Speech by Minister Desmond Lee at the MND Family National Day Observance Ceremony 2021

Aug 6, 2021

Thank you very much, friends and colleagues in the MND Family.

I’m very happy to join you at this year’s National Day Observance Ceremony. Let me begin by wishing all of you a very Happy National Day in advance! 

This is the second year that we are holding our National Day Observance Ceremony virtually because of the ongoing public health challenges. But in a way, the silver lining is that we can connect with a lot more people, including our scholars who are studying overseas.  

Impact of COVID-19 

The pandemic has been difficult for all of us. I think if you cast your mind back to last year, things were extremely challenging, and many of us had to scramble to step up many of the support services needed to tackle an unknown virus. But this year has not been easy too. 

Just last month, we had to tighten the restrictions again and return to Phase 2 (Heightened Alert), with the emergence of new clusters and the threat of a new variant, not just in Singapore, but all around the region and around the world. 

It has been a challenging journey, a lot of uncertainty. And yet through all of this, many of you continued to step up to serve fellow Singaporeans. 

In the last one and a half years, regardless of our vocation, our division, our mission statement, many of you have pivoted to support our fight against COVID-19 from the MND Family point of view. Many of you helped us to source for and set up sites for medical and isolation facilities, migrant workers’ temporary dorms; you helped to man COVID support hotlines to address queries and uncertainties by members of the public and the industry; many more of you served as Safe Distancing Ambassadors in our parks and common spaces; and so on. 

You carried out these duties professionally and diligently, even when, in some cases, they may have put you in harm’s way. I know many of us serving as SDOs or SDAs have been the subject of abuse or challenged and you acted with professionalism and confidence and service. One of our NParks colleagues was attacked while serving as a Safe Distancing Ambassador. We are glad to know that he is on the way to recovery. Despite the risks and challenges, you did not shy away from your responsibilities. 

Many of you also stepped up to cover your colleagues’ work while they were involved in COVID-related duties.

Many others volunteered your spare time, to reach out to and to support the more vulnerable members of our community at this difficult time.

On the occasion of this National Day Observance Ceremony, on behalf of my colleagues and senior management, I would like to take this occasion to thank all of you, for contributing to Singapore’s efforts in the battle against COVID-19, and for exemplifying the public service values of integrity, service and excellence.

While the pandemic has been very hard on everyone, it has also brought out the best in many of us, both individually and collectively.

As we continue to navigate this crisis together, I hope we will continue to work closely with one another, across agency lines. And keep thinking of new and creative ways to make Singapore a better place to live, work and play. Not just for ourselves, but for future generations.

Award Winners

This morning, we celebrate 20 teams in the MND Family who have embodied this spirit of innovation and collaboration across the public service. Let me share just a few of the examples with you.

First, MND, HDB and MOH colleagues worked together to develop the Community Care Apartments (CCAs). This is a new public housing model that offers assisted living for our seniors. And to develop this model, the inter-agency team worked closely across multiple agencies and consulted many stakeholders. Because it’s not just housing, but housing combined with care services, as well as communal spaces to meet the needs of our seniors, so that they can continue to live independently in a supportive community as they age. And it’s been well received.

A second example is how BCA, together with agencies like HDB, JTC, and Enterprise Singapore, developed a Technical Reference for conducting Building Façade Inspection using Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). This Technical Reference is the first of its kind in the world and paves the way for us to use drones, instead of workers, to do façade inspections. And this helps us to transform the Built Environment sector to become safer and more productive, and gives citizens the assurance that even as our infrastructure ages, we are making good use of technology, maintaining high standards, to ensure that our city remains safe and liveable.

Now the third example I am going to cite is the Lornie Nature Corridor, a collaboration between NParks and multiple stakeholders, including URA, LTA and the wider community. And coming together, they reduced the number of lanes along Lornie Road because of the availability of the Lornie Highway, and turned the space into a park connector, so that our wildlife can benefit from more connectivity between our green spaces, while at the same time, Singaporeans can enjoy nature right next to what used to be a busy road. This illustrates how we are making Singapore a City in Nature, by using innovation, by design, by weaving natural spaces more closely into our urban areas.

These are just three of the many examples of what we can achieve when we work together towards ambitious and meaningful goals. I would like to say a very big thank you to all the 20 teams being recognised today. Well done and congratulations!

MND’s Direction

As we celebrate Singapore’s 56th birthday this year, I thought I should take this chance to share with you some of the big things that our MND Family is working on, to make Singapore a better home.

First, as part of the Multi-Ministry Task Force, one of our immediate priorities is to play our part in the whole-of-nation effort to steer Singapore safely out of this COVID-19 pandemic. Our BCA colleagues, for instance, are working closely with our industry partners, to help the Built Environment and Construction sector overcome manpower challenges and shortages and supply chain disruptions, and get construction projects back on track. Similarly, our HDB colleagues are working very hard to minimise construction delays for our BTO flats, while assisting affected households who lack other housing options. And our NParks colleagues continue to maintain and develop our green spaces, which have been very important for our mental wellness during this pandemic, because they are valuable places for Singaporeans to rest and rejuvenate, away from enclosed spaces.

Beyond the immediate challenges posed by COVID, in the longer term, we continue to push the boundaries to improve our island and improve the lives of Singaporeans.

For example, we are reviewing our development plans for Singapore for the next fifty years and beyond, through our what we used to call the Concept Plan Review, now we call it the Long-Term Plan Review. We review these long-term plans every decade, and last month, our URA colleagues kickstarted public engagements for this year’s edition. We are reaching out to Singaporeans, to understand their aspirations for our future city. For example, what will our future homes, our future offices and schools look like, as more of us work and learn from home more often? How should our urban infrastructure change, as e-commerce and food delivery become perhaps, more of a norm? Now granted fifty years is a long runway, and there is opportunity and space to look for bold ideas and innovations. They are bold and innovative today, but I think in 50 years’ time if we are sufficiently prescient, these may well be needed innovations and changes. So please sign up for one of these sessions, share your thoughts with us, whichever department you come from.

We are also working hard to make Singapore an even more inclusive society. We have seen how other cities and other countries have gone ahead of us, in terms of maturity and in terms of development. How they have been shaped by invisible forces, both economic and societal, and how they have challenged the society, the idea of cohesion and unity, and challenged the formulation of common identities. We want to ensure that we buck the trend and form strong bonds with one other regardless of our backgrounds. And that is why our HDB colleagues will launch public housing in prime locations like the city centre, so that more Singaporeans can enjoy living in these areas, and these areas don’t become exclusive estates that only the wealthy can afford. We are also doing our best to combat social inequalities, and help families in rental flats progress in their lives – and that is thanks to the hard work and close support by HDB’s dedicated Home ownership Support Team, and by better coordinating our housing support with other agencies such as MSF and community groups, through initiatives such as ComLink. New housing typologies, like the Community Care Apartments, will also help to take care of the needs of different groups of Singaporeans, like our seniors.

At the same time, as part of the Singapore Green Plan 2030, MND is striving to make Singapore more sustainable and liveable as a city. Our BCA colleagues are pushing for more of our buildings to be a lot greener – by mandating higher energy performance requirements, as well as more sustainable construction practices, like the use of less carbon-intensive material. Our NParks colleagues are actively transforming Singapore into a City in Nature – not just to balance nature and development, but to integrate nature into the heart of our city, so that we can enjoy nature right at our doorsteps. In fact, just a few days ago, NParks announced that we will introduce two new nature trails that will run through Clementi Forest, as part of the Clementi Nature Corridor. All of us can play a part in these sustainable efforts – by using less electricity in our daily lives, or recycling more, or even sign up for one of NParks’ programmes to help protect our natural environment. Plant more trees, for instance, as part of our OneMillionTrees movement.

And there are many other things our agencies and departments are working on – from CEA’s efforts to transform the real estate industry, to CLC’s efforts to bring together city leaders to exchange good ideas, and to keep Singapore at the top of mind of intellectual and thought leaders around the world.

Conclusion

So this is an exciting time for MND family, for all of us; challenging times, no doubt, but exciting times, with many initiatives on different fronts. And we are pushing well ahead.

And as we continue to build our future Singapore, we will need to collaborate even more closely, across a wider range of stakeholders – both fellow agencies, private sector partners, volunteer and ground-up groups, and members of the community. This is the essence of the Singapore Together movement, which every department should embody.

I invite all of you to be part of this journey – whether in your day-to-day work as an MND officer, or by lending your support to one of MND’s many initiatives, or by contributing in other ways in your local community.

Each generation before us has helped to shape Singapore into what it is today. And now it is our turn to steward our island and our city, make it even more resilient and sustainable for our children and their children.

So once again, Happy National Day. Stay safe and take care. Thank you.