Parents and scholars

Ladies and Gentlemen

Good afternoon to all of you!

I am delighted to join you this afternoon for this joint FIREfly and National Science Scholarships Awards Ceremony. First, congratulations to the scholars! Your scholarship award makes your parents, principals and teachers proud – I am sure they have been instrumental in what you have achieved so far, and in helping you shape your aspirations for the future. Today marks another exciting chapter in your journey of learning, achievement and contribution to society.

HUMAN CAPITAL – OUR KEY ASSET IN A CHANGING WORLD

Human talent is Singapore’s most important asset. Everything we have achieved over the last 40 years has been an act of human will and enterprise, and the pulling together of human talent. It is all man-made, constantly recreated and remade.

Where we go from here will again depend on our quality as a people - how young Singaporeans like you spearhead the development of new capabilities for our economy, how you lead others and how we engage with one another as Singaporeans.

We are remaking ourselves, economically and as a society. We have entered the knowledge and innovation-driven economy. To attract investments and grow businesses in this new environment, we will need deeper professional and scientific capabilities. More young Singaporeans have to be out at the boundaries of knowledge, pushing them forward. And we must constantly refresh our knowledge, and find ways to create new value and give ourselves an edge over the competition.

The concerted grooming of talent remains key to this whole process of taking Singapore forward. Our scholarship schemes have served Singapore well. But we need to refine them to meet the changing needs of the future. We are adapting our schemes and creating new ones for this purpose.

FIREfly -- A CONCERTED EFFORT TO GROOM TALENT

The FIREfly initiative, which was launched in April last year, is a collaborative programme to develop talent in MTI’s seven statutory boards, namely JTC, SPRING Singapore, IE Singapore, EDB, A*STAR, EMA and STB. These statutory boards are at the forefront of economic development in Singapore. By pooling resources and increasing career choices, the agencies are enhancing their ability to recruit, nurture and retain good officers and develop future leaders. FIREfly today includes joint training, cross-agency secondment of officers, and a leadership development programme.

SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMME

Today is another milestone in the young history of FIREfly. We are presenting the new FIREfly Scholarships to the pioneer batch of 27 outstanding young men and women. This is in addition to 12 scholars who will be pursuing their postgraduate degrees overseas. The new FIREfly Scholarships Programme integrates the best elements of the existing scholarship programmes of the seven agencies into a single programme.

When they return, FIREfly scholars will have opportunities to work in diverse portfolios, both within their parent agency and across agencies. The range of portfolios is wide, including investment promotion, globalisation of businesses, industry development, enterprise development, R&D management, market development and infrastructure and capability building. The programme will help the FIREfly scholars to broaden their perspective and experience before they either specialize or move up the organization in general management.

Under FIREfly, officers will have more career options opened up through secondment and rotation among the FIREfly agencies and Ministries involved in Singapore’s economic development. They will also have the opportunity to be posted to a web of international offices of the FIREfly agencies, to gain exposure to different market environments and develop broader skillsets. With all these advantages, the FIREfly Scholarship is set to become one of the most sought after in Singapore.

SCIENCE & ENGINEERING – A BOOSTER IN ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION

To succeed in the knowledge- and innovation-driven economy, we need a critical mass of people with deep expertise in science and technology. Scientific research will be a major anchor for value-adding knowledge-intensive industries. To achieve this critical mass, we have to push on two fronts - first, nurturing Singaporeans with a passion and ability to do research, and second, attracting talented researchers from all over the world to Singapore. The two go together, and ultimately feed on each other. To build a sustained research capability, we need a strong cadre of Singaporean scientists. And to inspire Singaporeans and help us stay at the forefront of research we need a constant infusion of top foreign expertise.

We cannot be too precise in planning the supply of local talent. No one can say exactly how many graduates in electrical & electronic engineering or business and economics we will need in 10 years time, or even five. We need a spread of talent, trained in different disciplines. And within each discipline, we need graduates with the ability to see relevance in a range of other disciplines.

But we should continue to provide the majority of Singapore students with the opportunity to pursue tertiary studies in the sciences and engineering. 57% of the student intake in our universities last year was in the physical and biomedical sciences and engineering. In our polytechnics, the proportion is 73%. This strategy will allow us to retain a vibrant manufacturing sector and develop new pillars of growth within the sector, including the biomedical science industries. It will enable us to move up the value ladder within manufacturing, even as we develop our service industries to diversify our sources of economic growth. It will give us economic flexibility.

NATIONAL SCIENCE SCHOLARSHIPS (NSS)

The National Science Scholarship launched by Minister George Yeo in July 2001 is a major national initiative to provide young Singaporeans with premium training and nurturing in the physical and biomedical sciences. The grooming process may take as long as eight years. Some people wondered if enough bright young Singaporeans were prepared to invest these long years in further learning. The concern was that most would choose a faster path to grab a job, secure their CPF and get their first HDB flat.

The young scholars on the NSS programme have shown how things are changing. They were not concerned about the long time it would take for them to qualify. They impressed their interviewers with their passion for learning and for advancing knowledge. They knew how important this was for the future - for themselves and for Singapore.

Last year, 59 NSS awards were made. Today’s award of 145 scholarships under A*STAR’s programmes reflects a growing interest among our brightest students for scientific research. It will do good for Singapore. 89 Research Scholarships, 6 Local Graduate Scholarships, 22 Overseas Graduate Scholarships and 28 International Fellowships will be given out later in the ceremony.

The NSS Scholars will have the opportunity to study in the world-class local and overseas universities and research institutions. Many will have the opportunity to do postgraduate work under top professors in fields as diverse as Molecular Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Immunology, Nanotechnology, Quantum Computing and Optoelectronics - to name a few areas of focus.

MENTORS

To build on the nurturing and knowledge-imparting roles of teachers and mentors, A*STAR is introducing a new mentoring programme to provide close personal development guidance to scholars. Under the new mentoring programme, A*STAR will arrange for each NSS scholar to be assigned to an experienced research scientist based in Singapore.

The mentor will stay in touch with each scholar throughout his academic and early career development, whether in Singapore or overseas. In addition, all scholars will spend some time on attachment in local research laboratories.

Several of A*STAR’s research institutes have developed world-class reputations, and are producing cutting-edge research. Singapore’s Data Storage Institute (DSI), for example, has been ranked as one of the top six R&D centres worldwide, and the only one outside of US and Japan. In its current focus, DSI is working with leading companies in advanced network storage technologies using internet and IT. Another example, the Institute of Communications Research has developed one of the world’s most powerful non-linear communications systems with more than 15 patents. A third example, the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology played a key role in the international research consortium that completed a draft sequence of the genome of the distant human ancestor, the Japanese pufferfish or Fugu, leading to the finding of about 1000 new human genes.

A*STAR’s research institutes will increasingly take on an integrated R&D approach. Many of the frontiers in science are now trans-disciplinary. Tissue engineering, for instance, goes beyond molecular, cell and developmental biology, to include biochemistry, anatomy, material science, imaging, chemistry and engineering along with medical and clinical expertise.

ESTABLISHMENT OF HOTEL MANAGEMENT SCHOOL

Besides developing talent for the public sector and scientists to strengthen our R&D and manufacturing sector, we need to also build and upgrade our manpower capabilities for our service industries. We must grow our service industries to complement manufacturing, as twin engines of our economic growth. Tourism and education services are two of several service industries where Singapore has strong competitive advantage.

To raise the professionalism of our tourism industry and build on Singapore’s status as an education hub, we will further develop tourism education in Singapore. Currently, we have a growing array of hospitality training courses at NTC and diploma levels provided by the Singapore Hotel Association, Temasek Polytechnic and some industry players. However, there are no post-graduate and executive development programmes in tourism and hospitality management in Singapore.

To plug this gap, the Singapore Tourism Board – one of our FIREfly agencies – has partnered with leading local hoteliers to form a new consortium, the International Hotel Management School Pte Ltd (HMS International). The consortium will provide seed funding and spearhead negotiations with renowned local and foreign institutions to set up a hotel management school offering post-graduate and executive development programmes that are relevant to the Singapore and Asian context. The consortium is chaired by Ms Jennie Chua, President, Raffles International Limited.

We aim to have the hotel management school set up by the end of next year. It will in time create a pool of trained professionals in the management tiers who can lead and steer the tourism industry forward. It will fill a key missing pieces in making Singapore a total tourism education hub, providing high quality training for all levels of the hospitality industry, from bell boys to senior professionals.

OPPORTUNITY AND RESPONSIBILITY

The young men and women who are here are a fortunate group. You will soon go on to equip yourselves with knowledge and skills at some of the best universities in the world. You will all be pioneers in your own way, creating new opportunities for Singapore and in so doing making Singapore a better home for your fellow Singaporeans and future generations. While you pursue excellence in your chosen fields, remember who you are, what it means to be Singaporean, and what keep us together. You must want to engage with fellow Singaporeans, and contribute to the community that has supported you and helped you become what you are today. If we become just so many individuals pursuing our own dreams, the Singapore dream will expire.

This spirit of gratitude and of wanting to serve the community is evident among many of our scholars. Edwin Neo, a FIREfly scholar is one such example. He has given his own time to provide free tuition to Muslim children in the Jamiyah Home.

Another example is Mr. Koh Kian Peng, one of A*STAR’s Overseas Graduate Scholars. Kian Peng was determined to pursue postgraduate studies at a time when he did not have the financial support, and when graduate research scholarships did not exist. He managed to win a competitive Yale Fellowship for his PhD studies. Yet he eventually chose to take up the A*STAR Overseas Graduate Scholarship despite the fact that it came with a service commitment. Upon his graduation, he plans to return to help advance the scientific capabilities of his home country.

As you embark on your new journey of learning, I encourage you to cherish the experiences you gain, forge new friendships with those of different cultures and keep your minds open to new perspectives. I am sure you will do well, and do well for Singapore!

Thank you.