27 July 2000

OPENING ADDRESS BY RADM TEO CHEE HEAN,
MINISTER FOR EDUCATION & 2ND MINISTER FOR DEFENCE,
AT THE OPENING CEREMONY OF THE 2ND APEC YOUTH SCIENCE FESTIVAL
ON THURSDAY, 27 JUL 2000, SINGAPORE EXPO, HALL 4 @ 10.30 AM

1. Let me begin by extending to all participants and guests from the APEC economies a warm welcome to the 2^nd APEC Youth Science Festival. Most of the foreign participants arrived in Singapore yesterday, with some of you arriving only late last night. I hope that you have managed to get some rest and are ready to immerse yourselves in the programme in the week ahead.

2. In 1998, Singapore sent a delegation of students and officials to Korea to participate in the 1^st APEC Youth Science Festival. Our students benefited greatly from this experience. The festival provided an opportunity for students from the different economies to learn and work together and appreciate each other's culture. They were inspired by the opportunity to listen to and interact with scientists well known in their respective fields of work. Singapore is proud to host the 2^nd APEC Youth Science Festival, an event that demonstrates APEC's emphasis on education as a key strategy to lead us towards economic prosperity.

3. At the 2^nd APEC Education Ministerial Meeting in April this year, the key subject of discussion was the challenge posed by globalisation, and the important role education plays in preparing our youths to meet these challenges.

4. Globalisation, powered by rapid advances in telecommunication and information technologies, advances in transportation and the opening up of once protected economies, has changed the way people work, learn and see the world. The high-speed information highway that transcends geographical boundaries has brought new business opportunities and forced whole industries to re-evaluate their business models. Dot.com companies with virtual storefronts are offering products and services that were unheard of in the past and in some cases, eliminating the need for middlemen.

5. Education is also undergoing a revolution. Students with connection to the Internet are tapping into the vast amount of information available on the net. Educational institutions, teachers and students need to reconsider what, where, when and how teaching and learning will take place.

6. Our personal lives are also being changed. Busy people can now shop and sell from the comfort of their home, order and watch a movie, chat and make new friends from all over the world. Our lifestyle and our perspective of the world have to change.

7. In order to compete and succeed in the new economy, where intellectual capital is a premium, we must give our youths the knowledge, skills and opportunities that are required to survive. But more than that, we need to impart to our youths attitudes and values that will encourage them to be life-long learners who are able to think out of the box, work as a team and handle the vast amount of information that is accessible to them. Creativity, collaboration and information skills are essential for the future workplace. Let me elaborate further.

8. Even as we are learning how to come to terms with the breathtaking pace of the information revolution, a new revolution in the Life Sciences is upon us. While advances in the physical sciences dominated the 20^th century, the 21^st century is likely to be the century of the life sciences. We are on the verge of deciphering the human genetic code and determining the specific functions that our genes play. It will be a big achievement for mankind and it will bring with it tremendous potential and exciting possibilities in medicine, health care and even computing. However, it is not who wins the race to decipher our genetic code that is important but how we use this new knowledge that will determine the winner.

9. Understanding the rules of science alone is not enough to bring success, just as understanding the rules of chess is not enough to make a good chess-player. Most of us can understand the rules of chess by spending enough time observing how the game is played or by studying the rules as they are given. Knowing the rules does not give you much of an advantage if you seek to be a grandmaster in chess. To be a grandmaster of science, we need to go beyond knowing the rules to developing strategies and applications which capitalise on this knowledge. This calls for creativity and an innovative spirit, something we must develop in our youth.

10. Gone are the days when scientists slaved away in isolation in dark, dank and desperate conditions. More often than not, today, you will find teams of scientists or researchers working on the same project, providing competition but more often, collaboration as they seek the same goal. The Human Genome Project is one such example. Information is shared even though the competition to be the first is on. Another example is very clear when you look at the list of Nobel Prize Winners for Physics. You will find that 5 out of the last 7 prizes were given to groups of scientists working together in teams. It is this combination of collaboration and competition that spurs the community of scholars to the very frontiers of scientific discovery.

11. Good scientists need other good scientists working in the same field to challenge their views and feed their thoughts. They also need scholars working in other fields to provide a fresh perspective to their innovative ideas, for example mathematicians who can unravel complicated equations to generate new ideas, find new applications and study a problem from a new perspective. It is difficult to do this all alone.

12. To be able to work as a team demands more than just knowledge and technical skills. Each member has to be open-minded about differing views, willing to accept criticism and give praise, tap on each other's strengths and shore up weaknesses within the team. They need a whole range of social and co-operative skills to function as useful members of a team. It is important that our youths learn to work collaboratively and develop a network of friends with whom they can discuss different issues and present different views. The 2nd AYSF may provide just the opportunity for a group of like-minded young scientists to get together and, who knows, maybe in the future, work as a team to win a Nobel Prize ?

13. When the printing press was invented in the 1450s in Europe, it led to a period of knowledge explosion. The reason was a simple one - information became available to a much wider audience. The Renaissance period that followed brought about new ideas and discoveries that are still admired by generations thereafter. It can be said that the Renaissance owed much to the information explosion of the era.

14. The Internet today promises to bring about the same explosion of information, with one added feature - speed. This easy and instant access to information brings with it disadvantages as well as the obvious advantages. Almost anyone can publish his or her views on line. Faced with this avalanche of information, it is important that our youths are able to zoom in on relevant and accurate information and at the same time, exercise self-control and guard themselves against negative influences. The ability to search, process and evaluate the information presented to them and the ability to analyse, package and present this information is essential for knowledge workers of the future.

15. Over the next seven days, participants at the 2^nd AYSF will have the opportunity to work in teams during the Science Investigation sessions and present your findings to your friends. In the Youth Science Summit, you will discuss issues ranging from the control of information on the Internet to cloning and genetically modified food. You would have done the background reading which the organisers have given you so that you will have a fruitful discussion at the summit.

16. You will also be able to showcase your creativity in the exhibits that you have set up and you will learn from each other's innovative solutions to problems. You will meet scientists, researchers and technoprenuers who will share with you their adventure as you listen to them in the lectures and when you visit them in their laboratories.

17. But that's not all. Your stay in Singapore will provide you with opportunities to take part in social and cultural activities to develop bonds of friendship which we hope you will maintain when you return to your homes.

18. We are privileged to host the 2^nd APEC Youth Science Festival at the start of this new millennium. Appropriately, the theme of the Festival is Science for Unity and Progress. Science and technology play an important role in the economic success of the APEC economies. We have to harness this potential and deploy the technologies efficiently and effectively. The study of science is within the reach of everyone. Scientific observations are independent of race and culture and provide a platform for the fruitful exchange of ideas and goodwill. By getting our youths to learn about science together, we hope to build a network of future technoprenuers, scientists and leaders whose work will benefit future generations.

19. It now gives me great pleasure to declare the 2^nd APEC Youth Science Festival open.