Mr S Iswaran at the Opening Ceremony of Food & Hotel Asia (FHA) 2008

SPEECH BY SENIOR MINISTER OF STATE (TRADE AND INDUSTRY), MR S ISWARAN, AT THE OPENING CEREMONY OF FOOD & HOTEL ASIA (FHA) 2008 ON TUESDAY, 22 APRIL 2008 AT 9.20AM, SINGAPORE EXPO.

Mr Stephen Tan, Chief Executive, SES

Mr Stephen White, Vice President, International Travel Catering Association

Mdm Kay Kuok, President, Singapore Hotel Association

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure to join you today at the Food and Hotel Asia 2008 opening ceremony.This event promises to be an excellent platform for buyers and sellers alike to meet and discover the latest developments in the food and hotel business.

Positive outlook for Singapore’s tourism and hospitality sectors

2007 was yet another record breaking year for tourism in Singapore.We posted close to $14 billion in tourism receipts and welcomed 10.2 million visitors.From 7 million visitors in 1995, it took us 9 years to reach 8 million; a further 2 years to cross 9 million but just one additional year to breach 10 million.

The hotel sector has benefited significantly from this accelerating growth in visitorship.The Average Room Rate rose by more than 20% in 2007 to over $200.Total room revenue increased by 23.6% from 2006 to reach S$1.86 billion in 2007.

This strong growth in the tourism sector is set to continue in the years ahead, especially with the advent of new attractions like the Singapore Flyer and the upcoming F1 race in September this year.Beyond 2008, we will also see the completion of the two integrated resorts (IRs), development of the Mandai area, the Gardens by the Bay, rejuvenation of Orchard Road and the completion of the International Cruise Terminal.There is also the recent good news about Singapore hosting the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in 2010, a significant sporting event that will draw some 15,000 foreign athletes to our country.

These initiatives will put us in a strong position to achieve our Tourism 2015 target of 17 million visitors and $30 billion in Tourism Receipts.To support this level of visitorship, we will need to increase our current room inventory of 37,000.The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has been working with the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to introduce more sites under the Government Land Sales (GLS) programme for hotel development.Last year, 10 GLS sites were sold which will add some 3,400 rooms when completed, contributing to the estimated 12,000 rooms that will come on stream over the next three to four years.

Demand for talent to support the growing tourism industry

With the strong growth faced by Singapore’s tourism and hospitality sectors, the demand for talent in the hotel industry is also set to grow significantly between now and 2010.

The TOTAL plan, which was implemented by the Workforce Development Agency (WDA) and STB in October 2007 to support employment growth in these sectors, is beginning to deliver results.This year, the positive publicity for the tourism industry generated a total of 2,400 first-choice applications for 2,200 openings at our local polytechnics for tourism related courses.In Ngee Ann Polytechnic, the strong demand for their Diploma in Tourism and Resort Management drove the O-level cut-off mark to a low of 10 points, equivalent to other popular courses such as aeronautical engineering and biomedical sciences.Our ITEs have also seen heightened interest in tourism related courses with an increased enrolment of 1,100 students this year.Taken together, our Poly & ITE student intake in tourism courses in 2007 was 2½ times that of 2005 and we expect it to grow further.This bodes well for the future of the industry with such a strong pipeline of skilled manpower.

WDA has also reported several successes in adult training.For the first two months of 2008 alone, 2,000 individuals were upgraded under the Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) programme in the F&B and tourism industries.Together with the 7,400 workers upgraded last year, these individuals, who represent a good mix of both new entrants and existing workers in the industry, will greatly contribute to Singapore’s continuing tourism growth.Let me cite the example of Mr Jacky Yeong - an individual who has successfully made a career switch through such a programme.Mr Yeong had been in the construction trade for more than 10 years before he decided to consider a career switch.He made the bold decision of signing up with the Tourism Management Institute of Singapore, where he earned his WSQ Certificate in Tour and Travel Services in 3 months.Today, he is with SingXpress Travel as an Operations Assistant and has been with the company for over a year.I strongly encourage employers to take full advantage of the WSQ talent pipeline for it may be well be the source of your service stars of tomorrow.

The industry has also created opportunities for mature workers and the previously economically in-active workers.Through schemes like Flexiworks! and Advantage!, companies have started to re-design their jobs to cater to the unique work preferences and needs of such workers.Two years ago, Mr Yeo Eng Kim, then a 75 years young retiree, was hired by Han’s as a part-time packer under the Advantage! scheme.The company created flexi-hours for him, allowing him to work 5 half-days a week from 10am to 3pm.Today, at age 77, he is still with the company, and according to their deputy GM, Mr Gan Yee Chin, the turnover for local mature workers is very low and hence they constitute a reliable source of part-time labour for the company.Other companies would do well to learn from Mr Yeo’s shining example and explore similar strategies to engage this untapped group of workers.

STB is also actively working with tourism establishments to recruit and train their manpower ahead of time through the Training Industry Professionals in Tourism (TIP-iT) scheme.Resorts World at Sentosa (RWS) will be utilising this scheme to send over 1,300 of their new hires in batches to GentingHighlands and UniversalStudiosPark for up to 3 months to gain exposure to casino and theme park operations.Upon their return, these personnel will be able to apply what they have learnt and to support the smooth functioning of RWS.Going forward, STB hopes to work with even more tourism establishments in support of your recruitment efforts and training of new hires.

Even as we make significant strides in drawing more Singaporeans to the tourism industry, we will still need to rely on foreign sources to augment our manpower to meet the forecasted additional manpower need of 60,000 between 2007 and 2010.In anticipation of the robust demand for manpower and the tightness in our labour market, MOM has liberalised the dependency ceiling in the services sector from 45% to 50% since 1 Jan 08.This additional flexibility, together with the progress made under the TOTAL plan, will put us in good stead to meet the challenging manpower demands to attain and maintain the service standards of a first-world tourist destination.

A vibrant food industry

Our food industry has also witnessed strong growth.In 2007, total trade by our F&B industry rose to nearly $18 billion, an increase of 16% over 2006.We maintained strong trade flows with our key food trading partners across the globe, including Malaysia, Indonesia, China, France, Australia, Japan, Thailand and the US, with exports by the industry comprising 40 percent of the total food trade of $7 billion in 2007.Dining also accounts for 13% of our tourism receipts, making it the third largest tourist spending item after shopping and accommodation.

To remain competitive and popular amongst diners, locals and tourists alike, our F & B companies must continue to maintain high standards by enhancing the quality of their offerings and innovating to differentiate themselves.In this respect, it is imperative for companies to upgrade the capabilities of their staff regularly by implementing well-planned training programmes.Better-trained staff will facilitate our efforts to focus on our competitive advantages, namely quality, novelty, taste and most importantly, food safety.

Recognising the importance of food safety to the F&B business, SPRING Singapore has launched the Food Safety Programme in partnership with the National Environment Agency (NEA) and the Restaurant Association of Singapore (RAS) to help our food companies acquire the necessary capabilities to be HACCP-certified.(HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point.)Through this programme, HACCP consultants will work closely with the companies to understand, assess and improve their operations and food safety practices.

The talent needs of our food industry have also been increasing in tandem with those of our hotel industry.Consequently, SPRING has launched a twelve month campaign in partnership with RAS to raise awareness of career prospects specifically in the F&B sector.A whole slew of exciting activities, including an F&B Heroes reality TV contest, as well as outreach events such as career fairs and industry open houses, have been planned to encourage more people to be a part of this exciting sector.

Conclusion

With the Government and our industries working hand in hand, I am confident that our tourism, food and hotel sectors will continue to flourish and excel, making Singapore an exciting tourist and gourmet destination, whilst offering Singaporeans rewarding career opportunities.I wish all of you a fruitful and rewarding time at this event.

Thank you.