Lee Yi Shyan at the NDOC of Singapore Technologies Electronics

SPEECH FOR MINISTER OF STATE FOR TRADE & INDUSTRY LEE YI SHYAN AT THE NATIONAL DAY OBSERVANCE CEREMONY OF SINGAPORE TECHNOLOGIES ELECTRONICS

Good morning:

Mr Seah Moon Ming, President, ST Electronics Ltd.

Mr Michael Low, President of ST Electronics Employees’ Union

Management partners, Executive Committee Members of the Union

Ladies and Gentlemen.

I am happy to join you in today’s National Day Observance ceremony at ST Electronics. This is a time to celebrate our achievements in forty one years, also a time to cast our vision into the future. A time to thank all who have made the contributions before us, and a time to cherish the values that will sustain us forward.

Electronics is a Key Manufacturing Cluster

Amongst the many achievements this nation has made is our vibrant economic development. Today, our economy is diversified with manufacturing and services sectors. As a key pillar for our economy, the manufacturing sector accounts for more than ¼ of the GDP. And within manufacturing, the electronics cluster accounted for more than 1/3, and produced an estimated output of almost $78 billion (or 36.5% of total manufacturing output).Looking into the horizon, the near term outlook for the electronics industry is positive. New investments into the sector and employment creation are expected to rise in the coming months.

While the near term outlook for the industry is positive, we are fully aware of the volatility that characterizes the electronics industry. Short product cycles, technology obsolescence and intense competition add to the fast-pace nature and competitive pressures of the industry. While ST Electronics competes in the defense, governmental and commercial sector, the company is not immune to the global trends of this industry.

3 Key Strengths

To be able to continue to operate in this ferociously competitive industry, I see that there are three key success factors any company should have, and in this case I noted that they are the key strengths of ST Electronics as well. The three key success factors are: relevance to the market place, continuing learning workforce and a strong tripartite relation.

Relevance to the Market Place. ST Electronics is a technology company. It designs and implements sophisticated communications, command and control systems for major public infrastructure and governmental systems. ST Electronics has to invest in R&D, innovation in products, process and service offerings. ST Electronics competes with knowledge, and is a role model of that kind of company that will steer Singapore into Knowledge Industry, into the future. The moment our knowledge companies slow down in knowledge creation, in innovation, we will be overtaken by competitors in the market. I am therefore pleased to know that in ST Electronics, your leadership and commitment in technology R&D has created a strong foundation for growth. I must also commend on your companies sterling revenue growth of 10 times in 9 years.

Continual learning workforce. In the knowledge industry, everyone in this firm, and I believe you have 3,000 workers in all, has to learn and relearn many times over, just to keep pace with the changing technology. Having an attitude of life long, continual learning is therefore the best way to stay at the cutting edge. For the older workers, this is certainly the way to keep ourselves relevant to the organizations. I am happy to note that ST Electronics have been awarded the People Developer Standard and Singapore People Excellence Award in recent years. This is a strong testimony that a company has its people’s training and development at heart.

I believe everyone of us, should frequently ask ourselves: “what value can I bring to the organization?” This is an important question because capital and technology are mobile. Investment dollars will flow to where they can find the best multipliers of value add. If we can’t add value to the investment dollars coming in, as well as competition, we will lose those investments. And with it, our jobs.

Tripartite relations. Singapore enjoys harmonious and strong relations between the unions, employers and the government. We have no industrial actions for many decades. But this is not to be taken for granted. As I traveled to many other countries, I saw confrontational and antagonistic unions, employers and helpless government. In the end, factories closed, investments relocated and workers lost their jobs. It was a lose-lose-lose situation.

Our strong tripartite system is therefore a foundational strength for Singapore. We have a common vision for achieving economic growth and thereby generating god jobs for the workers. We have a win-win-win mindset. Only with such cooperation between the union, employers and government agencies can we multiply our efforts in work re-design, skill upgrading and life long learning. I see here in ST Electronic a very fine model of tripartite cooperation. I want to commend the management and the union leaders and workers for their commitment for making this possible.

Conclusion

Today, we stand tall amongst the achievements that this country had made. We are proud to be called Singaporeans. Let us unite ourselves in creating a stronger economy, a better home and brighter future for all. I wish you a very Happy National Day. Thank you.