PM Lee Hsien Loong at the STTA Fund-Raising Dinner 2008

Engineer Lee Bee Wah, President of the STTA, Mr Sam Goi, Organising Chairman for tonight’s dinner, donors, guests, ladies and gentlemen. 

I am delighted to be here to join you this evening for the Singapore Table Tennis Association Fundraising Dinner. I would like to thank the sponsors for their very generous support to STTA and to Singapore sports, especially at this time when the economy is uncertain, businesses under pressure and companies have many other things to worry about and so do individuals.  But despite that, Sam Goi has done a good job and you have been very generous and kind and we have raised more than a million dollars and we are very delighted at the result. Thank you all very much.

Last year 2008 was a good year for Singapore sports.  Team Singapore did our country proud at the Beijing Olympic Games and our table tennis women players, particularly Li Jiawei, Feng Tianwei and Wang Yuegu, won a silver medal at the team event. A historic first Olympic medal for Singapore in nearly half a century.  It was something which we all shared and we all celebrated and as we watched the video just now in the replay, some of the emotions and excitement and the pride came back.

After the games, unfortunately there were some problems in the STTA which surfaced and came out publicly and acrimoniously. It was unfortunate but I am glad that the STTA has now resolved the issue and the organization is now united under the leadership of Engineer Lee Bee Wah. She gave a fighting speech just now, ready to do battle. So, I think it is time to move forward and put these problems promptly behind us, 向前进, 勇往直前. We have a lot of work to do and we can see many challenges ahead and we should put ourselves to it.

STTA’s key goal for the long term is not just to win one or two competitions immediately but to ensure a healthy pipeline of talent for the future. And therefore, STTA ought to be devoting more attention to developing our young athletes, both our own as well as those we bring in from internationally. In particular, we will need to set up the Youth Olympic Games team to prepare for the YOG next year.  It is closer than you think. It will be August 2010. That means 21 months from now.

So, it is timely for us to focus on youth development and I am glad that STTA realises this and it is already taking initiatives to deal with this. So, it has got initiatives to give selected youth athletes the opportunity to study and train at the Singapore Sports School.  And it is a new model of collaboration between the National Sports Association and the Sports School. So, you are not just training the kids to play table tennis. But at the same time they are in school, there is an academic curriculum. And so they are prepared in a more rounded way for a long-term career and even after they retire from table tennis. And this model will raise standards of training and help to integrate the foreign-born talent into our team as they mix with the other students, as they have meals together, live together, do homework together and play together. I think they will grow up speaking the lingo, identifying and being one of us.

This is a good initiative but it is not the only one. In addition to this, the STTA is also collaborating with the PAP Community Foundation to introduce a kindergarten programme to teach five and six-year-olds the basic techniques of table tennis. You have to start young and at five or six-years-old you can get the movement, the instincts, the reflexes ingrained into the kids. They have started a pilot this year, January to March at Nee Soon South PCF Kindergarten, I think that is Lee Bee Wah’s kindergarten. So, I am sure she will make it successful and then when it is successful, it can be extended to other interested PCF kindergartens in other constituencies.

So, this dinner marks a step forward for the STTA.  It has also raised a tidy sum as Lee Bee Wah said, reported more than a million dollars.  It is money which should be raised to promote youth development and to help support national athletes after they have completed their competitive playing days. And it also marks a new phase in the development of table tennis in Singapore. So, we are marching ahead. I think we have the right spirit, the right team, the right coaches, the right supporters. So, we have all got to work together, STTA, the Sports Councils, the coaches and the players, the fans and the supporters. Working hard and cheering our people on. And I am confident that if we keep on doing this, then the STTA will fly our Singapore flag high for many more years to come.  

Thank you very much!