Welcome Dinner Dialogue with Minister Ong Ye Kung

all of you are with a minister on he has a very illustrious career he's you know been in a public sector private sector he's been in cattle you know the national trade you know Congress which is a trade union you've worked with unions you bought the private sector what in the Prime Minister's office plays football very good in the army and has also interestingly both won and lost elections right so battle-tested indeed so please feel free to challenge our esteemed guest of honor some of you have planted questions on me so I will start with the first one which comes from a very well-known fund manager in the audience tonight one of the best fund managers I know who's asking you Minister in this time of uncertainty how would you as a 4G leader help the population that you look after especially the young people navigate through this time of massive volatility it could be social you know disruption technology disruption market disruption there is a lot of uncertainty in the system and as a leader how do you help as you know to navigate people through this we use sometimes 3G 4G but sometimes it's just represent who is Prime Minister the truth is in the cabinet there is a spectrum of Ages and experiences and today the fourth generation ministers we have we are looking after most ministries but not all ministries we are able to put our ideas to the fore I think that the key is really there's a lot of good things going for Singapore in that continuity is important in terms of values in terms of anti-corruption meritocracy open to the world earning our own living and these are the important values that we to continue but on the other hand I guess our responsibility as younger ministers to be is to be more in touch with the changes that are happening the hopes and dreams of younger people that I see in all the undergrads Poly graduates IT graduates they have different hopes different dreams different from the past generation and we have to connect with them match it to the kind of environment they will grow up in and able to come up with a plan a future a course of action that they can identify with that they can feel this is a generation that were able to serve me it was what previous generations have done and I think that aspect of governance have not changed and I think what I presented just now as some of these ideas I think the question was punted before he heard my speech and this leads me to that the second planted question which came from a very young table of CEOs who run relative our founders of companies that are not very well known like Facebook and carousel and and they asked how would you help you know entrepreneurs who are starting out young entrepreneurs who are now starting up businesses taking risks you know some of you said you know when will Singapore ministers learn to be less gasps ooh gasps oh by the way means you know scared to lose and not taking notice guess who is not a monopoly or ministers it's a Singaporean tree that is oh I take no responsibility for just being the ones that can sue the the young generation is different in the Universities among young adults many of them are prepared to do businesses do business now many of them are prepared to take the plunge to be entrepreneurs to be to do startups they know startups don't all succeed in fact the majority do not succeed but the experience is important if I'm still hiring our hire someone who has fail in a start-up right the at least you understand cash they understand a lot of things the market share so I believe there is a new generation growing up there's a lot more entrepreneurial than the past how should we support them we are not the kind of market that is huge not very well regulated and you will have a good idea you run with it nobody stopped you and suddenly you'll find you're running a unicorn and it happens in many places we cannot pretend we are the kind of market ours is a very well regulated market you you try to do something new there will be some regulator knocking on your door to say is it safe no is it does it protect the environment as a harm the environment does it cause this amenities but it also means that in this well-regulated yet enterprise friendly environment if you if your idea work here chances are it can work in most cities around Asia so you're willing to make Singapore the test bed yes new and a living laboratory a living laboratory yeah interesting interesting take for example higher shed shed taxis when they came to Singapore the Land Transport Authority decided to give them a sandbox we suspend the rules that you operate but on condition that six months later I'm watching you six months data I'll come back to you if I if I need to implement more regulations I would do so and so there's a handshake and they proceed on their basis and indeed six months one year later LTA did come back to impose more regulations but the result is a very viable model in Singapore traditional taxis and shared taxis operate side-by-side and in harmony and so it's a model that I think can possibly be taken to other cities so this question comes from my new friends the watching tone from the IFC yes who has actually you know praised Singapore for its success in nurturing human capital you know you what we are after all a little red dot with nothing but and we have not been unsuccessful in nurturing that his question was how would we share this success in nurturing human capsule with rest of emerging markets or other countries we start off taking care of our own population and educating our young and training our adults where possible if but I think is for our own conditions every country has their own conditions an own situation but should they want to take us as a reference we'll be more than happy to do so our mathematics for example many of Singaporean parents don't understand why Singapore mathematics is taught like that there's no formulas you have to imagine models in in your head to solve a problem but it is it's very well regarded around the world it is open source it's open source we don't copyright it many countries have used our curriculum improve upon it and we will learn back from them I think this has always been the Singapore spirit share let people improve and then we don't reinvent the wheel we'll copy back yeah why not at this point I'm going to open up to the audience please wave put your hand up and and the mic will come to you and do identify yourself yes please I think Jonathan McLaury from Portland communications Singapore is rightly admired around the world for being able to develop and implement plans well into the long term and I'm just wondering if we think about a Singaporean who's maybe born five years from now are there any ideas that are being kicked around the Ministry of Education about what or how education might have to change as technology changes jobs in the future it's not just five years from now ten years from now 20 years from now for someone who is born and entering the education system the fundamentals will not change the most important aspects of Education starts from the family you need to add nurturing parents but when you start your education process the most important thing of values literacy skills numeracy skills these are generative skills without this tree I think it's difficult to learn anything else so always spend the first few years laying the foundation I am NOT a big fan of teaching students coding when they are very young because it's much more important to teach them literacy and numeracy and later you can teach coding because by the time you grow up the language bound to be obsolete so I think we will stick to the basics but the way lessons are taught will be a lot different it will be ball based on an inquiry approach basically it's less of dietetic teaching and downloading but a lot more getting the child involved letting the voice of the child be heard letting them work together figure out the lessons themselves which takes more time but it sings in much better and that I think will create well when nurture a greater joy of learning and we need to somehow reduce the over emphasis on academic greats who figure we yeah are you worried about you know the future of work it's technology replaces a lot of jobs you can't you know move a taxi driver or a bus driver into a high-tech job overnight yeah first it's not new right when there's every culture revolution I think the same thing happened to farmers when there's Industrial Revolution the same thing happened to factory workers I think we are just seeing a new era which may be faster than before but I believe our esteemed guest in the audience probably know very well as well but my own belief is that it's not going to destroy all jobs there will still be jobs for human well it's important I visited Changi terminal 4 it's quite eye-opening Tomino yeah you can check in your luggage issue your ticket go through security bought the plane without interfacing with a single human being yeah everything is automated so I asked the CEO which took me on the cell hyung took me on the tour I asked him for a similar-sized Airport if you similar as a size iPod run based on the old model versus now and the terminal 4 model how much manpower to use safe I expected a huge number he told me 10% 10% I said then where everything's automated where do the people go you say he has the largest horticultural team in terminal 4 because he has more plants than terminal 1 2 3 combined now we can do things that are finer things they they have art pieces they curate the art they have lots of IT personnel making sure all the automated systems are working they have robots cleaning the carpet but they have supervisors supervising the robots and they no longer have so they do longer have so many customers service officers behind the counter but their customer service officers out there serving people which all our banks understand right and therefore you still need people so what is important now education has to change in a way someone say this and I thought it's quite meaning for you you don't teach someone to be a second-rate robot teach them to be a first-rate human was well said I have a question over there so Peter Mandelson global council mister all if you had to strip away all the assets and all the virtues of Singapore including of course the quality of its education and the existence of Lee Kuan Yew what would be the one feature you would identify that has made the difference to Singapore success this would be our national DNA geography is destiny and our geography is in the middle of Southeast Asia where trade routes see lines of communication air routes trade flows comes through Southeast Asia Straits of Malacca and we also a multiracial multicultural country different immigrants over time brought together unique Singapore culture strip away everything what's left is that DNA a DNA that belief that we are now all living we defend ourselves we must always be outward looking and we live in harmony despite all our differences of different religions different cultures that I think will be the essence of Singapore I think that's a lady over that hi Robin from Jakarta I represent the young societal leaders community here and my question to mr. Hong is Singapore is a pressure cooker and you mentioned that you know it thrives on multiculturalism and how will Singapore plan to continue to become more inclusive to not only at Singaporeans but also to the region you know because it being Singaporean is quite fuzzy in a sense right Singaporean is fuzzy multicultural multiracial oh that's being rich fuzzy how do we your question is how do we being relevant how do you become more inclusive inclusive whether it's soil for LGBTQ or for disabled okay oh you're asking about LGBTQ I see four different types of you know to be multi multi cultural it doesn't actually have to be you know it's not limited to race or religion right it's also to your identity to your sexual orientation and so on I I thought Singapore is one of the most inclusive place in the world because exactly what Peter asked and because it's deep in our DNA to be inclusive and taking people all shapes and sizes of from everywhere or backgrounds and you mentioned LGBTQ the fact is they live in Singapore peacefully no discrimination against work housing education I go about their lives and therefore this is what we are about however on the issue of LGBT it is also an issue of social mores and societal values the population of Singapore is split in its view when it comes to legislative changes so the government's view has always been and concern such an issue it is better we might be the largest animal in the jungle but we are not the jungle some things we leave it to source to society to decide over time at this point I'm going to take a question from from the iPad thank you for submitting ya pigeonhole we have a pigeonhole piece feel free to submit thank you to my boss mr. Pierce Gupta here's a question from the CEO of DBS the Singapore model is am I allowed myself asking the last request I don't use it you will say this has the highest votes of course the Singapore model its government and public sector driven the education system streams people into disciplines the price of success is to fear to be bold and risk upsetting the status quo so here's the question how do you drive greater private sector participation risk-taking in entrepreneurship and become less of a nanny state mmm actually that was kind of linked to that classroom bit yeah first streaming no longer exists in primary school we got rid of that streaming still exists in secondary school there are pros and cons the pros is that different students learn a different speed and therefore you cater different streams but even so if they perform well in certain subjects you allow mingling that's the pro and in fact no educator will argue against that approach but the cons is that if you are streaming to a lower stream sometimes you lose that growth mindset and that is limiting and we should take a look at that and see how we can address it that's a separate education issue but Singapore being a nanny state depends on what kind of nanny some nannies are fairly nurturing and when you grow up you remember your nanny being very nice to you and invite all the right values but some nannies don't let you do anything but it's a fair comment I think the fair comment based on what I said what kind of nanny are we I hope they're good but based on my comments earlier before the Q&A I do think as a society we need to take a bit more risk yeah allow celebrate failure sometimes so long as the failure is taken in the right spirit and whoever that is is able to bounce back companies same thing sometimes we are we should allow innovation to take place it doesn't go well but that's how we learn trial and error and correct so if I were to say a major shift in mindset culture I think that would be yeah it's a fair comment we experimented with failure wants and it what it was yeah we are experimenting a lot on a paymen yeah indeed and the next question comes from mr. Indra which ayah there will be many foreign students who would like to study in Singapore and what is Singapore government's policy regarding foreign student quotas okay we have private schools so private schools you are free to study in our private schools do you pay for fees for those coming to public schools what we call autonomous universities like SMU we need to we have two Q's yeah one is to accept local students first they have to meet the standards for admission and then beyond that we add a proportion is today about 10 percent or foreigners I think it's important because all reputable universities should have a mixture of different nationalities because it's part and parcel of a university education to be exposed to students from different cultures yeah some of us some of foreign students now also pay full fees some are under some grants in return they work three years in Singapore so we have a mixture of different foreign students but the standards are equally so it's not easy to get into autonomous universities especially SMU yeah a real plug for UConn thing I'm gonna open back up to the floor yes sir over there yes you've got the mic good yeah good mrs. Clarke yes visa Thank You Suzanne for the introduction Chris Clark from visa um you quoted a statistic that actually startled me during your speech saying the I think it was the population replacement rate for Singapore was one point is a total fertility total fertility rate 1.14 versus Japan at one point four was was what you said and then in your opening remarks you actually gave me permission to ask this question I think what's the government going to do about it how are you going to get more baby it's not within my power you ask me my true view is that I think husbands and wives need to share responsibilities more I I think the most chauvinistic male chauvinistic a society is the fewer babies you're going to get because women are educated women have choices you know why should I stay home and have babies well while the men work and so you need to have a more equal sharing of responsibilities you need to have an infrastructure including very good infant care child care system to support the mothers then I think you have a chance to have more babies but it's really out of my control but you'll keep you know encouraging young people to I think of all measures supporting the mothers probably would I would agree with that I would certainly agree with that any questions from the floor whilst we're waiting and so what about you know you've signed several FTAs in your lifetime in signed in like oh you negotiate negotiated or been part of the negotiation so you're obviously you know a veteran to trade with the current trade war and the geopolitics how you know what's your take on on what's going on in the relationship between Singapore and the superpowers yeah there's several questions together I think I answer the first one which is what do I see the current trade war is a tariff war tariff war and us-china are retaliating we all know that at the end of the day this is damaging to everybody including the players themselves right so there is trade relations and there's also the broader us-china relations in terms of trade relations actually China is prepared to open up more shortly after the u.s. announced that it will levy 25 percent tariff on 50 billion I think on Chinese imports I was then import out during the power forum and President Xi Jingping was giving a speech and he said China will continue to open up yeah and in this era China will open up even more so my view is that a better deal is on the table China's prepared to open up but China will not want to do so under pressure and under threat and therefore we now have a tit-for-tat tariff war my worry for the longer term is that trade discussions are important it's part and parcel of the regional architecture global architecture that we will need for big powers to engage each other the problem we have today is that the WTO is not so credible to many players are involved and very little can be done at the WTO so it doesn't offer a platform for major powers to negotiate and update their free trade agreements and they are with arrangements at the same time regional free trade agreements are also not progressing well as far as the u.s. is concerned used to have the TPP when Singapore negotiated with the US on our bilateral free trade agreement which launched by ESM the u.s. many people don't know this but the u.s. use the u.s. Singapore FTA as a dialogue with NAFTA partners so whatever the u.s. was not happy with NAFTA they make the changes with Singapore and when it's all done they presented it back to NAFTA and got it amended and that was our role but today without a regional if we had the TPP that would serve the same purpose between US and China I believe but today the u.s. is also not in TPP so that is one of my worry that ultimately at some point we must have some avenue some platform for the two powers to negotiate three but a bigger issue is us-china relations in the long term which goes beyond trade this is the most important bilateral relations in the world if you are and if you are in the US and you feel that china is emerging and challenging the u.s. it's probably not the correct view and not representative of Chinese view yeah China traditionally believed in taking care of its own people and that it's not expansionist country if you live in China and you believe that US is trying to contain the rise of China I think that view is also not likely to represent a representative of a US view because US have so much a stake in China and ensuring and wanting China to succeed too so I hope Singapore in Southeast Asia looking at the two big powers and so important to us we hope that they take that sentiments into account we hope good sense prevails I thought I saw a hand yes sure young people's table and this question is from all of us at Saverin technology entrepreneur turned investor and this question comes in part from myself being a new father and thinking about my son's education just wanted to get your views on how technology gamification can play in in adapting education system to the very fast and exponential growth of technology and how will impact the world how could we make sure education evolves as fast as the world does around us I think there's a lot of potential it will make education and classroom the enactment of curriculum in the classroom a lot more fun and it's already being used in many of our classrooms they play games in order to learn chemistry I just saw it I just saw a Chinese learning app yesterday and the kids were having a great time using it but I would also caution not to implement technology for technology's sake because many of the things still require face-to-face environmental values all this requires face-to-face teaching but definitely gamification is great potential over there sir yes i mr ong i will i'm father from malaysia as in your remarks you mention in the long view singapore moving in singapore companies new companies startups moving into the regional markets just one thing your long-term view on climate change and Singapore's as you move into these markets you also move into these ecosystems that will come back as the food that we eat the water that we drink and the air that we breathe so your long-term views on climate change and as you as Singapore moves out your views on climate change the two separate issues one is the food that we eat and food safety we put security for safety too we have a ministry of environment for a long time but actually our ministry environment look after urban hygiene including food safety so today's Singapore's food safety standards is actually quite a good one a good reputation I think that is a strength that we should leverage more to export our food to the region and grow our food industry as for climate change I think there's one section I could have talked about water level rise in the next 50 years we don't even have to wait 50 years and that will encroach into Singapore and we have to figure a way to solve it if we need to build dikes we need to learn from Netherlands we will do so and but this is another inexorable trend as the ice caps melt whatever rise around the equator yes there's a question from table over that hi Minister Ong my name is Kevin young I'm a professor a sec Business School my question is about the link between Singapore culture and innovation this topic of innovation culture there's a lot of anecdotal evidence from people I met around the world that Singaporeans are not particularly innovative we're risk-averse we follow textbooks etc but the same time there are so many good examples of innovations coming up Singapore and you mean you look also look at things like magazines like Forbes and Bloomberg who rated Singapore one the most innovative countries in of all there seems to be a paradox between innovation and Singapore what are your thoughts on this the thoughts is there are all kinds of Singaporeans they are those who make really good operations managers they follow the procedure they make sure Six Sigma is by - and you do need those kind of people and there are also Singaporeans who are think out-of-the-box entrepreneurial innovative and they were they were invent things and make a huge difference in the future the thing is we are small population so when you are small we are always sort of people of all kinds so that includes people who can follow rules and there includes people who are innovative and entrepreneurial - yes I minister the Simon Tay where the chairman for Singapore - I shall face yes sir thank you very much I've got a bit of a strange question besides the people in the room millions of people in the world are gonna see Singapore through the lens of crazy rich Asians come on you have a crazy question but what would you say to them what is the to you the representation of Singapore through lens and that movie across was party sparked by the Singapore Tourism Board what would you say to them and also our own people about you educate about the values etc well as we become a hub for a very rich Asia I think most thing appearance will watch the film didn't take it that seriously because we know who we are and we will point out the inconsistency such as the Hawker Center they went to wasn't the best the last scene where he was trying to chase after the girl he was driving the wrong direction to us - wrong but other than that I don't think Singaporeans took it too seriously as for foreigners I would say watch the movie watch how great Singapore how nice Singapore is then watch nice dailies he has some very good one-minute videos and then visit us and compare if it's accurate there's nothing crazy about rich Asians I've been told that we are coming to what we've come to the end lot more last questions I think we're there yes one more yes yes I am Li Ling from Singapore representing the young societal leader so I have two questions for mr. own so how we're government facilitate beyond hospitals to community if majority of our incentive is towards hospitalizations for example marry safe and insurance plans and number two how are we going to build enough capacity for health care needs of aging populations in Singapore so I guess it's a capacity for health care aging population in cash the second hospital to community so the beyond hospital committee so if the majority of incentives is it you know - what sauce hospitalization or so much towards wellness yeah what's the second one the second one was are we building enough capacity for the healthcare we go aging population how are we going to build enough capacity for the healthcare needs of the aging population okay there's another question there why don't we take everything yes one more was there another question somewhere yeah there was one over there yes oh sorry yes good evening mr. on I am my name is Sarah Chang I'm the CEO of Fuji Xerox Singapore I've been a foreigner who's been in Singapore for 15 years I've been always an admirer for the vision and the execution power of Singapore government this is also one of the very few countries when foreigners come in and we plan to stay for two or three years and we stay for 15 or 20 years my question to you is as you mentioned about the uncertainty or the four external forces in today's world what would be the top two or three that you think are the highest risk for your policies your execution and for the prosperities of Singapore thank you yeah okay first question hospitalization we are actually doing a lot to try to move healthcare into the community right citing it because you can't push all sickness into the acute hospitals and take up hospital beds so if you notice we have been building many community hospitals and then also elder care centres in the community so that you write cite your right side based on the needs of the patients and if you feel that certain incentives is not encouraging right citing then they have to be adjusted I think that's the only way for us to ensure that we have enough capacity to cater to an older population yeah so it's both right citing as well as building infrastructure that will help us cater to older population and their health care needs top two and three high-risk I would give to the external one I mentioned earlier us-china relations most important bilateral relations in the world the two sided a strap is not an inevitability but it's logic has to be we have to be mindful of the logic so that is one risk that will constantly be worried about and the second risk which I would say is domestic is really the unity of Singaporeans we mentioned that we are multicultural we are diverse by the same time we have to be united if we are continue to be the United ones continue to support an agenda for the long term then I think Singapore will do well and that the point of what's good leadership and sustainable long term policies oh thank you for adding that so with that I like to thank I'm gonna sir and all of you for your very active participation and machine your a good conference tomorrow [Applause]

Channel: Singapore Summit

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Length: 36min 46sec (2206 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 27 2018