Getting Singapore ready to take on the challenges of the future and equipping workers with the skills required to be future ready – that is what the Committee on the Future Economy (CFE) detailed when it released its report on 9 February 2017.
In the future economy, Singaporeans should have deep skills and adopt learning throughout their lives.
While businesses should be innovative and nimble, the Government has to be coordinated, inclusive and responsive.
During its year-long discussions beginning from January 2016, the CFE consulted over 9,000 stakeholders from unions, trade associations and chambers, public agencies, companies, workers, academics and students.
Three themes, Seven strategies
Arising from its dialogue sessions, the committee spelt out seven key strategies under three broad themes for the future economy.
The three themes are keeping Singapore open and connected to the world, building capabilities of companies to innovate and scale up, and building capabilities of all people to adapt and transform .
To achieve these goals, there is a need to acquire and utilise deep skills, build strong digital capabilities, develop and implement the Industry Transformation Maps and for the government, enterprises and the unions to partner each other to enable growth and innovation.
The Process
The CFE is a 30-member committee, co-chaired by Minister for Finance Heng Swee Keat and Minister for Trade and Industry S Iswaran.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Office and NTUC Secretary-General Chan Chun Sing served as the deputy chairman while NTUC Assistant Secretary-General Cham Hui Fong was a member of the main committee.
The CFE formed five sub committees to broaden its work to cover future corporate capabilities and innovation, future growth industries and markets, future of connectivity, future city and future jobs and skills.
Government’s Acceptance
In his letter to the CFE’s chairpersons, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong noted that the committee had proposed a comprehensive set of recommendations to Singapore’s economic strategy for the next five to ten years.
PM Lee said the Government accepts the strategies proposed and will pursue all of them. Thereafter, the ministers involved in the implementation of the strategies will be providing a full response to the report during the 2017 Budget Speech and the Committee of Supply debates.
“The report epitomises how in Singapore, the Government, businesses and workers tackle challenges and seize opportunities together. Its publication marks the beginning of another chapter of the Singapore story. Now the hard work begins and every Singaporean has a role,” he said.
NTUC Secretary-General and Deputy Chairman of the Committee on the Future Economy Chan Chun Sing also shared his thoughts about the report .
He explained, “There are a few things we in the Labour Movement need to work on to complement this report. First, as industries and business models change, our workers need to keep learning and upgrading. Second, when the report talks about internationalisation and our businesses going overseas, we must also make sure that our workers are similarly prepared to work with and support our enterprises when they go overseas. The ability to understand the world beyond Singapore and the ability to build up skillsets relevant to the world market will be critical to our workers. Third, our workers need to ensure they are able to work in multinational and international teams so that we leverage not only on our own strengths but also that of others to complement each other and to build winning teams for Singapore.”
