Opening Remarks by Minister Chee Hong Tat at MND EDGE Scholarship Presentation Ceremony 2025

Jul 14, 2025

Colleagues from MNDMND EDGE Scholarship Recipients

Parents and Family Members

Ladies and Gentlemen

Good morning. I would like to begin by congratulating our 26 undergraduate and 12 postgraduate recipients of the MND EDGE Scholarship. A round of applause for our scholars.

Our new scholars have shown  passion for MND’s mission to shape the future of Singapore and I, with my colleagues, look forward to the fresh perspectives, innovative ideas, and dedication they will bring when they return from their studies.

MND’s mission and work

The work that we do at MND is wide-ranging and impacts the lives of many Singaporeans. If you look at  our mission statement, we have committed to developing world-class infrastructure; creating a vibrant, resilient and sustainable living environment; and building rooted and cohesive communities. We have decided after some discussions with MND colleagues,  add one more key pillar: providing affordable and accessible public housing. Now I want to be clear, this is not new. This is something which we have been doing all these years. Homeownership has been a cornerstone of our public housing policy since we gained independence in 1965. Today, more than 80% of Singaporeans stay in HDB flats and about 90% of our HDB residents own their homes.  This is, I believe, the highest in the entire world. No other city has such a high rate of public housing, and such a high rate of home ownership. Living in a HDB flat has become a common, shared experience for many Singaporeans. Hence, we thought it would be useful to include this commitment in our mission statement, to remind ourselves and also future cohorts of colleagues in the MND family about this important element of our mission.

Ladies and gentlemen, many of the projects and initiatives under the MND Family take years to complete - some even spanning decades over multiple terms of Government. It is critical that we think long term and plan not only for Singaporeans today, but also for generations to come.

To our scholars, as you prepare to embark on your studies, I would like to leave you with four questions to think about and to reflect on. When you return to begin your journey with MND, I hope you will bring your new experiences, your insights and expertise to help the MND family find good solutions to these questions.

First, how do we strike the right balance between meeting the unlimited wants of today, and setting aside enough land to meet the uncertain challenges of tomorrow?

Singapore is the only island city-state in the world. With no hinterland to rely on, everything we need — from housing to industry — must fit within our limited land. This makes long-term land use planning not just important, but essential to our survival and success.

Our early planners faced this challenge amidst pressing urban issues such as overcrowding, poor sanitation, and weak infrastructure. Yet, with good foresight and careful long-term planning, they developed our public housing, greened our streets. They continually reimagined and reshaped the city to meet changing needs and aspirations. I believe we have a responsibility to build on the strong foundations that our forefathers have laid and continue to develop Singapore in a sustainable and responsible manner.

This is why URA had engaged close to 220,000 Singaporeans over the past two years on the Singapore they hope to see in the future. Their ideas have culminated in the Draft Master Plan 2025 exhibition that was launched last month. I encourage everyone to visit the exhibition, share with us your views, so that we canimagine our future together.  

Second, how do we keep housing affordable and accessible, even as land becomes more scare and demand continues to grow?

With fewer empty land to build on, we increasingly have to build more flats in already built-up estates, including in central locations.

But flats in these attractive areas would also cost more. This is why we introduced the New Flat Classification Framework last October, comprising three flat categories - Standard, Plus, and Prime.

Under the Framework, we offer additional subsidies for Plus and Prime flats to ensure these flats remain affordable for a wider group of home buyers. This enables more Singaporeans to live in attractive locations, which were previously only accessible to those with more means.

However, to remain fair to Standard flat buyers who do not receive these additional subsidies, we impose tighter restrictions for these flats, such as the longer Minimum Occupation Period (MOP), and subsidy recovery. This keeps our public housing system affordable, inclusive, and also fair.

To determine affordability, we look at both the price of the flat as well as incomes. This is an internationally accepted approach to assess housing affordability.

 As HDB flats are homes to more than 80% of Singaporeans, and not only the lower-income, we will continue to offer different flat types in different parts of Singapore, to cater to a wide range of homebuyers with different aspirations and across different income groups and life stages.

Beyond affordability, we must also make sure that our public housing meets the changing needs and aspirations of our society.

Households are getting smaller. Younger Singaporeans prefer a place of their own, while staying close to parents for family support. This means we need to build more flats to meet growing demand, even though our local population is not increasing at the same rate.   

But at the same time, our society is ageing rapidly. To support seniors to age well and age in place, we have to develop new models of care. One new housing typology we introduced is the Community Care Apartments (CCAs), which pairs senior-friendly housing designs with on-site care.

Another emerging group of buyers are those who are singles. We have expanded access for singles to buy 2-room BTO flats in any location, and ramp up the supply of 2-room flats. Younger singles have also expressed a desire to buy a flat. While we understand these aspirations, we are still catching up on demand from families and will therefore need to balance this carefully in the near term, as we continue to keep up a strong supply of new flats.

Providing Singaporeans with affordable and accessible housing is a key part of our social compact. I’d like to encourage all our scholars to continuously think of new ways to keep our public housing system responsive to changing needs, while being mindful of our land constraints.  

Next, how do we transform our Built Environment (BE) sector to become more productive, more sustainable, and more resilient? COVID-19 has taught us many hard lessons. When borders closed, construction works came to a standstill. To help the sector, the Government provided significant financial assistance through a $1.36 billion Construction Package, and support for contractors to bring in more foreign workers in the face of severe manpower shortages.

This experience only strengthened our resolve to transform the BE sector, to future-proof it against future challenges and crises. The BE Industry Transformation Map, or ITM, aims to build a world-class and resilient BE sector through the adoption of smart technology, and close collaboration between stakeholders.

Earlier this year, we announced the new Built Environment Technology and Capability, or BETC, Grant to further support the development of long-term capabilities in our BE firms. Firms can receive up to 70% co-funding support to the development of enterprise capabilities. They may also use it for technology adoption, and for developing manpower capabilities.

We also launched the Energy Efficiency Grant (EEG) for the construction sector last December. The EEG aims to support construction firms in their sustainability journey by co-funding investments in energy-efficient equipment, driving the BE sector towards a more sustainable future.

I believe there is more we can do to help our BE sector to grow, and to become more productive and more resilient. I would like to encourage our new scholars to think about what are some of the good ideas? What  are other cities building and innovating, and can you bring back good ideas on how we can further transform our BE sector.

And my final question to our scholars - As we build, plan, and develop, how do we do so in a sustainable manner, bearing in mind the looming threat of climate change?

We are continuously looking for new ways to make Singapore more climate resilient.

This includes our efforts to transform Singapore into a City in Nature, by conserving and extending Singapore’s greenery and natural capital islandwide. I don’t know whether you have had a chance to look at the aerial view of Singapore. If you have a chance, take a helicopter or look at the aerial view of Singapore. You will see, actually, Singapore is a very green city-state. We may have a lot of buildings, but we also have a lot of greenery.

We are greening our neighbourhoods and redesigning our buildings to be greener, more energy efficient, and be able to adapt to warmer temperatures.

Beyond greening our city, we are also working to protect our blue spaces. Last October, we opened the enhanced Sisters’ Islands Marine Park. This isan outdoor classroom for marine outreach and education. It is also a living lab for research to promote species recovery and habitat enhancement.

Call to action

I have posed four questions to our scholars, which broadly cover the scope of our work at MND.

To our scholars, I’d like to encourage you. As you pursue your studies and meet new friends from diverse backgrounds, I hope that these four questions that we put to you today, are things that you keep in mind, things you think about and reflect on, so that when you come back after your studies, you’ll be able to return with fresh ideas to help the MND family, to help Singapore.

We are not done building Singapore and making Singapore the best home for all Singaporeans. Each generation of MND officers can contribute to making Singapore a better, more liveable and more sustainable home, not just for this generation, but also for our future generations.

Before I end my speech, let me once again congratulate all our scholars. I hope that you make full use of this opportunity to take in new experiences, broaden your perspectives and challenge your assumptions. Don’t stick within your comfort zone. Venture out of what you may not feel so familiar with, and go and try something new. This is the best time to do something different. As I mentioned at the start of my speech, MND colleagues and myself, we look forward to welcoming you back after your studies, and seeing the impact that you will make to help MND fulfil our purpose and our vision. I’d like to end by wishing all of you every success to your studies and your dreams. Thank you very much.