Mr Han Yew Kwang,
Deputy President, Corporate Development and
President Defence Business
Mr Anthony Kam, ST Marine Branch Secretary
Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good morning.
Thank you very much for inviting me. I am delighted to join you at your National Day Observance.
I think today is especially significant for 3 reasons.
1. Firstly, this is the eve of National Day. In other words, today marks the completion of 41 years of Singapore’s journey as an independent nation. It is a fitting occasion to recap lessons of the journey thus far even as we look forward to celebrating the 42nd National Day tomorrow.
2. Secondly, you are no ordinary shipbuilding company. Through your naval business, you have contributed to the preservation and protection of our sea lanes, our territorial waters, our crucial lines of communications and our national sovereignty. National Day must always have a special meaning to you.
3. Let me now return to the lessons of our national journey.
4. In essence, we can describe our voyage as one of often sailing in uncharted waters, sometimes quite choppy, doing our best to avoid wrecking the vessel while keeping a sharp lookout for landfall.
5. When our ship Singapore was forced out of the federation harbour in 1965, we were not well outfitted at all. Our crew then was mostly lowly educated, poorly skilled. Our on-board equipment and technology were unsophisticated, and our economic engine sputtering. Supplies were limited too, because we lost the hinterland.
6. And as if internal limitations were not challenging enough, we also had to contend with bad weather and rough sea conditions along the way. So in the early 1970s, we ran short of oil. In the mid-1980s, we overheated our economic engine until it stalled. In the latter part of the 1990s, we could not escape the financial flu that engulfed the region. And in 2001 and 2003, we had to tackle the fallout from human terrorism and frightening deadly disease. Along the way, some also wondered if the ship was sailing into the sunset.
7. Through it all, we emerged stronger and more united. We learnt some very precious lessons:
- We have to deal with reality. We have to earn our own keep, and create our own future. If we want to forge ahead, we have to be more productive, value-adding, competitive and innovative than the competitors.
- That our basic constraints of lack of domestic market size, population and talent base, and a not-always-friendly neighbourhood will always remain with us. We have to learn to manage these factors and optimize our approach every step of the way.
- That we have to focus more and more on high quality value-added activities, knowledge work and niche opportunities in order to justify our cost structure and command better margins for our work. To do so, it is important to have strategies that allow us to tap and trap talent, expertise and experience, just as it is crucial to have ways to engender creativity and boldness.
- That the morale, health state and social cohesion of the population and workforce are critical for continued success. The more we can find ways of staying together and yet moving ahead, the greater the difference we will make to the outcome.
8. The growth and development of ST Marine mirrors that of our nation. Over the past 30 years, you have built yourself up into a premier shipyard providing turnkey and customized shipbuilding, ship conversion and ship repair services to a worldwide customer base in the naval and commercial markets.
9. In your journey, you faced the fiercest of global competition and the challenges of upgrading the capabilities of your workforce and organization to stay fighting fit. You responded to these harsh realities with an indomitable spirit and a clear-mindedness in tackling what life brings on: adjusting, improving, and transforming your way forward.
10. Your many initiatives to attract, retain and develop skilled manpower are commendable, as are your efforts in employee health promotion which won you Health Promotion Board awards. You rightly focused on skills and health as two key drivers of competitiveness and employability. In the process, you created many good jobs for Singaporeans, including older employees. You have also worked a most viable relationship with the union, so that unionization for you is a tonic for your business and not a spanner in the works.
11. Your pioneering experience in all these areas is directly relevant to the challenges that Singapore companies, workers and society will need to grapple with more and more. You have earned yourself a head start.
12. I urge you to press on with your efforts, and to share your knowledge and experience with others. In this way, you would also be contributing to the national goal of rendering Singapore’s employment rate one of the highest in the world.
13. At the start of my remarks, I said there were 3 reasons why I thought today is significant. In case you were thinking that I made a mistake by just speaking about 2 of them, let me assure you that I had not counted wrongly.
14. I understand that ST Marine and the ST Engineering Group will be releasing the 2Q or 1H results this evening. I am sure you will want to stay tuned to the latest news that this day will bring.
15. I wish you a strong set of results. I wish everyone a happy 42nd National Day.
Thank you.
