - as long as employers can show a need that can't be filled locally, then a permit can be issued. Prominent shortages include health professionals and IT specialists.

Cosgrove says the Labour Department's immigration service processed 160,000 applications for such permits in the past year.

And it has also participated in a range of migration, recruitment and education exhibitions - in the last two months alone it provided support for 15 such exercises in Britain and Europe and the number is set to grow over the next year.

But Cosgrove says the Government also has to make sure the flow of new residents does not impact negatively on society and the economy - an example would be the impact on house prices which some have attributed at least in part to strong migration in recent years.

But O'Reilly says while temporary permits are helpful in the short term they don't necessarily increase the prospect of people staying permanently.

"While they are temporary migrants of course, they struggle to settle down, they don't know how long they are going to live in New Zealand, so they don't invest in properties, they might not put their kids in school, they might not bring their partners out so they are kind of in stasis without having any clear future in the country, meaning we might not get the best out of them and they might go somewhere else."

He says the Government has initiated some good partnership programmes with businesses, making it easier for them to bring in staff, but he says more co-ordination and co-operation is needed both in marketing and determining who gets in.

"New Zealand genuinely does have a lot to offer - it is clean and safe, culturally diverse and tolerant. But we need to get out and sell the message better."

- Grant Fleming, NZPA