Mr Lee Yi Shyan at the Opening of X-Periment! and the Launch of the Singapore Science Festival 2011, 22 July 2011

SPEECH BY MR Lee Yi Shyan, MINISTER OF STATE FOR TRADE & INDUSTRY AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENTAT THE OPENING OF X-PERIMENT! ANDTHE LAUNCH OF THE SINGAPORE SCIENCE FESTIVAL 2011ON FRIDAY, 22 JULY 2011, AT 1145 HRSAT SUNTEC CONVENTION HALL 401

Professor Low Teck Seng

Managing Director, A*STAR

Associate Professor Lim Tit Meng

Chief Executive, Science Centre Singapore

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Boys and Girls,

It is my pleasure to join you this morning at the launch of X-Periment! and the official opening of the Singapore Science Festival 2011.

20 years of S&T in Singapore

This year’s Science Festival is particularly significant as Singapore celebrates 20 years of national science and technology planning and development, since the launch of the first National Technology Plan in 1991.

Over the last two decades, government investment into R&D has grown more than eight times, from $2billion for the first five-year National Technology Plan from 1991 to 1995, to $16.1 billion for the recently announced Research, Innovation and Enterprise Plan (2011-2015).

Singapore’s long term aim is to be among the most research-intensive, innovative and entrepreneurial economies in the world. This will enable us to create high value jobs and prosperity for Singaporeans.

Our efforts in promoting innovation have been noticed by international studies. According to INSEAD’s Global Innovation Index 2011, Singapore was ranked third among 125 economies on innovation levels, just behind Switzerland and Sweden. This is encouraging.

However, if we distil the report further, we find that Singapore can still improve its performance in areas such as knowledge creation, knowledge impact, knowledge diffusion and creative outputs. In other words, we have very good input factors, but we can do with more output factors.

As we look forward to even more exciting advances in Science and Technology, we are mindful of the need to enthuse and inspire our youth to ensure that Singapore has the necessary talent base for R&D to benefit our economy and society.

Science Outreach – integral part of S&T development

Our success in attracting the best and brightest into a career of science is reflective of our sustained outreach efforts. By embracing a career in science, they become the drivers of new discoveries and innovations that create growth and enhance lives. The past two decades have seen an encouraging six-fold increase in the number of Research Scientists and Engineers here, from just 4,300 in 1990 to 26,600 in 2009.Amongst these, the number of PhD holders grew almost seven times from under 1,000 to 6,800.

Apart from growing our talent pool, we also need to build the base of students interested in and passionate about science and technology. In this regard, I am pleased to note that over the last nine years, A*STAR and the Science Centre have reached more than 1.4 million students, parents and members of the public. Total viewership of the National Science Challenge, since its inaugural broadcast back in 2004, reached 2.3 million last year.

Our outreach activities have also grown more diverse and multifaceted. Today's event, X-Periment!, for instance, has evolved from the inaugural interactive exhibition in 2001intothemultidimensionaleventyou see today. Participants at the Science Festival can also look forward to a display of cutting-edge science, engineering, technology and biomedicine solutions. Encounter with science and technology can be fun.

Catching them young

A long-lasting passion in science can be ignited in small ways. For young Teo Peili, her interest in science began with some moldy bread. In Secondary Two, she was tasked with a research project to examine how different environmental factors such as lighting, air and humidity had on bread mold. This simple assignment whetted Peili’s appetite for analyzing data in a systematic way. Later on as an undergraduate, she undertook numerous research projects and continued to graduate school in NUS. She proceeded to do her overseas post-doc in Nobel Laureate – Robert Grubbs’ lab at Caltech from 2009 to January this year. This A*STAR scholar is now living her dream of being a scientist at the Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences.

18-year-old Cheng Herng Yi’s foray into the world of science started with a simple fascination of folding paper. Driven by his love for origami as a young child, Herng Yi took every opportunity to advance his interest – learning from teachers, seeking out experts, attending conferences and developing computer programmes to create better folds. This Singaporean boy went on to bag this year’s A*STAR Talent Search Award and several prizes at the International Science and Engineering Fair in the US. Herng Yi has now set his sights on deepening his understanding of mathematics and advancing his origami folds and finding useful applications for his computer programmes.

Whether through bread mold or origami, the Science Festival is all about sparking this initial interest in science. By making science obvious and simple, we hope to inspire many more to ask “why” and “how”, to embark on a journey of learning and discovering.

Engaging Residents

While we seek to bring the public to Science Festival, we are also seeking to bring science into your homes. The government has recently announced that $400 million will be committed to support R&D in areas such as sustainable urban living, urban mobility, Green Building and Food.

Innovative thinking and solutions need not be confined to scientists, or be about cutting-edge technology or rocket science. Simple innovations and small improvements, can sometimes pack a bigger punch as they can be widely applied to enhance the quality of our daily life.

Just last month, Minister Khaw Boon Wan blogged about consulting members of the public for ideas to "Solve Daily Irritations". We are heartened by the enthusiastic response we received. It shows that residents want to play a part to work with HDB to co-create solutions and improve the quality of their living environment.

For a start, I have just launched a topical discussion this morning on conserving energy and solving laundry issues in high rise living, which is something on the mind of many residents.

About a month later, I will launch the topic of Energy Conserving Ideas. I invite all of you to go to my Facebook page, give us your ideas and join in the discussion.

HDB is also looking to tap on the creativity of residents in devising conceptual solutions to the problems at hand, so that teams of residents might be mobilized to compete to come up with the best ideas. The ideas generated will then form the basis of solutions, which HDB can then refine in collaboration with educational and research institutions.

The outcomes of this effort can be tested, improved and potentially adopted for wider implementation in HDB households and estates. I see great potential in the various collaborations to seek practical cost-effective solutions to solve daily problems. Let us all work together towards a more comfortable living environment and better quality of life.

Conclusion

Finally, let me thank all of you who have contributed to the Science Festival, X-Periment! and the progress of science and technology for the past many years. Science and technology development is a long-term undertaking. It's a cornerstone strategy for building a knowledge economy of an advanced nation. Let us make greater strides. Let us make learning of science and technology fun, as it is today!

Thank you