Speech by 2M Indranee Rajah at the Singapore Institute of Architects Design Awards 2025
Jul 11, 2025
Good evening. It is a pleasure to join you this evening to celebrate the achievements of our architects.
Importance of Architectural Excellence
Architects play an important role in shaping the character and identity of our city.
Your work defines the urban environment where we live, work and play.
In a city-state like Singapore, where every square kilometre of land is precious, the work of our architects is especially vital in overcoming our land constraints as we work towards building a liveable and endearing home for all Singaporeans.
We are at an exciting juncture in Singapore’s urban transformation.
We recently launched our Draft Master Plan 2025 that outlines our vision and strategies over the next 10 to 15 years, charting the course as we steer towards the next phase of our urban transformation.
In the coming years ahead, we will be translating these plans into reality through exciting developments including Changi Airport Terminal 5, the Greater Southern Waterfront, growing our regional centres and building more community hubs.
All of you here are our important partners on this journey.
Tonight, I will talk about two areas that are critical to delivering on our development aspirations.
Embracing Technologies & Deepening Transformation
The first is about transforming the way we plan, design and build in Singapore.
Over the years, the BE sector has been embracing technologies, encompassing digitalisation, automation and Artificial Intelligence.
As projects become more complex, our BE professionals, developers, builders and agencies need to continually harness technological advancements to build better, smarter and more collaboratively.
One key transformation initiative is CORENET X, the new one-stop digital platform for building works regulatory submissions.
CORENET X brings together stakeholders to collaborate upstream and make coordinated digital submissions.
Agencies will also provide consolidated responses to these submissions.
Through this, potential design conflicts may be resolved earlier and abortive cost avoided.
Since we soft-launched CORENET X in 2023, more than 50 projects have made submissions on the portal.
While there have been some teething issues, we are glad that some projects have achieved time savings of up to 2 months at the Construction Gateway stage.
I would like to thank SIA and the architectural community for providing valuable inputs to refine CORENET X and helping to curate the relevant training courses.
Ahead of the 1 Oct 2025 timeline for mandatory submissions for large projects, I encourage project teams to try out the portal to harness the benefits of CORENET X.
Ensuring a Strong BE Talent Pipeline
Next, we must ensure that the BE talent pipeline remains strong.
Even with cutting edge technologies, we will still rely on our architects to create people-centric design that can meet the needs and aspirations of our evolving society.
The BE sector must continue to attract talents who are motivated to contribute to building our future Singapore.
This is why we set up the Taskforce for Architectural and Engineering Consultants last September, that I co-chair with Mr Chaly Mah, Chairman of Surbana Jurong Group.
Since then, the Taskforce has engaged more than 400 professionals, students, service buyers, and representatives from the Trade Associations and Chambers (TACs) and Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs).
We have heard concerns including on pay and career development.
We have also heard about the challenges firms face when competing for projects, investing in technologies and attracting talents.
These challenges are interlinked and will need the support of all stakeholders to tackle them. Let me elaborate.
To attract and retain talents, the sector needs to invest more in talent outreach, improve our employee value proposition and offer more competitive remuneration.
However, greater human capital investments can only be sustained if firms are able to grow their revenues by leveraging technologies, offering differentiated and value-added services, as well as competing on quality rather than engage in fee-diving.
In turn, service buyers must be willing to recognise quality service and remunerate consultants accordingly.
Later this year, the Taskforce will be releasing its final report recommending how various stakeholders can play a part in uplifting the BE professions.
I look forward to your support.
After all, our BE sector can only be strong when every part of the ecosystem can attract and retain its fair share of talents.
Conclusion
In conclusion, let me congratulate all finalists for the outstanding work.
Your work inspires us to push the boundaries of architectural excellence and technological transformation to boldly reimagine the future.
I look forward to the continued partnership with our architectural community, as we transform the BE sector and build our future Singapore together.
Thank you and have a wonderful evening ahead.