PM Lee Hsien Loong at the Singapore-MIT Alliance 10th Anniversary Dinner

It gives me great pleasure to join you tonight at the Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA) 10th Anniversary Dinner.

Responding to the Global Economic Storm

We are commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the SMA during difficult times. The world is in crisis. Developed countries are in synchronous recession. Emerging economies, far from being immune, have been severely affected by the global situation, and the general malaise and uncertainty. Some are vulnerable to panic, mania and shock, which can lead to loss of confidence and a run on their currencies.

Though our economy is basically sound, Singapore too has been affected by the global storm. All our major markets have been affected, and as a small, open economy, we are bound to be hit. Our economic indicators have fallen sharply, particularly over the past month. Given the worsening economic outlook, this morning the Ministry of Trade and Industry lowered our 2009 GDP growth projections to between -5% and -2%. If this materialises, 2009 will see our worst economic performance in decades.

Governments in US, Europe and all over the world are taking unprecedented steps to tackle the crisis. They hope to mitigate the downturn, fix the problems in the financial system, and restore confidence and the flow of credit. They will also need to remedy the mistakes which led to this disaster, and gradually rebuild a sound foundation for renewed growth and prosperity. We fervently hope that these efforts will succeed. But even under the best scenario, we have to be prepared for a long recession, and probably several years of slow growth thereafter.

In Singapore, we will present a further response to the crisis tomorrow, when the Finance Minister reads the Budget speech. This will not be an ordinary budget, either in its contents or its overall fiscal stance. Its focus will be to keep companies afloat, so that they can provide jobs for Singaporeans. It will include special schemes to help businesses to reduce their costs, and maintain access to urgently-needed financing. There will also be measures to help households, especially needy families. The Budget will not turn around our situation overnight. No government package can do that. But it will help us to see through this difficult period, and emerge stronger.

While we address the immediate challenges, we must not lose sight of our long term needs and opportunities. Hence the Budget will include measures to improve our competitive edge and build new capabilities for Singapore. We will continue to invest steadily in education, and in research and development. Asia is the place where growth has been and will continue to be. When the storm passes, as it eventually will, we must be well-positioned to grow at the heart of Asia again.

Singapore-MIT Alliance: Born in Crisis but Growing from Strength to Strength

We have continued to focus on the future, even in the midst of economic contraction. The SMA itself was born during an earlier crisis. When we conceived the SMA in 1997 and 1998, the Asian Financial Crisis was sweeping through Asia. Several Asian countries faced financial collapse, and suffered serious disruptions to their real economies. There were fears of a broader, global contagion. Singapore too was affected by our neighbours’ problems, even though our own economy was sound. But despite the uncertainties, we pressed on to set up the SMA in Nov 1998.

The SMA started as a bold experiment to bolster engineering education and research collaboration among the three universities. It brings together the resources of the three institutions and gives students unlimited access to their faculty expertise and research facilities. It runs multi-disciplinary programmes which aim to nurture creative and well-rounded graduates, trained to see the technological possibilities at the boundaries of different disciplines. It also provides opportunities for private sector organisations to participate in its research projects, collaborate with its students and recruit potential employees.

In the SMA’s tenth year, we can celebrate some early successes. The SMA has so far produced 780 graduates, who have gone on to contribute in diverse fields such as the life sciences, pharmaceuticals and engineering. They are in high demand by large corporations, in academia and by research institutes. Some of the more entrepreneurial graduates have gone on to found their own companies.

The SMA has also provided a rich platform to expose faculty and students from the three universities to new ideas, perspectives and opportunities for collaboration. Researchers can build on one another’s work. For example, an SMA team, comprising researchers from NUS and MIT, had developed a new material known as "Bulk Metallic Glasses". Another team of SMA researchers from NTU and MIT then used this innovation to manufacture intricately-shaped tools, which are important in fuel cells and in medical devices such as sensors and diagnostic kits. Such collaborative work would not have been possible without the pooling of expertise and resources by the Alliance universities.

Overall, the SMA has helped to raise standards of education and research in NUS and NTU. Our universities have also benefited from the two-way flow of talent with MIT.

SMA could not have succeeded without strong support from the three universities and the hard work and dedication of SMA staff. I would like to thank all of you for your valuable contributions. In particular, I wish to thank Dr Tony Tan, who was instrumental in building the international linkages which enabled our broad collaboration with MIT, and in seeing through the development of the SMA.

Further Collaborations with MIT

SMA’s success has helped pave the way for other joint commitments. One key programme is the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Centre, established with funding from the National Research Foundation. SMART is an intellectual hub to stimulate research interactions. It will house up to five inter-disciplinary research groups, with students and researchers from MTI, Singapore universities and research institutions, to conduct world-class research. This is MIT’s largest international venture, and we appreciate MIT’s staunch partnership with us.

In addition, the Ministry of Education and the three universities will embark on a new phase for the SMA, in the form of a PhD scholarship programme. This new collaboration will attract young research talent locally and across the region. It will also augment the efforts of SMART, as these scholars will work with SMART researchers to discover the next breakthrough idea.

These collaborations will deepen our already strong relationship with MIT, and further enhance Singapore’s position as a centre of excellence for education, innovation and research.

Conclusion

We thus have cause to celebrate the SMA’s tenth anniversary, despite the gloom around us. We can be confident about our future, because we have always taken the long view and focused on fundamentals that really matter. In good times and bad, we have continued to enhance our infrastructure, attract talent and invest in education. Even now in the midst of crisis, we will persevere with measures to strengthen our resilience and competitiveness, and prepare for opportunities which are still there, especially for the watchful and well-prepared. In this way, we can emerge from this crisis stronger than before, and bring growth and progress to Singapore.