DPM Gan Kim Yong at the Community Chest Fu Dai 2025

Mr Masagos Zulkifli, Minister for Social and Family Development
My parliamentary and cabinet colleagues
Mr Chew Sutat, Chairman of Community Chest
Grassroot Advisers 
Friends of Community Chest,  

Good afternoon, everyone, and I hope that you have had a good start to the year! Happy new year!

Every Fu Dai is packed by volunteers from both corporate and community organisations and delivered to seniors and families in need. This year marks the 12th year of the Fu Dai event, and I am glad to note that more than 1,300 volunteers have gathered to pack over 9,000 bags for lower-income families and seniors across the island.

This is the spirit of giving that we want to encourage and nurture as we build the next chapter of our Singapore story together. Over the decades, we have made much progress as an economy, as a society and as a nation. Across the board, our peoples have seen their real income grow, and their standards of living improve. But as with all societies, some will progress faster and further than others. Therefore, those who have more should give to those who may need more. And by supporting one another, we will foster a more caring and inclusive society, deepen mutual trust, and ensure that we can move forward together as one united people.

As we celebrate our nation’s 60th birthday this year, we can take heart that we have many positive examples of how those who have succeeded give back to society. The Community Chest’s SHARE programme is a good example of this. Since its launch in 1984, SHARE has enabled employees to donate a small amount of their monthly salary to the Community Chest. These donations have in turn provided a reliable and sustained source of funds for many worthy social service programmes. To date, there are about 260,000 donors and 2,000 companies on SHARE, which contribute more than $15 million annually. The Chinese say, 积少成多. These donations support over 200 critical programmes for more than 82,000 persons each year. These include counselling services to help persons with disability gain independence, and social service support to enable lower income families tide through financial and family challenges.

On this occasion of SG60, we want to make a renewed effort to get Singaporeans and residents to give and contribute. In this regard, I am happy to launch SGSHARE, a national giving initiative that builds upon SHARE. As part of SGSHARE, Community Chest will step up its outreach to businesses, community groups, government agencies and schools to encourage individuals to contribute. This can be in the form of a monthly donation or in the form of a one-time donation. No amount is too small.

As the Minister for Trade and Industry, I would also like to make a special appeal for our businesses in Singapore to step up their philanthropic efforts. Companies can make it easier for their employees to come on board SGSHARE. For example, SK Jewellery Group, MoneyMax Jewelry and Sheng Siong Supermarket have enabled their employees to enrol into the programme automatically when they join the company. They are also among the first to join SGSHARE. I hope their enthusiasm will inspire other businesses to come forward and join us on this journey! Last year, the National Council of Social Service launched the Sustainable Philanthropy Framework to help businesses measure, monitor and benchmark their social impact. I am happy to note that over 40 companies have since come on board and adopted the framework. Standard Chartered Bank and SBS Transit are two such companies. Besides setting up multi-year agreements to commit funds for social causes, both organisations are also strong advocates of staff volunteerism. For example, at monthly digital clinics, Standard Chartered’s staff partner IMDA’s Digital Ambassadors to teach seniors how to use digital tools confidently and protect themselves from online scams. SBS Transit’s staff volunteer as befrienders for ComLink+ families, providing support to help them overcome their challenges and make progress. I urge more businesses to think about how they can not only strive for greater business success, but also deeper social impact, and leverage SGSHARE to encourage their employees to give back to society.

As the ForwardSG exercise has shown, we want our future Singapore to be caring and gracious, where we help those in need, look out for each other and do our part to help one another succeed. Through SGSHARE, let us renew our commitment to build a stronger, more resilient and more united Singapore.

With that, I would like to wish everyone a Happy Lunar New Year in advance, and a prosperous year ahead! 祝大家新年快乐，身体健康，万事如意！谢谢大家！