Singapore Government Press Release

Media Division, Ministry of Information and The Arts,

36th Storey, PSA Building, 460 Alexandra Road, Singapore 119963.

Tel: 3757794/5

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SPEECH BY MR TAN SOO KHOON,

SPEAKER OF PARLIAMENT AND ADVISOR TO

HDB STAFF UNION, ON THE OCCASION OF

HDBSU ORDINARY DELEGATES CONFERENCE

ON SATURDAY, 22 FEBRUARY 1997

AT 9 AM AT NEW PARK HOTEL

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The President of HDBSU, Mr Michael Koh

General Secretary Mr Tan Chuan Juan

and delegates

1997 marks the 30th Anniversary of the HDB Staff Union. In the past three decades, you and your union have played significant roles in helping the Government make ours a property-owning democracy. The Housing and Development Board has built more than 750,000 flats, and today, 90 per cent of Singaporeans live in HDB flats. From the simple but functional flats of the 1960s, HDB now builds modern and well-designed homes and satellite towns that measure up to the quality of private housing estates.

As we move towards the new millennium, the challenge for HDB is to build even higher quality flats but at prices workers can afford. This important role of HDB is clearly spelt out in the PAP's election manifesto, Singapore 21. Over the next five years, the government will build more than 140,000 new homes. At the same time, it will upgrade the older HDB estates. The government will spend $20 billion over 20 years on these enhancement projects.

I am confident that you and your union will rise up to the new challenges. While Singapore 21 is a macro blueprint for Singapore as a whole, the labour movement is charting its own plans for the new century. Your programme is called NTUC 21. NTUC 21 will have five pillars. You want to help workers stay employable through continuous skills upgrading. You want to raise productivity so that the country as a whole remains competitive. You want workers to stay fit and healthy. You want to help the less fortunate in society. And you want to strengthen your labour movement so that you can do the things you set out to do.

At NTUC's Pre-Triennial Delegates' Conference at the end of this month, and at the TDC itself in early April, union delegates will have ample opportunities to go into the details of how to proceed with NTUC 21. After the TDC, I suggest that your union formulate your own HDBSU 21. It will help you focus on how you can better meet the needs of your members.

No organisation can grow if it sticks to doing what it has always been doing in the past. There has to be regular reviews of needs, going back to first principles. And the question we have to always ask ourselves is: am I doing the right thing? Next question: can I do things better? So we need to have an infusion of new ideas. But programmes can be successfully implemented only when there is consensus. In mass organisations such as trade unions, the task of forging consensus is a time-consuming one. It requires hard work, and time. It requires, as well, leaders with a clear vision and it requires the support of the general membership.

The labour movement in Singapore is dynamic and thriving because it is always on the look-out for ways of doing things better. Of course, unions must continue to focus on bread and butter concerns such as collective bargaining and good industrial relations. At the same time, you must continue to anticipate problems and find solutions, before the problems overwhelm you.

NTUC-affiliated unions have succeeded in providing a better life for their members through their sound industrial relations policy and their emphasis on skills development and higher productivity. Families of union members also benefit because the labour movement has efficiently-run cooperatives and social and recreational facilities. Lately, NTUC Choice Homes and NTUC Lifestyle Centres have been in the news. Soon, you will have NTUC Thrift and Loan Society. So the varied interests of workers are well catered for by the Labour movement.

I therefore hope that in the years ahead, members of the HDBSU will continue to play their roles in the success of Singapore's housing programme as well as contribute to the strength of the labour movement.

Finally, I wish to thank your Union Ex-Co for their hard work and dedication. Through their efforts, labour-management relations have improved significantly. Also the union membership has reached a new high. I wish to congratulate you on your success, and I wish all delegates a fruitful conference.

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