Speech by 2M Indranee Rajah At The Association of Consulting Engineers Singapore’s (Aces) 53rd Anniversary Gala Dinner

Aug 13, 2024


Introduction

A very good evening to all of you. I am delighted to be here to celebrate the 53rd anniversary of the Association of Consulting Engineers Singapore (ACES).

  • Next year, it will be SG60 - Singapore’s 60th year since independence. Your Association is almost the same age as our nation and I think it would be fair to say that your journey tracks closely with the progress of Singapore.
  • Engineers have helped transform our urban landscape from what it was in the 1960s, to the global city it is today with our many iconic buildings and landmarks. We could not have built modern Singapore without our engineers. But this is not the end of the story.

Pressing ahead to continue building Singapore

As Prime Minister Wong has said, we are not finished building Singapore. We are now working on the next lap. The ForwardSG Report launched last year sets out our ambition to build a sustainable, resilient and inclusive city. This is the future city we want to build with all Singaporeans.

In 2022, we completed our Long-Term Plan Review to map the strategies that will guide Singapore’s development for the next 50 years and beyond.

Now we are focused on the Draft Master Plan 2025 review to translate our longer-term vision into detailed plans that will shape our city’s growth and development over the next 10 to 15 years.

Engineers have a special role to play in this endeavour. Therefore, as we build future Singapore, we will need a strong and capable engineering corps to turn our vision into reality.

Making engineers fighting fit for the future

We have an excellent team of engineers today who have achieved amazing feats recognised as world-class projects on our compact island, such as Jewel Changi Airport and Gardens by The Bay. However, in order to achieve the vision that we have for Singapore we will need not only more engineers but engineers who are future ready.  This would involve several things.

First, our engineers must have the necessary skillsets to survive and thrive in a constantly evolving Built Environment sector. Our engineers must possess the critical competencies and be able to innovate and adapt to this changing environment. This includes capability building and skills upgrading, both at the firm and individual-level.

  • To help firms better understand how job roles may change and what skills are needed, BCA published the results of a jobs transformation study conducted last year. Combined with BCA’s Skills Framework for Built Environment professions and salary benchmarks reflected therein, firms can chart a path to update the roles of their engineers. Firms can and should tap on the Productivity Solutions Grant for Job Redesign (or PSG-JR), which offers up to 50% co-funding to redesign work processes.
  • The BCA Academy was also appointed as a Continuing Education and Training (CET) Centre for the BE sector in 2023. There is generous support by the Government for courses on sustainability, digitalisation and more. I strongly encourage everyone to sign up for a skills refresh. I know that for professionals, time is a precious commodity and it is difficult to take time out to do such courses. However, I urge you to regard this as a necessary investment for the future, both for your firms and the industry as a whole.
  • Leadership comes from the top, so I urge the managing partners of the engineering firms to not just encourage your engineers to attend such courses but to make it an essential part of your firms’ capability building and personal growth plans for your employees.

Second, while the profession has achieved much over the years with current models, I think the time has come for our engineering firms to review your business models to see how you can increase profitability and growth. Business development is an important part of this. Without a steady pipeline of well-paying projects, your technical expertise cannot be fully deployed.

  • Our firms need to have a viable local business model that steers away from fee-diving. We want to improve compensation fairness for the industry’s longer-term sustainability and I am heartened to see the industry begin to take active steps to counter fee-diving.
  • For example, the Singapore Institute of Architects has published their value articulation framework called “Blueprint” earlier this year. It aims to provide clarity on the scope of architects’ services and will help architects better understand the required workloads and develop more sustainable fee proposals.
  • We have also enhanced our procurement practices by increasing the emphasis on quality over price. A revised fee-score approach has been piloted for all public sector consultancy tenders with construction cost up to $50 million, to disqualify bids below a certain threshold. We will study whether the same fee-score approach could be adopted in complex projects for the public sector.
  • The message from the government is clear: our projects are getting more complex, so we need competent firms for these jobs and we will pay them right.

Third, given the high quality of our engineering, we should think about how we can put Singapore engineering on the map and bring it overseas. I encourage those firms which are ready, to start thinking about a regional strategy.

  • Given the region’s infrastructure needs and complexity of projects, there is growing regional demand for engineering services. Asia will need to invest US$1.7 trillion a year in infrastructure to maintain growth, of which 16% of the funds would be needed for climate adaptation and mitigation measures. There is opportunity in the region and we can and must seize these opportunities.
  • One competency in which Singapore leads the global industry is the ability to engineer solutions to meet Green Mark certification standards.  An International Sustainable Finance Guide, authored by an alliance of green building councils including the Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC), was launched two months ago, at the London Climate Action Week.
  • Financial institutions depend on such reliable tools in their financing decisions. In the Guide, BCA’s Green Mark certification is one of a few internationally recognised green building rating tools.
  • To access such opportunities, BCA International, the wholly-owned subsidiary of BCA, is partnering engineering consultancy firms to help prominent overseas asset owners achieve ambitious sustainability targets, such as Net Zero buildings, under BCA’s Green Mark certification.

The Government will support firms in their efforts to access overseas markets. For instance, the Global Connect@SBF, an initiative by Enterprise Singapore and Singapore Business Federation, supports firms with market advisory services and strong overseas networks. Enterprise Singapore’s Market Readiness Assistance Grant also helps defray the costs of overseas market promotion, business development, and company set-up.

  • BCA also organises the International Built Environment Week annually, which provides a platform for our firms to exhibit thought leadership and showcase exemplary projects. Global best practices will also be showcased in the upcoming edition. I encourage our firms to participate actively when it is held, from 4 – 6 September.
  • I firmly believe that if we set our minds to it, our local consulting engineers can set themselves apart from the competition, to grow Singapore’s engineering presence overseas.

Fourth, our engineering firms must step up its efforts to secure a continuing pipeline of talent. Without sufficient man - and women - power, your firms will not be able to grow and your business cannot expand. We must ensure that engineering gets its fair share of the brightest and the best.  We must inspire and retain promising young talent to join the BE sector. We want engineering to be a discipline of choice in our Institutes of Higher Learning.

  • BCA intends to rally BE sector professionals to uplift public perceptions of the sector with a refreshed industry branding campaign called “Building Singapore”. It spotlights the pivotal role played by the BE sector in building the past, present and future of Singapore and highlights the exciting and meaningful work that you all do to build Singapore.
  • The Government has ongoing programmes to attract young talents, such as our Singapore-Industry Scholarships, where we currently have 42 sponsoring BE firms. We are also reaching out to younger students through the iBuildSG Club, a BE-themed interest club, and iBuildSG BE Formation Programme, a pre-internship preparatory programme to develop our students’ interest about opportunities in our sector.
  • An area that needs to be explored further is to review our HR practices to meet changing expectations of the workforce.
  • The government will work closely with the industry and organisations like ACES to see how we can achieve these objectives.

Working together to realise our vision for the sector

Organisations like ACES have an important role to play in making progressive change to the engineering profession.

  • For example, I was heartened to hear that ACES has made commendable strides in using digitalisation to streamline work processes.
  • Your efforts to develop a M&E design automation platform to improve design quality and accuracy by automating the calculation of M&E provisions, is an excellent example of harnessing digitalisation to improve work efficiency. 

We have also heard your feedback that service buyers can be clearer about the scope of services expected from consulting engineers, and to allocate risks more fairly.

  • We agree. This is why we are enhancing the public sector’s Standard Consultancy Agreement (SCA) to provide a clearer definition of the scope of services for fairer remuneration and a more balanced allocation of risks.
  • I am grateful for the valuable input provided by ACES and seek your continued support as we continue to enhance the SCA.

As you would have realised from what I said earlier, we have an even bigger vision of progress and growth for the engineering profession, Like anything worth doing, it will not be easy. We know there are challenges, but if we work together, I have no doubt that we can overcome these issues to enable a strong, vigorous and attractive profession.

The Government wants to work with our engineers and other professions in the BE sector to achieve these goals, and all the BE Trade Associations and Chambers (TACs) have a role to play. We have some ideas on how we can collaborate with the profession to bring engineering to new heights. We will share more soon.

 Conclusion

Let me conclude by congratulating ACES on your 53rd Anniversary. I wish you many more successful anniversaries to come!