President of IES, Engineer Tan Seng Chuan,

Members of IES,

Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is my pleasure to join you to celebrate the 41st Anniversary of The Institution of Engineers, Singapore.

Contributions of Engineers

2 Engineering has been a cornerstone of Singapore’s development. Since the early years of our nation building, a strong engineering base has enabled our economy to grow and thrive, and move steadily up the value chain. For instance, our manufacturing sector today is a well-diversified and high value-adding one, covering a wide range of high-end products as well as emerging engineering fields such as bioengineering, and water and environmental technology.

3 Our engineers have also played a critical role in delivering a quality built environment and infrastructure to support our social and developmental needs. We have some of the best infrastructures in the world, such as our airport and seaport facilities. Our buildings are also known to be of high safety and quality standards.

4 In short, engineers are the creators of innovative solutions that will help to enhance our quality of life, and sustain the development and growth of societies and economies. The engineering profession in Singapore must therefore continue to grow from strength to strength.

Challenges for Engineers

5 Going forward, driven by globalisation and fast technological change, our engineers will need to hone and sharpen their knowledge and capability in support of our national development vision and strategies. At the same time, high professional standards and ethics have to be maintained as engineering works - whether in the traditional disciplines of civil and mechanical engineering, or newer fields such as bioengineering or environmental engineering, has considerable impact on society and its people.

6 Let me now highlight three aspects that will continue to challenge the professionalism, level of social responsibility and innovativeness of the profession.

7 Maintaining High Standards. First, to meet the challenges of increasing globalisation, we must continue to build up capabilities and maintain our competitive advantage. As I speak, technological advancements are taking place all around us. We must constantly strive to keep ourselves at the forefront of emerging technologies, enhance our technical know-how, foster links with other professionals, and benchmark against international standards. To stay ahead of competition, we have to distinguish ourselves by setting and maintaining high professional standards.

8 High standards will not only raise the innovativeness of the profession, but also deliver for us product and services that are safe and of high quality. Due recognition should be accorded to efforts made in delivering excellent standards. In this regard, for the construction sector, I am pleased to announce that the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) will be launching a new award, known as the “Design and Engineering Safety Excellence Award”. This award will recognise the efforts of the professional engineer and his team in overcoming challenges and ensuring safety in the design and construction of a building. The inaugural Award will be given at the BCA Awards ceremony next year. BCA will release more details of the new award in due course.

9 Continual Upgrading and Education. Our engineers must constantly upgrade their knowledge and competency through continual training and education. For instance, we have an established framework on continuing professional development (CPD) for our professional engineers in the construction sector. In addition, our engineers should foster effective partnership and collaboration with their international counterparts to harness and share knowledge, experience and technology expertise. Professional institutions or associations like the IES can certainly play a useful role in encouraging and facilitating continual professional development.

10 Contributing to Sustainable Development. With increasing global awareness and concern over climate change and quality of life in growing cities, we aspire to develop Singapore into a distinctive global city, which is environmentally sustainable. Our engineers must challenge themselves to come up with innovative technologies that will enable our city to grow without compromising our quality of life and adversely harming the environment. For example, they can make a significant contribution to this aspiration by designing our buildings to be more energy-efficient, water- efficient and environmentally friendly, or by engineering solutions that optimise land use.

11 In line with this, BCA is targeting to introduce new regulations early next year to set minimum standards of environmental sustainability for buildings. This will encourage widespread adoption of green building technologies and create a more sustainable built environment here.

12 But, meeting minimum standards alone is not good enough. I would like to challenge our developers and professionals to go beyond the minimum legislative requirements. To encourage private developers to do so, BCA has put in place an incentive scheme to help defray part of the upfront cost for the development of higher end green buildings. I am pleased to learn that 11 projects have so far obtained incentives amounting to some $2 million. And this year, for the first time, four private sector projects have achieved the highest rating of Green Mark Platinum.

13 This is an encouraging and important development. It shows that, not only are developers starting to embrace sustainable development, but there is a wider support for it as well. Developers, building owners and consumers will in turn need the support from professional engineers to help them in the design, construction and maintenance of these green buildings. I am sure our engineers will rise to the challenge in finding new and innovative solutions to mitigate the environmental impacts of buildings.

Contributions of Engineers and IES

14 The contributions of engineers to Singapore’s growth and development go beyond just the professional and technical areas. The intellect, training and background of our engineers have made them suitable and competent to assume leadership roles in both the public and private sectors, as seen from the large number of engineers helming public agencies and private organisations. Many engineers have played key roles in developing the various sectors of our economy.

15 Who’s Who in Engineering, Singapore. It is my pleasure to launch the IES’ publication, ‘Who’s Who in Engineering, Singapore’, which recognises engineers and firms for their significant roles in enhancing our quality of life. Let me take this opportunity to commend each and every of these engineers who have contributed greatly to Singapore’s national development. I also applaud this IES initiative to raise the profile of the engineering profession in Singapore. I hope this book will encourage more young Singaporeans to study and embrace engineering as a career.

CONCLUSION

16 The world’s markets are increasingly facing intense competition with globalisation. A strong engineering foundation is key in allowing us to stay relevant and competitive. IES, as the representative body of engineers, has an important role to actively promote the engineering profession, raise engineering standards in Singapore, and galvanise the profession to contribute towards our vision of building a distinctive and sustainable global city par excellence.

17 I wish you a pleasant evening.

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