Singapore Government Press Release

This year, our National Day dinner is the biggest we have ever organised. I am told that we have over 150 tables. I am delighted that so many of our residents and well-wishers are able to join us to celebrate our nation’s 32nd birthday together.

This is the first time we are holding our National Day dinner in this location. Last year, the Town Council together with the shop-owners together spent close to $ 2 million to create this shopping street.

It has brought new life to the area, and become very popular with our residents. At the same time, it has brought new business to the shops.

This was one of the first projects that I suggested to the Shopkeepers Association when I became the MP for Tampines GRC. At that time, I realised that the new shopping malls in Tampines Central would be ready soon. This would pose strong competition to our neighbourhood shops. I suggested we get together to upgrade our shops. If not, residents would not like to come here and business would suffer. Although some shop-owners were not convinced and so did not take part in the project, most of them did. Today, it has become one of the land-marks in Tampines.

This is a good example of how we can bring benefit to the community by working together. It is also a lesson to us about competition and what we must do to be competitive by keeping up with the times.

We have enjoyed another peaceful and prosperous year. Our economy continues to grow steadily, but there is uncertainty ahead as the region is hit by currency instability. These are storms that will pass. The real danger lies ahead, when we must face keen competition from countries in the region.

N2 shopkeepers face competition from the shopping malls in Tampines Central like Tampines Mall and Century Square. Further away, they face competition from new shopping centres in Pasir Ris and Simei. Like our shopkeepers, Singapore also faces competition from countries near and far.

Vietnam, Myanmar, China and India --- these are big countries. They have a lot of land and abundant labour, all at a fraction of the cost of ours. They have opened up their economies and are able to attract multi-million dollar investments.

Closer to home, our neighbours especially Malaysia are gearing up to become the hub for the region in areas like transport and telecommunications. They have developed Port Klang and soon will be building a new port in Johor to compete with PSA. Their new airport in Sepang will eventually be bigger than Changi. Dr Mahathir has personally pushed hard for new investments in IT for their new MultiMedia Super Corridor project.

At the same time, we are faced with a rapidly changing world. Changes, especially in technology, will take place at an even faster rate. Change is very disturbing and disruptive. But we cannot just sit back and watch the world change. We must force ourselves to change, to keep up and learn new ways of doing things.

A major development in the world today is Information Technology, IT. Our children are being taught IT in schools. However, it is not enough. Adults have to use IT as well. They have to learn to use it in their workplace, and in their factories.

Bus drivers now report to a computer system before the start of the day. They have to learn how to use the keyboard to sign on and to retrieve information like which bus they are driving that day, where the bus is parked, the departure time and so on.

After signing on, the driver loads the information into the fare collection machine on the bus. This machine is like a mini computer which stores the route information. As the bus moves along its journey, the driver has to key in information of his journey. The record is later used to help bus companies plan bus schedules.

Taxi drivers also have to pick up new skills. With the introduction of the Global Positioning Satellite or GPS dispatch system, taxi drivers have to slowly move away from the radiophone system that they have been used to for years, to learn how to operate and read messages from the mobile data terminal. The terminal is like a mini-computer system which receives phone bookings and stores information of the passenger and pick-up location.

This is not easy especially for the older drivers but it can be done. Drivers must make the effort because this is a better system. With the satellite system, drivers no longer have to depend on luck to be the first person to pick up the phone booking over the air. Instead, they can be connected to the location of the nearest passenger.

Photo journalists on overseas assignment now use the Internet to send their photos home. In the past, they used to transmit their pictures through the phone using a special computer software. This means that when travelling, the photographer would have to have the necessary software, modem and a IDD line.

The other party back home in Singapore would also have to be on standby to receive the pictures.

Today, the press photographers tell me that the Internet has helped them tremendously in their job. All they have to do now is to save the photos in a file and then attach them as e-mail back to their editors in News Centre or Times House. This is not only cheaper but also more convenient as the other party need not stand-by to receive the photos.

Recently, the Senior Minister told the press how he made a conscious effort four years ago to learn to use the computer. This was because he was feeling left out as all the younger ministers were sending e-mail to each other but his messages were still coming by fax.

It is not easy, having to learn a new skill so late in life, but we have no choice. We must all constantly upgrade our skills to keep up with the rapid changes to the job and the industry. Let me give you an example which is relevant to our shopkeepers.

Tampines was one of the first GRC’s to launch our own web-page on the Internet. This allowed residents to e-mail their complaints and suggestions direct to the Town Council and the MPs, discussed matters on Tampines and looked for friends and car-pool partners. Response to our website has been overwhelming since its launch in April 1996. I understand from the Tampines Internet club that the Webtown gets about 100,000 hits each month.

Apart from Tampines residents and other Singaporeans, there is quite a lot of foreign interest in our website. Some of them are overseas Singaporeans and a few are ex-Tampines residents trying to keep in touch with news at home.

The Tampines Webtown is not only a faster and more convenient way of communication, it also has some other side benefits. Recently, I received a delightful e-mail from one of our residents. She wrote:

Obviously, I was delighted that I could be of help to the resident and her husband. I showed this to all our volunteers, and they were equally thrilled. Tampines Webtown has proven to be of use to the residents in more ways than one.

To get more residents familiar with computers and IT, we also equipped RCs with computers, and trained RC members in IT. IT Corners have been set up in three RCs and the response has been positive.

To enhance the Tampines Webtown, we added a new feature, the Tampines Street-Mart, in April this year. The idea is to connect shopkeepers in the GRC with residents. In first phase, only advertisements. Subsequently, our plan is to allow people to order goods and pay for them through the Internet. We will invite five selected shops in Tampines to participate in a Secure Electronic Transaction or SET trial later this year.

These stores can be open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and customers can come from anywhere throughout Singapore. In fact, some Singaporeans are already familiar with Internet shopping, buying books from Internet bookstores like Amazon. Perhaps one day, someone in Indonesia or Japan or America, will be able to order something from a shop located in Tampines Street-Mart.

Whether we are bus-drivers, or taxi drivers or journalist, shopkeepers or Ministers, we have to get ready for the unpredictable future and adapt to the changes ahead.

Next year when we celebrate National Day, there will be new developments in and around Tampines. New flats, parks, offices and shops. New residents with new problems to solve. New ideas. Let us continue to work together and look ahead with confidence.