DPM Gan Kim Yong at the NTU Ministerial Forum 2024

Good evening. Welcome to this Ministerial Forum.

First, let me thank you for inviting me to speak with you at this year’s NTU Ministerial Forum. 

The theme of this year’s forum – ‘The Future of Singapore: Horizon and Heartbeat’ – appropriately reflects where we are in Singapore’s nation-building journey. 

Several fundamental changes are afoot, both in our domestic as well as our external environment. It is therefore crucial that we look ahead over our horizon, make sense of these trends, and assess what they mean for Singapore and for all of us. 

We must, for example, consider how we will respond, to ensure that Singapore will continue to flourish, thrive and be a shining red dot, and keep the heartbeat of Singapore alive, to forge a better future for ourselves and generations ahead. 

Let me outline a number of observations on our horizon. 

I will start with our economy. We face an increasingly challenging economic environment. 

Domestically, we are facing tightening resource constraints in land, labour and, now, more and more, on carbon. If not managed well, this will inadvertently drive up costs for businesses, impact our competitiveness, narrow our space for economies, and affect our ability to compete with other economies with fewer constraints.

Externally, we face very tough competition for new investments as countries ramp up industrial policies to attract investments in key strategic sectors such as semiconductors, AI and even pharmaceuticals, with massive subsidies. 

We also face an increasingly fractured trading order, as countries enact tariffs, export controls and even outbound investment regulations and restrictions along geopolitical lines, to protect their own domestic industries. 

These developments will impact our ability to grow our economy and create good jobs for Singapore.

The pace of technological and demographic changes will also pose challenges to social stability. 

Rapid technological advancements like AI can cause major disruptions to industries and jobs. This will have implications on job security, livelihoods, and social mobility. 

Our ageing society will pose greater demands on our healthcare and social support systems, not only in terms of infrastructure and manpower but also our fiscal resources. 

Last but not least, our society is becoming more diverse, and this will challenge our ability to build a shared Singapore identity. 

Race, language and religion will continue to feature strongly in our society. 

We will also find differences across people of different nationalities, which we need to manage carefully.

We will also have to be mindful of divisions caused by income gap and wealth gap. 

Even different generations of Singaporeans will have different life experiences and therefore different perspectives and aspirations.

All these may sound very depressing. These are the bad news, there are good news. The good news is that there are more positives than negatives – on a net basis.  And in fact, if we do it right, we can turn some of the negatives into positives. Let me just highlight five of these opportunities. 

First, despite the constraints, we can still boost our productivity and innovation to drive the growth of our economy. The key questions are really:

Can we help our industries harness the potential of new technologies, such as AI and quantum, despite the threat of their potential impact on jobs? I attended a launch ceremony yesterday at Singtel. I met a company Hippocratic AI – as in the Hippocratic Oath by doctors and medical professionals; Hippocratic AI has developed an AI system that helps to administer to seniors who are living at home. Today, in Singapore, we have an army of Silver Generation Ambassadors. If some of you may know them, they visit our seniors at home one by one, and because of manpower limitation, they can only visit the seniors maybe once a week if you are lucky; if not, maybe once a month. You keep tabs on them to make sure that they are well and if they need any help medically, they can then refer to the right medical services. But because of this, we will only be able to handle 300 seniors all at the same time, because these are AI-enabled robotics. So, with this, we can imagine that we will be in a position to scale the services to our seniors, and we can even reach out to all our seniors – once a day, every day.  And of course, the technology still needs to be refined, and this has already been deployed in the US; it is a US-based company and is thinking of moving to Singapore and they are looking at the Asian market because Asia has a lot more seniors and getting older. And Singapore, of course, I told him, is what you call a super-aged country. We are one of the fastest-ageing countries and therefore we present a good opportunity for them to test their model; and hopefully, over time, Singapore will become a hub for these services and will handle and help to address the ageing problem not only in Singapore, but around the region. 

So, these are potential cutting-edge research that we can invest and build new capabilities in, so that in time, we can translate these into competitive strengths for our businesses. 

And second, amidst this shifting global production and supply chains, there will also be new opportunities. The challenge is really for us to strengthen, continue to deepen, our relevance to the new landscape.

How can we enhance our trade agreements, so that we can continue to do business with both the US and China? How can we tap the growth of our region and in new areas such as the green and digital economy? 

How can we reinforce our value proposition as a competitive, innovative and trusted location for businesses from around the world? 

Third, one key competitive advantage we have is our people. Can we better institutionalise lifelong learning, so that our workers can continue to stay relevant, competitive, and resilient?

How can we better encourage and support our workers to refresh their skills and competencies regularly? 

And for those who are involuntarily displaced, how can we support them to move into more productive sectors more quickly? 

Fourth, as I mentioned, our ageing population need not be a disadvantage. Can we leverage Healthier SG and Age Well SG to keep Singaporeans healthier for longer and turn ageing to our advantage? 

Last but not least, to succeed as a nation, we need to forge a new compact and move forward as one united people. 

Can we hold firm to what Singapore stands for, amidst a very complex, dangerous, and turbulent world? 

Can we build a more caring and inclusive society, that looks out for one another, particularly the less fortunate and more the vulnerable? 

Can we strengthen our solidarity, deepen our identity as Singaporeans, and celebrate differences rather than let them divide us? 

As we look over the horizon and consider what the future brings, I urge each and every one of you to ponder not only about the dark clouds over the horizon, but also the silver linings within, so that we will not be daunted by the challenges and uncertainties, but be empowered to seize the opportunities and possibilities for Singapore and for all of us here, as well as many that will come after. 

I look forward to our dialogue on how we can keep our Singapore heartbeat strong, vibrant and inspiring, even as we cast our eyes towards the horizon. 

Thank you very much.