Speech by Mr Lee Yi Shyan, Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Minister-in-charge of Entrepreneurship at the Restaurant Association of Singapore’s RAS Restaurant Awards 2007 on Tuesday, 16 October 2007, 8:15pm at Orchard Hotel
Mr Ang Kiam Meng, President, RAS,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good Evening
I am pleased to join you this evening for the RAS Restaurant Awards 2007. I congratulate RAS for organising this inaugural event to showcase the industry’s talents and its milestone achievements.
Introduction
With a food-loving population and our image among tourists as a food paradise, Singapore is internationally recognized for our vibrant and exciting food scene that boasts an extensive and mouth-watering choice of cuisines. That Singaporeans love their food must be an understatement. Indeed I was reading an article in The New Yorker recently. Called “Three Chopsticks” it was written by Calvin Trillin[1], one of the top culinary writers in the US. Even he commented that culinary, Singaporeans were among the most homesick people he had every met!
In fact, last year, a Future brand survey ranked Singapore’s dining and night life 2nd, after Italy. Earlier this year, Forbes named Singapore among the Top 10 Cities for Foodies. These international endorsements have raised Singapore’s profile. With the two Integrated Resorts, the F1 race and other projects such as the Singapore Flyer in the pipeline, Singapore has the opportunity to reach out to an even bigger audience. These exciting projects will boost our attractiveness as a tourist destination, as well as enhance our position as a global city with buzz and vibrancy. By 2015, we expect to attract 17 million visitor arrivals, generating some $30 billion in tourism receipts. Our F&B industry must gear up for this new era.
F&B is a growing industry
The growth of the industry is set to continue as we attract more visitors to Singapore and see more residents dining out. In fact, F&B makes up 13 per cent of tourism expenditure, making it the third largest tourist expenditure item after shopping and accommodation. Annual events such as the World Gourmet Summit and the Singapore Food Festival ensure that Singapore will continue to attract more sophisticated consumers.
To meet their needs, we have increased the variety of our cuisine and diversified our dining concepts. Today, we have many dining precincts – the newer ones include Dempsey Hill, Tanglin Village and Rochester Park – in which new concepts are experimented. Our restaurants are increasingly being recognized for their high quality. The prestigious British magazine, Restaurant, has featured three of our restaurants among the world’s top 100 – Iggy’s (60th), Les Amis (83rd) and My Humble House (94th). I am sure more will soon join their ranks. Local initiatives, such as RAS’ Business Excellence Award, also help to spur more companies to develop innovative dining concepts and cuisine. This will enable our companies to create value and overcome higher business costs.
Building industry capabilities for growth – innovation and service standards
To help our companies embrace innovation, the Government launched the F&B Capability Development Programme earlier this year. One company that has received help from the programme is 7107 Flavors, which is the first restaurant to offer Filipino fine dining cuisine in Singapore. However, innovative dining concepts cannot stand on their own. They must be accompanied by high service standards to ensure that consumers enjoy a memorable dining experience overall. That is why we have extended the Customer-Centric Initiative to the F&B industry this year. Currently, service standards have been developed for three sub-sectors – casual dining, pubs and clubs and food kiosks. We can expect to see improved and consistent service from them.
The F&B Workforce Skills Qualification (or WSQ) is another initiative that complements these efforts. It is a comprehensive National Skills Qualifications System that establishes occupational standards and skills progression pathways for the F&B sector. Through the WSQ, our people can undergo training to upgrade their skills and service standards. Tonight, the WSQ Training Excellence Award will be presented to 10 companies that have proactively sent their staff for WSQ training. I hope to see more of our companies recognizing the importance of skills upgrading and joining them.
F&B Branding Campaign
While we focus on developing our people, it is also important that the industry continues to attract the necessary talent to inject energy and ideas to sustain its growth. Hence, the Government will be launching a one-year campaign in partnership with RAS to create awareness of career prospects in the industry. Starting next year, you can look forward to a whole slew of exciting activities, including a national search for Singapore’s F&B Heroes, as well as outreach events such as career fairs, guides and industry open houses. Through these efforts, we hope to encourage more people to participate in the industry’s growth.
Conclusion
To conclude, I would like to say that the F&B industry has done well. It has contributed significantly to our economy, and is a vital cog in our efforts to remake Singapore as a global city. However, we must not rest on our laurels – more can be done in the areas of innovation and service standards. I urge the industry to continue its efforts in upgrading itself and shaping Singapore as the place to wine and dine. My congratulations to all our winners and award recipients tonight.
Thank you.
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good Evening
I am pleased to join you this evening for the RAS Restaurant Awards 2007. I congratulate RAS for organising this inaugural event to showcase the industry’s talents and its milestone achievements.
Introduction
With a food-loving population and our image among tourists as a food paradise, Singapore is internationally recognized for our vibrant and exciting food scene that boasts an extensive and mouth-watering choice of cuisines. That Singaporeans love their food must be an understatement. Indeed I was reading an article in The New Yorker recently. Called “Three Chopsticks” it was written by Calvin Trillin[1], one of the top culinary writers in the US. Even he commented that culinary, Singaporeans were among the most homesick people he had every met!
In fact, last year, a Future brand survey ranked Singapore’s dining and night life 2nd, after Italy. Earlier this year, Forbes named Singapore among the Top 10 Cities for Foodies. These international endorsements have raised Singapore’s profile. With the two Integrated Resorts, the F1 race and other projects such as the Singapore Flyer in the pipeline, Singapore has the opportunity to reach out to an even bigger audience. These exciting projects will boost our attractiveness as a tourist destination, as well as enhance our position as a global city with buzz and vibrancy. By 2015, we expect to attract 17 million visitor arrivals, generating some $30 billion in tourism receipts. Our F&B industry must gear up for this new era.
F&B is a growing industry
The growth of the industry is set to continue as we attract more visitors to Singapore and see more residents dining out. In fact, F&B makes up 13 per cent of tourism expenditure, making it the third largest tourist expenditure item after shopping and accommodation. Annual events such as the World Gourmet Summit and the Singapore Food Festival ensure that Singapore will continue to attract more sophisticated consumers.
To meet their needs, we have increased the variety of our cuisine and diversified our dining concepts. Today, we have many dining precincts – the newer ones include Dempsey Hill, Tanglin Village and Rochester Park – in which new concepts are experimented. Our restaurants are increasingly being recognized for their high quality. The prestigious British magazine, Restaurant, has featured three of our restaurants among the world’s top 100 – Iggy’s (60th), Les Amis (83rd) and My Humble House (94th). I am sure more will soon join their ranks. Local initiatives, such as RAS’ Business Excellence Award, also help to spur more companies to develop innovative dining concepts and cuisine. This will enable our companies to create value and overcome higher business costs.
Building industry capabilities for growth – innovation and service standards
To help our companies embrace innovation, the Government launched the F&B Capability Development Programme earlier this year. One company that has received help from the programme is 7107 Flavors, which is the first restaurant to offer Filipino fine dining cuisine in Singapore. However, innovative dining concepts cannot stand on their own. They must be accompanied by high service standards to ensure that consumers enjoy a memorable dining experience overall. That is why we have extended the Customer-Centric Initiative to the F&B industry this year. Currently, service standards have been developed for three sub-sectors – casual dining, pubs and clubs and food kiosks. We can expect to see improved and consistent service from them.
The F&B Workforce Skills Qualification (or WSQ) is another initiative that complements these efforts. It is a comprehensive National Skills Qualifications System that establishes occupational standards and skills progression pathways for the F&B sector. Through the WSQ, our people can undergo training to upgrade their skills and service standards. Tonight, the WSQ Training Excellence Award will be presented to 10 companies that have proactively sent their staff for WSQ training. I hope to see more of our companies recognizing the importance of skills upgrading and joining them.
F&B Branding Campaign
While we focus on developing our people, it is also important that the industry continues to attract the necessary talent to inject energy and ideas to sustain its growth. Hence, the Government will be launching a one-year campaign in partnership with RAS to create awareness of career prospects in the industry. Starting next year, you can look forward to a whole slew of exciting activities, including a national search for Singapore’s F&B Heroes, as well as outreach events such as career fairs, guides and industry open houses. Through these efforts, we hope to encourage more people to participate in the industry’s growth.
Conclusion
To conclude, I would like to say that the F&B industry has done well. It has contributed significantly to our economy, and is a vital cog in our efforts to remake Singapore as a global city. However, we must not rest on our laurels – more can be done in the areas of innovation and service standards. I urge the industry to continue its efforts in upgrading itself and shaping Singapore as the place to wine and dine. My congratulations to all our winners and award recipients tonight.
Thank you.