Speech by MOS Alvin Tan at Singapore Logistics Association Lunar New Year Lunch

Mr Dave Ng Chairman of the Singapore Logistics Association

Mr Lee Pak Sing, ACEO, Enterprise Singapore

Council members of the Singapore Logistics Association

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and gentlemen,

1. Happy New Year! 恭祝大家新年快乐， 龙年吉祥，龙马精神，大吉大利！

2. As it is the Year of the Dragon, let me describe SLA as a strong, rising, and powerful dragon. Last year, SLA launched your Vision 2027, which is meant to help you fly greener, fly smarter, and fly further. I want to share with you how we are doing these three things, so that the logistics companies can fly towards and achieve your Vision 2027.

3. We are going to start by helping everyone fly greener together. That is why we are launching the Green Supply Chain initiative. This Green Supply Chain initiative has a Knowledge Hub. This hub is not just a website, but it contains a lot of information on how logistics companies can adapt to sustainability standards, and connect with green solutions providers.  

4. Within the hub, we will also launch the Logistics Sustainability Playbook, which SLA developed together with Enterprise Singapore. This playbook will help our companies understand the emerging sustainability trends within the sector, and develop strategies to take advantage of these trends. Let me share two quick examples featured in the playbook.

a. The first is SFS Global Logistics Pte Ltd. SFS recognised the increasing demands by their MNC clients to green and decarbonise the supply chain, so it bought electric vehicles and used sustainable cooling materials to reduce emissions. SFS’ efforts have paid off, and made them more competitive globally.

b. The second is YCH Group. It built a solar farm in its Supply Chain City facility, which generates 3,400 megawatts of green power annually for the company. It helped YCH save 50% on electricity bills, and enhanced the company’s operational efficiency. 3,400 megawatts of green power is enough to power 770 four-room flats for a year.

5. You can follow or fly in their footsteps. Companies can now use Workforce Singapore’s Career Conversion Programme for Sustainability Professionals to upskill and redesign the job roles of a specialised group of sustainability officers. These sustainability officers can become sustainability champions. In fact, we see a lot of companies already merging interesting roles, such as the roles of communications and sustainability officers. SLA has an ambitious set of goals of getting 500 logistics companies in Singapore to appoint your own sustainability officers.

6. To help our logistics dragons fly smarter, we will encourage innovation within our sector to help you develop new technologies and practices. SLA is putting together a consortium of logistics companies to serve as testbeds for innovative green solutions, such as using liquified natural gases for cold chain storage, and these are developed by local logistics technology companies. Please come aboard this consortium, and reach out to the council members to learn more about this.

7. Finally, not only do we want to help you fly greener and smarter, we also want to help our logistics dragons fly further. We have put together $1.3 billion in the Enterprise Support Package, which includes a 50% corporate income tax rebate, capped at $40,000. For companies that are not yet profitable, they would get $2,000 at least, if they have employed at least one local employee in 2023. We also have the Enterprise Financing Scheme, and will be increasing the maximum working capital loan quantum permanently to $500,000, to help with companies’ cashflow, which is critical for our small and medium-sized enterprises. As we talk about flying greener, we are also enhancing the Enterprise Financing Scheme – Green and the Energy Efficiency Grant. We also do not want you to only stay in Singapore, which you are already doing very well. We want you to fly further. Therefore, we have enhanced the Partnerships for Capability Transformation (PACT) scheme, to help many of you plug into global supply chains and compete in markets. The Budget is not just specific to CDC vouchers and Enterprise Financing Scheme. In Singapore, we always try to look ahead, so what we have been doing is also to think about how we can enhance support for emerging technologies. DPM Wong launched the National AI Strategy last year. In the Budget, we announced that we will invest more than $1 billion over the next five years to enhance AI and increase productivity. We sometimes forget that the backbone of digitalisation is broadband. Hence, we are also upgrading the nationwide broadband network. These are just different ways for us to fly greener, fly smarter, and fly further.  

8. In conclusion, I want to thank Dave, council members, and everyone of you in SLA. Over the decades, the SLA has helped over 650 members to connect globally, upskill, and be very competitive. We are behind you, and we hope that you will soar like a dragon.

9. I wish all of you 新年快乐，龙年行大运! Thank you.