Mr Lee Yi Shyan at the Singapore HR Congress & Business-Connect Exposition

SPEECH BY MR LEE YI SHYAN, MINISTER OF STATE FOR TRADE AND INDUSTRY, AT THE SINGAPORE HR CONGRESS & BUSINESS-CONNECT EXPOSITION ON MONDAY, 5 MAY 2008 AT 9.30AM, GRAND COPTHORNE WATERFRONT HOTEL.

Mdm Ho Geok Choo, President, Singapore Human Resources Institute

Er. Lee Bee Wah, Member of Parliament, Ang Mo Kio GRC

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1.Good morning. It gives me great pleasure to join you this morning at the Singapore HR Congress 2008.Amongst the key topics that will be discussed at this congress include the best practices and the future of HR. Clearly, SHRI recognizes that need for HR practices here to change in anticipation of the future. I would like to commend SHRI for taking a progressive perspective for this congress.

2.Truly, all successful enterprises could attribute their industry leadership positions to one factor in the final analysis – the quality of their human resources. From a talented team of leadership spawns vision, strategy, organization, system and execution. It is so for business enterprise as it is valid for nations competing in a global economy.

3.In Singapore, the role of human resources in shaping our competitiveness could not be more keenly felt. Against all odds, our per capita GDP grew from 1967’s US$619 to 2007’s US$35,163; 57 times over a period of 40 years. Not a small feat for a nation with no other resources except her human resources.

4.In Singapore, we have spared no effort in human resource (HR) development. Our HR development framework comprises two key elements: the Pre-Employment Training (PET) and Continuing Education and Training (CET) systems.

5.The PET system is essentially our education system. For the past many years, education budget has been the second largest spending accounting between 3 to 4% of our GDP. Our consistent investments in the education system have created many paths for excellence for our children so that they would have a strong foundation for lives.

6.As PM once said: “Education is the most precious gift we can give our children. It is the most critical investments in our future. It is the most effective strategy which will enable us to survive and to thrive in a changing world”. Under the “Thinking School, Learning Nation” vision, our education system seeks to help our students to be creative thinkers, life-long learners and leaders of change.

7.Speaking of change, the past 2 decades have probably shown us more changes in the job market than we even knew. Rapid technological changes and globalization have accelerated shifting of investments and job opportunities around, causing painful job losses at times. Life long employment with a single employer has become history. Basic education even up to university level would not shield a worker from job loss and career change. Life-long learning and constantly acquiring relevant skills are thus the best ways to ensure continual employability.

8.Earlier this year, PM Lee launched the National Continuing Education and Training (CET) Master-plan, which sets out our strategy to invest in our people over the next 10 years. We expect to spend, on recurrent expenditure alone, $400 million per year on CET by 2010.10 new CET centers in diverse sectors will be set up while existing CET centers will be expanded. In all, training capacity is targeted to quadruple from 22,000 workers today to 80,000 workers by 2010. Meanwhile, MOF has also topped-up the Lifelong Learning Endowment Fund (LLEF) by $800 million this year, bringing it to $3.0 billion to support employer- and individual-based learning.

9.As a result of our continued investment in education and training, we now have a highly qualified workforce, possessing broad industry knowledge and relevant skill sets. The Singapore of today is recognized as having an efficient and skilled workforce. In the World Competitiveness Yearbook 2007, we came in first in the labor market rankings. In the Business Environment Risk Intelligence (BERI) 2007, we ranked first in terms of labor force, as well as in qualities such as relative productivity and technical skills. We also topped the human resources rankings by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) in 2007.

Addressing industry manpower needs

10.While we position our HR development for the medium to long term, we also ought to be able to respond to immediate needs. Our labor market has been growing strongly for the past four years, with record employment growth in the past two years. The latest estimates suggest that our labor market has grown further by 68,400 in the first quarter of 2008, which is a record figure for job creation in a single quarter. With the strong pipeline of investments in Singapore, we can continue to expect a tight labor market in the next few years.

11.The Government recognizes the challenges faced by companies in meeting their immediate manpower needs and is taking proactive steps to address our local shortage of talent. We are doing so in three ways.

12.Firstly, we need to encourage employers to tap on the pool of 142,000 economically inactive residents, for example housewives and older persons, who have indicated openness to flexible employment within the next two years. WDA has come up with the Flexi works! scheme to support companies’ efforts in the recruitment of workers on a part-time or flexible work arrangements. WDA also runs the Advantage! scheme to support companies’ initiatives in implementing HR systems, changes to working environment and business and operational processes that directly boost the recruitment, retention and re-employment of mature workers.

13.Secondly, recognizing the tightness in the labor market, MOM has also shown flexibility in revising the foreign worker policy by increasing the dependency ratios across all sectors of the economy since January 2008.

14.Thirdly, to augment our local talent, the new integrated Contact Singapore network as announced by DPM Wong last week would leverage on overseas MOM and EDB offices to seek out talent prospects, such as overseas Singaporeans for employment in Singapore.

15.Even as we seek to increase the size of our workforce, our economic agencies are concurrently working on our workers having the right skills and qualities. EDB, SPRING and STB have been collaborating with the industry players to provide feedback to our universities, polytechnics and ITEs on the skill-sets required by employers.

16.Another important aspect of training and development pertains to managerial competencies. To ensure a strong supply of talented leaders for SMEs, SPRING Singapore this year launched a $60m Business Leaders Initiative (BLI), targeted at all levels of SME management – from executive programs for SME CEOs to undergraduate scholarship for management trainees in SMEs. BLI aims to train 1000 CEOs and top management personnel in the next 5 years, and offer 500 scholarships at the MBA and undergraduate levels in the next 10 years.

Important Contributions from SHRI

17.Obviously, an effective Continuing Education & Training (CET) program cannot be done by the government alone. Employers, institutions of learning and professional training providers are amongst our strategic partners. As a professional body representing the HR practitioners and specialists in Singapore, SHRI is advantageously positioned to accomplish two important tasks:

a. Raise the professional standard of HR practices in Singapore to the world standard and

b. Make Singapore a regional center in HR expertise, practices, research and development.

Conclusion

18.On this note, I would like to commend SHRI’s many achievements in raising the professionalism of HR practitioners and practices in Singapore. It is my hope that SHRI and its members will continue this journey of excellence, rendering Singapore a true magnet for human capital and talent development.

Thank you.