Assoc Prof Simon Tay, Chairman (National Environment Agency)

NEA Board Members, Parliamentary Colleagues

BG Lam Joon Khoi, CEO (NEA)

Mr Ong Eng Kian, Director (Singapore Environment Institute)

Ms Marie Persson, Director (TAFE-Sydney Institute)

Mr. Seah Kee Pok, Director (JTC Academy)

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Ten years ago, ENV set up the Centre for Environmental Training (CET) as an internal training arm of the Ministry. It was a big step forward for the Ministry. Besides meeting the training needs of our staff then, the CET also provided training to officials from other countries as and when requested. In the past five years, CET has conducted more than thirty regional environmental training programmes for some 500 participants from over 50 countries.

Today, we are taking yet another big step forward. Building on the strong foundation of CET, built up over a period of ten years, we are now transforming this in-house training arm of the Ministry into a full fledge education and training institute - the Singapore Environment Institute, or SEI in short.

The role of SEI is no longer one of just upgrading the skills and knowledge of staff in the ENV and NEA. More importantly, it is to contribute to the development of a knowledge driven and skill intensive workforce in our environmental industry and community in response to rapid transformation now taking place in the global environmental industry.

All over the world, we are seeing greater use of advanced technologies and innovative ideas to address environmental challenges, in areas ranging from water treatment and purification, to waste management and resource reuse, energy conservation and clean power generation. The list goes on.

Given this greater emphasis and demands for environmental solutions, the global environmental industry has become a growth sector in many regions of the world. Asia Pacific is no exception. We can expect to see more jobs and better paying jobs being created in the environmental industry in Singapore, as the demands for environmental solutions continue to pick up in our local market and in our region.

The success of SEI will therefore be measured not so much by its ability to develop quality environmental training and human resource development programmes, but its ability to work closely with the industry, education and training institutes to position Singapore as a leading hub for environmental related training and human resource development in the Asia Pacific.

To succeed in its mission, SEI will focus on three key challenges.

First, SEI will spearhead new initiatives in skills development and knowledge transfer in response to global challenges in sustainable development. Following the World Summit on Sustainable Development held last year in Johannesburg, there is now much greater awareness across the globe on the need to further enhance the sustainability of our living environment. As we pursue our targets outlined in SGP 2012, SEI will look ahead and identify new and emerging areas where skills and knowledge may be currently lacking in our local community and the developing world.

For example, we are working closely with our fellow Small Island Developing States (SIDS) on training relating to environmental sustainability. As an island state, Singapore’s own experience in tackling our environmental challenges is relevant to the SIDS. SEI is rolling out a new training course specially designed for the SIDS. It covers topics on environmental protection and environmental health management, and involves trainers from NEA, PUB, NParks and Energy Market Authority.

Second, besides being an early adopter, SEI will also function very much like an incubator to help nurture the growth of our environmental training cluster. It will facilitate the updating of existing training programmes in our local training cluster, developing new ones and promoting the widespread adoption of these new training programmes in our industry. In this way, the twin processes of skills upgrading of our workforce and expansion of our training cluster can co-evolve in a more responsive and effective manner.

Third, it is not the role of SEI to add to the competition in our environmental training cluster. Instead, SEI will promote collaboration and operate on the basis of partnership for growth. We believe that only by building a network of partners comprising both local and international players, can Singapore move faster and be more responsive. This will position us better to capture the growing markets and serve the growing needs for environmental training locally, regionally and globally in the developing world.

To this end, SEI is now working in partnership with NEA, PUB, NUS, Asia Pacific Centre for Environmental Law - APCEL, NTU, MOM, SCDF, and Ngee Ann and Singapore Polytechnic in key areas such as pollution control management, urban environmental management, environmental public health management and environmental legislation. SEI will continue to reach out to more training institutions and training providers in the industry.

SEI will also proactively engage the 3Ps Partners (People, Public and Private sectors) for feedback, ideas, knowledge and expertise. SEI seeks to forge alliances and collaborations with regional and international partners in a timely and pro-active manner so that the environmental training cluster in Singapore will always be nimble and responsive.

Today, SEI is signing two Memoranda of Understanding for collaboration in environmental programmes and training. The first MOU is between SEI and the Sydney Institute from Australia to develop training programmes relating to environmental technology. The second MOU is with JTC Academy to serve the needs of JTC tenants as well as to jointly offer international training programmes. This is a good start, and I look forward to many more partnerships to come in the not too distant future.

In conclusion, Singapore is committed to play our part and contribute to the on-going efforts to strengthen the global foundation for sustainable development. The establishment of the SEI is significant on two counts. First, it is a major undertaking by Singapore to help transform our environmental workforce into a knowledge driven and skill intensive one. Second, it will also add to our overall efforts in positioning Singapore as a leading hub in environment management, knowledge sharing and technology transfer, thereby contributing to capacity building in the developing world.

It is now my pleasure to declare the Singapore Environment Institute (SEI) officially open.

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