Chief Minister of Johor, Yang Amat Berhormat Dato’ Onn Hafiz Ghazi,

 

Your Excellency Dato’ Dr Azfar Mohamad Mustafar, the High Commissioner of Malaysia to Singapore,

 

Mr Ng Kuan Khai, Singapore Consul-General in Johor Bahru,

 

Mr Lee Chee Koon, Group CEO, CapitaLand Investment,

 

Mr Kevin Goh, CEO of The Ascott Limited and Lodging, CapitaLand Investment,

 

Datuk Patrick Lim, Managing Director, and Datin Paduka Alinah Ahmad, Director of Corporate Relations, Coronade Properties,

 

Today is a very important day, as YB mentioned earlier on, tomorrow we celebrate Singapore's 60th birthday. It is a long journey.

We celebrate this on 9th August – 9/8. Today is 8/8, and for many, 8/8 is very auspicious, so congratulations to Coronade and congratulations to Ascott too. It is a good, good start. A very good start.

As widely mentioned, and Kevin knows, I am kind of triple booked, but because on the eve of National Day, what we usually do is we have with all of the Ministries – the National Day Observance Ceremony – to observe and reflect what we have come across as a nation over the many years, and this year our 60^th year. I am very happy to observe the signing of this agreement because I think it is a landmark agreement. It also represents a first major hospitality agreement since the signing of the Johor-Singapore SEZ Agreement in January 2025, so congratulations to you all.

This is important as YB mentioned for a few reasons. So let me just touch on some, because Kevin and YB has already said earlier. I will say – what are we doing, why are we doing this and how are we doing this. What are we doing – of course, as I mentioned earlier on, this is a good hallmark agreement, first hospitality, major hospitality management agreement between Coronade as well as Ascott, but it is also between Singapore and Johor. That is what we are doing here today.

But why are we doing this? To elevate this a little bit more, it is really about pulling together a win-win solution for Singapore and Johor. And the Johor-Singapore SEZ that I had mentioned and Cabinet members have mentioned many times, this is an important project for Singapore, and an important project for Johor. I said that in Parliament and we have also discussed that incredibly extensively together with YB. YB has been here last week, I said “Tak Cukup”, so he came again this week, and he is going to come many, many, many times. But that is the political impetus for us as political leaders on both sides to be able to push this and give it the push that it needs. And the Johor-Singapore SEZ is important because it builds this SEZ as a value proposition for others outside of the ASEAN region to say, “now there is a very, very interesting investable location for me to consider”.

The strengths of Singapore as a global hub, a research development finance, and the strengths of Johor growing in talent, growing in resources and the likes. So, this is complimentary and a win-win. But we can only say and only put all of this together, you need to put in all the ingredients to make it happen. Today is one particular important ingredient. The RTS is another important ingredient. An earlier on this morning, YB and I, we also mentioned the importance of skilling people as another ingredient. So, you have businesses – Coronade and Ascott, that is a very, very good example; you have infrastructure – which is the RTS link; and then you have people. All of this will – if we do it well, and I'm sure on both sides, we will do it well – will attest to the success of the Johor-Singapore SEZ.

The RTS link, once completed in the end of next year 2026, it means that from Woodlands North Station, you take five minutes and you land in Bukit Chagar, and you just clear the immigration once with the joint CIQ. It is about 10,000 passengers per hour, one way. So that is, as to use YB and Kevin’s part, it is a game changer. The second is then once we create many of these opportunities, how do we then make sure that we have the right people in place? So, I updated YB earlier this morning that our IHLs, our Institutes of Higher Learning, for example, Singapore Polytechnic is working with the Johor Skills Development Council and the IHLs in Johor to ensure that the people, workers working in both Johor in Singapore will have the skills to take on these jobs.

So, this is what we are doing today; why we are doing it because we want to have a very, very strong value proposition for the whole of Johor and in Singapore, and in terms of people, in terms of infrastructure, and in terms of businesses, we are filling in those blanks. So, with that, I congratulate Coronade properties, I congratulate Ascott. Thank you very much in this very, very special occasion. 8/8. Congratulations.