The Republic was built on the backs of engineers during the years of nation-building, but today, not only has it become harder to woo Singaporeans into the profession, Singapore is also not at the “cutting edge” in most engineering fields, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Stressing that engineering is key to the Republic meeting its goals and addressing its challenges, Mr Lee, in a speech at the Institution of Engineers’ (IES) Golden Jubilee dinner yesterday, said Singapore must develop “deep engineering capabilities and a complete, thriving engineering ecosystem”.

While Singapore has come a long way, and developed “world-class capabilities” in disciplines such as building deep-sea drilling platforms, “in many other fields of engineering, even where we have developed competence, we are not at the cutting edge,” said Mr Lee.

In industrial and precision engineering, Singapore falls behind German world leaders, while Silicon Valley attracts the “best and brightest IT talent” from over the world, he noted.

“Even in Asia, countries like China and India not only have larger pools of talent, but deeper capabilities, and they have created IT firms that are world leaders,” he added, citing Chinese search engine Baidu and Indian IT consultancy Infosys.

The need to boost engineering capability and talent in Singapore has been raised by several leaders here, including Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan, who has cited improving engineering capabilities as being key to improving rail reliability.

In February, Mr Lee also spoke of the need to attract overseas-based Singaporean engineers back home, during a visit to the United States where he met Singaporean engineers working in top technology companies in Silicon Valley.

Two months later, the Government announced a 20 per cent pay rise for fresh graduates joining the Public Service as engineers.

Pointing to the important role engineering played in the Republic’s early days after independence, Mr Lee said the discipline remains crucial for Singapore to meet goals such as adapting infrastructure to an ageing population, developing solutions to overcome resource constraints and realising the Republic’s Smart Nation vision.

In the past, large numbers of students took up government scholarships to study engineering, but more options and pathways for students in fields such as finance have opened up with development, noted Mr Lee.

The Government will continue to develop relevant curricula at the institutes of higher learning, and establish career paths to attract and retain good engineers, he added.

At the dinner, founding president of the Nanyang Technological University, Professor Cham Tao Soon, was honoured with the IES Lifetime Engineering Achievement Award, while Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli received the institution’s Honorary Fellowship. Also recognised at the IES dinner were 50 engineering feats here, including Gardens by the Bay, the Semakau landfill and the driverless Mass Rapid System, which plies the North-East Line.

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by Kelly Ng

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