SM Teo Chee Hean at the UWEEI Annual Dinner 2024

Enduring Strategies for A World-Class Electronics Hub

Members of the NTUC Central Committee,
UWEEI Council of Advisors and Executive Council,
Management Partners,
Brothers and Sisters,

Introduction

Good evening to all of you. I am glad to join you all once again at the UWEEI Annual Dinner. Tonight we recognise the valuable contributions that UWEEI and our partners make in promoting harmonious labour-management relations.

This year is my 20th year as Chairman of UWEEI’s Council of Advisors. I have seen our companies and workers go through many challenging periods. The Global Financial Crisis; the COVID-19 pandemic. And even now, in this post-Covid world, there are new developments almost every day that affect our sector. From the ongoing wars, to technology contestation, and other economic shocks. You have all had to constantly adapt to these new external changes, knowing that companies that do not evolve, and workers who do not upskill, will quickly be left behind.

Two decades in this role has also given me an insight that I would like to share with you tonight: Across the range of challenges that we have faced, the strategies that have allowed our industries to thrive have, remarkably, remained about the same. These are making sure that: (1) we keep on enhancing the competitiveness of our companies; (2) we keep on improving the employability of our workers; and (3) we preserve the unity and stability of our Singapore industrial relations environment, and that Singapore itself is stable and united, and this is Singapore’s calling card, our biggest advantage. If we continue to always push on these three fronts, I am confident that we will be able to retain our position as a world-class electronics hub for the next twenty years and beyond.

Enhancing the Competitiveness of Our Companies

First, Enhancing the Competitiveness of Our Companies.

I was speaking to a large group of company directors at a conference two weeks ago, about 500 of them. They asked me how they should deal with the emerging risks and opportunities in today’s business environment. I told them that the most important thing was to ask the right question. If you ask the wrong question, you get the wrong answer. If you ask the right question, then you are more likely to get the right answer. And the right question for all of us is: what does an effective operating model for your business look like ten or twenty years from now – so that is the right question to ask ourselves, for our companies, for our workers as well. And with that in mind, what steps does your business need to start taking today to transform for that future? That is the question for our Unions and also for our workers. What does it look like 10 years from now? What do I have to prepare for? This is the approach that we are taking for the whole of Singapore. And so I said to the company directors, that this is the approach that our companies must take as well.

The Government and our workers will continue to partner industry to build capabilities and drive growth in this sector. Our strategies are laid out in the refreshed Electronics Industry Transformation Map launched in 2022. The map was drawn up together with many of our management partners present here today, with our unions, and also with people who look at what the trends are in the industry for the future.

We will continue to attract investments in areas where we have strong capabilities, and strengthen our own R&D ecosystem. We are also implementing sustainable technologies that prepare the industry for a low-carbon future. Many of our companies want green energy and you can see that we are working hard to look 10, 15 years ahead to see how we can get green energy for our companies here in Singapore.

The electronics industry is a cutting-edge industry, and transformation is a constant part of it, is an existential part of it.

Improving the Employability of Our Workers

Industry transformation supports our ultimate aim of having good jobs for our workers. For industry transformation to be successful, having the right human capital is key. Which is why the second strategy is Improving the Employability of Our Workers – that is what we are focused on. Why do we want an industry here? So that we can have good jobs for our workers.

When I was Minister for Education in the early 2000s, we embarked on computerisation in our schools. We put computers in our schools so that our students from a young age would be completely comfortable with computers, regardless of what their family background was. The intention was to prepare our students for the digital world. That was 24 years ago that we did that, so our workers today who are in their 30s and early 40s, would have benefited from that, and so they are completely comfortable with computers. We are going to do the same thing for AI. We are figuring out how to give our students in our schools today the competencies for AI so that when they come out into the workforce in the future, they will be completely comfortable with AI. They will not see it as a threat, but they will see it as a buddy and a partner to help them in their work.

When I was doing computerisation in the schools, we looked at the experience of people in other countries. We found that in some countries, the teachers opposed having computers in the schools because they felt it was a threat to their job, and it was an insult to their dignity. Because how can a computer do the job better me? But nobody was trying to make computers replace teachers, or have computers do the job better than teachers. We wanted computers to help our teachers and our students to learn better; that was our objective. Our teacher unions wanted to be part of the process of training our teachers to use computers better and that was a key difference. Our unions wanted to be a part of this change and transformation for the teachers, to help the students. In other countries, the teachers opposed the use of computers in the schools, that was a very critical difference.

I went to one of our schools in Singapore and visited to see what the teachers were doing. The most enthusiastic group in that school were the Chinese language teachers; those who were 50+ years old. Why? Because they saw the opportunity there to make Chinese language more interesting for their students, and to make the language come alive for them. So imagine that, you would have thought that these were the ones who would be most afraid and most resistant to change. But in this school, they were leading the pack in bringing computers into the school so that they could teach Chinese language better to their students. They wanted to learn; they wanted their students to learn. And this is the attitude and the approach that we must take all the time.

We all know that our industry is driven by continuous innovation. It never sits still. Companies must transform to stay competitive. To do so, the industry also needs workers with a high degree of adaptability and up-to-date skills. So we need our industry and our workers to upgrade their skills, productivity, and technology together. In this way, companies will have the workers that they need, and our workers will have the good jobs that they want. By working together, we can achieve both. By constantly learning, we are always able to be at the forefront, then the companies will stay, the jobs will stay, and we can have better, higher paying, and more productive, value-adding jobs. By ensuring that our workers are reskilling and upskilling, companies can transform and remain competitive. This is a win-win for our workers and for our companies.

UWEEI plays a critical role in supporting our workers to refresh their skills. Our union recently launched Jobs Uplifting through Skills & Training, or J.U.S.T. This helps our mid-career workers transition to higher-value jobs. UWEEI is making good progress onboarding companies to J.U.S.T. Many UWEEI companies have also formed Company Training Committees. There are 84 Company Training Committees today, with more than 20 formed just in the last two years! I encourage those companies that have not yet come onto this programme to come onboard soon. Make use of the Company Training Committee grants to upgrade your business and to upgrade your workers.

The Government will continue to provide strong support for reskilling and upgrading. One major initiative announced by Finance Minister and now Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in this year’s budget, is the new “SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme”. This is targeted for our mid-career workers to keep them in lifelong learning. From next year, if you are a mature worker, aged 40 or older, you can now get government subsidised course fees when you pursue a second full-time diploma. In the past, we only gave you one chance for a subsidised diploma. If you wanted to pursue a second diploma, you had to pay full fees – about $15,000 a year. Now, if you want to pursue a second diploma, you can do so at a subsidised fee of about $4,000 a year – a big, big difference. And on top of that, you can offset much of the remaining course fees through the special SkillsFuture Credit top-up of $4,000 for our mature workers. And for many mature workers who find it difficult to study full-time because they have to support a family or pay a mortgage, the Government will provide a training allowance of up to $3,000 per month for 24 months to help you with your household financial responsibilities while you are studying full-time. These are opportunities that we want to give our mature workers to make sure that they can upskill and keep up with the new job demands. This is for you, and also for your friends and colleagues, so tell them about it.

Ultimately, our goal is for workers to achieve better work prospects and to benefit from our economic growth. In doing so, we also ensure that the industry has workers who are ready to power their transformation.

Preserving Our Unity and Stability

The third strategy is Preserving Our Unity and Our Stability. Our unions have played a very key role, a very responsible role in promoting harmonious industrial relations in Singapore. This has contributed immeasurably to our economic and social progress. It has created good jobs for our workers over the years. We must continue to strengthen our social cohesion and our unity, and build upon this strong tripartite relationship.

While we have done well, we cannot be complacent. You look at the conflicts, turmoil, and political instability in so many countries. People have moved towards the extremes of the political spectrum. It seems as though if you turn on the television, everybody is quarrelling and fighting with each other all the time. When I watch television news or talk shows on CNN or BBC, in Teochew they say “xin luan” – your heart does not feel at peace, because they are just quarrelling with each other all the time, they are not even listening to each other. They are just trying to put across their point of view, not interested in the opposite point of view. Whereas here in Singapore, we try to talk nicely to each other and to try and find a solution that is good for everyone. In many of these countries, a lot of their concerns and their stressors. and sometimes also the protectionism that you are seeing in these countries, comes from workers feeling that they have not received a fair share of the fruit of their labour. When I was growing up, we had the same problem in Singapore. On practically any given day, there was some strike, in some company or sector, going on. But today, we cannot imagine such a thing happening in Singapore. But if you look at what is happening around the world, you will know how things can change and quickly deteriorate.

So, we must make sure that in Singapore our companies treat our workers fairly for the contributions that they make. Our workers also understand that by working together with the companies, we can all progress together. Well, sometimes, the companies and workers and unions can face a difficult situation where each may have its own views. But the important thing to do is to work together, treat each other with respect, communicate openly, this will build trust and cooperation. This is the way that we do things here in Singapore. We hope that our companies and our unions will always continue to work together in this spirit, and that is of vital importance.

And on the part of the Government, we will be your partners, of the companies and our Unions to facilitate such engagement in the spirit of tripartism. The partnership between our Unions and the Government helps us to ensure that we continue to have industrial peace, companies can do well, workers can do well. This is a symbiotic partnership.

This partnership model has brought our workers and our country great benefit. Do not let anybody tell you that workers must be on one side, Government must be on another side, companies must be on another side, and they should all be fighting and quarrelling with one another all the time, and that benefits the workers. It does not work that way. And in Singapore, we have shown that it does not work that way and that by working together, we all benefit together.

As your brother and as Chairman of UWEEI Council of Advisors, I understand what it means to receive feedback directly from our workers. The Government directly receives feedback from our workers and our unions, and takes this into account at the highest levels of government in the Cabinet, when deciding on policies and programmes. I find the views and the feedback that I receive from our UWEEI brothers and sisters very valuable and useful when I sit together in Cabinet with our colleagues. They also get direct feedback. And also we have our union members, our union brothers and sisters sitting in Cabinet too. So when we make decisions, we always bear in mind the interests of our workers as well.

We are now going through a leadership transition at the national level. The 4G leadership, led by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, embarked on the Forward Singapore exercise to chart our next bound of nationhood and strengthen our social compact. Singaporeans from all walks of life came forward to share their views, hopes, aspirations, and ideas. Many of our colleagues from NTUC and the unions took part in NTUC’s ¬#EveryWorkerMatters Conversations. We must continue to be forward-looking and progressive.

We have already begun to take steps to see that this bold agenda gets turned into reality. Earlier, I spoke about the SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme for mid-career workers. This is only one of the moves. There are other moves that PM Lawrence Wong and his team are making to protect and uplift our workers, such as putting in place a workplace fairness law. We also recently announced the SkillsFuture Jobseeker Support Scheme. The involuntarily unemployed can use this opportunity to upgrade their skills, and take the time to find a job that is a good fit for their talent and aptitude. We will provide opportunities and assurance to all Singaporean workers, all our brothers and sisters, at every stage of their lives.

Conclusion

The growth of the electronics and electrical industries have mirrored Singapore’s development over the years. Our industries have become a key pillar of our economy. From modest beginnings with the only TV assembly plant in Southeast Asia in the 1960s, our sector has transformed into a vital node in the global electronics supply chain, manufacturing many of the advanced components that power the modern world.

I am confident that with the solidarity and strength of UWEEI, our electronics and electrical industries will be able to meet the challenges and remain a powerhouse of Singapore’s economy. The Government will be by your side always to support you every step of the way. Together, we can seize new opportunities, adapt, and transform, in order to maintain Singapore’s edge as a world class electronics hub and continue to create good jobs for our workers.

Brothers and sisters, I wish UWEEI and our labour movement continued strength, solidarity, and success. Let us work together – You, We, Together! Thank you very much.