THE government looks closely at permanent residents' (PRs) contributions to Singapore before deciding which ones can become citizens, said Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew last night at a Tanjong Pagar GRC event.

'So please put up with the new immigrants. We are very careful about who becomes a citizen,' he said, responding to criticisms over the growing influx of foreigners living and working here.

There were more than 1.2million foreigners in Singapore last year.

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