PM Lee Hsien Loong at launch of The Future of Us exhibition

Distinguished guests and friends,

Very happy to be here this morning to launch the “Future of Us” Exhibition. We are coming to the close of SG50 and beginning a new chapter of the Singapore story. It has been an extra special year for all of us and I am sure each of us has his or her own special memories. It is good that this morning, as we walked the Jubilee Walk together, we started with reminding ourselves of the past, going past historic and iconic sites in our Civic District. And now, at the end of the walk, we are here, looking towards the future, at the “Future of Us” Exhibition. We are coming together as one people, one nation, one Singapore. Re-dedicating ourselves to build a better Singapore and looking forward to the possibilities ahead of us.

50 years ago, when we became independent, there was no “Future of Us” Exhibition to dream of. Our future was uncertain and bleak. We were a backward, third world country. Our forefathers lived in poor conditions and we were divided by racial tensions. But our pioneers determined that Singapore would endure and prevail, that Singapore would have a future. They worked to make it so. They sacrificed and built Singapore up, brick by brick.

Year by year, they transformed Singapore, and people’s lives improved. Our economy today is developed and stable, unemployment is very low. Our people have good education, good healthcare and good housing. We live in peace and harmony and we are enjoying the work of more than one generation, each standing on the shoulders of the ones who came before.

What will our future be like? That is what the “Future of Us” Exhibition is about. Our future depends on what we make of it together and it is up to each one of us to voice our hopes and our future dreams. To make the choices to realise these dreams. To help one another and work as team Singapore to shape our own destiny, so that we can build a Singapore that is inclusive, diverse but united.

To start us off on this journey, we are launching the SGfuture engagement series. It will be led by Minister Grace Fu and Minister Chan Chun Sing. It will build on Our Singapore Conversation, which we completed two years ago. So I hope you will step forward to work with your fellow Singaporeans to shape our future, the Future of Us. So that by SG 100, we will have another celebration as happy and satisfying as this one. And 50 years from now, our children can come back and can tell, by then, their grandchildren that it was here they caught a glimpse of what they could create for the future and were moved to turn their dreams into reality, and to write the next chapter of the Singapore story. That is why after SG50, Singapore continued to be an endearing and shining little red dot for many years to come! Thank you.

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