4 September 2001

SPEECH BY MR. PETER CHEN, SENIOR MINISTER OF STATE, MINISTRY OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY AND MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, AT CAREERS UNLIMITED IN SCIENCE: "DREAM. EXPLORE. DISCOVER" THE SCIENCE 01 R&D CAREER FORUM CUM VISITS TO R&D LABS ON TUESDAY, 4 SEPTEMBER 2001, 9.30 AM AT THE SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION AND EXHIBITION CENTRE, BALLROOM 2

1. I am happy to join you for this morning's forum. I am delighted to see the large turn-out, knowing full well that it is mid week of the third term break; and it is probably a "catch up" week for the final year exam for some of you. I am sure the organizer, the National Science and Technology Board, will not disappoint you as it has put in considerable effort to put together an interesting programme for you. Take this opportunity to reflect on your career aspirations and find out all you can about careers in science.

2. Today's forum is the start of a series of interesting activities for students, professionals and the public during Science.01 - a month of science, technology and biomedicine. "Careers Unlimited in Science: Dream. Explore. Discover" is the first career forum to focus on career opportunities in research, and it is also the first to be organised on such a large scale, involving all the junior colleges and polytechnics in Singapore.

3. Before I embark on the thrust of today's forum, let me talk briefly about some key elements of Singapore's progress in the last four decades. This will help us understand and appreciate the need to invest in research and to encourage more people to do research.

4. When we embarked on industrialisation in the '60s and '70s, we concentrated on creating jobs for the populace. The education policy of the 60s and 70s was one based on "survival", and the priority was basic literacy education to ensure that people knew how to read and write so that they could acquire some basic skills and understand instructions. When China first opened its doors in the late 1970s, after the Cultural Revolution, we lost no time in embarking on a programme to move up the economic ladder. We sought to excel by adding value in our production and services throughout the 80's and 90's. Then we turned to Information Technology or IT in order to maintain our competitive advantage. To equip us for this move up the economic value chain, we raised our level of education, and our workforce grew increasingly skilled and sophisticated. Without any resources other than ourselves and armed only with an instinct to survive, we worked hard and saw our economy change from a trading economy to a manufacturing economy. We became a leading manufacturer of electronics and one of the largest petroleum refining and petrochemical manufacturing centres in the world. We teamed up with MNCs which have the capital, the technology and often also the market.

5. Today the world has again undergone great transformation. The China of today is vastly different from the China of more than 25 years ago. She has caught up and will overtake many countries in the production of low-cost but high-quality products, similar to what post-war Japan did in the 1970s and 80s. Today, our economy must also change. We can no longer depend entirely on imported technologies and MNCs to power our economy. There is a need for more indigenous creators of new knowledge and capabilities. The new knowledge generated by our research scientists and engineers will help bring our economic development to a higher level. It is at the level of a knowledge-based economy that we stand a chance of remaining relevant to the world economy.

Therefore, our challenge today is to transform our economy into one that is not only highly skilled at adding value to products and services, but it is also creative and innovative in the creation of new products and services.

6. To bring across the message more strongly that human capital is the key to a knowledge-based economy, the theme for Science 2001 is "Investing in Human Capital". In economic terms, investment in people or what economists term as human capital is as important if not more important than financial capital for a firm. This is because human capital in science and technology brings in returns in the form of new products, patents and other intellectual property rights which firms will use to create wealth and jobs.

7. At the school level, we are moving away from simply applying known solutions to known problems. It was a good and practical strategy in the old economic arena, but it will not encourage creativity and innovation. Neither will it bring about new products and services. To prepare our young people for the new knowledge-based economy, we have to nurture a culture in which curiosity is valued. There is a saying, "Necessity is the Mother of Invention". However, in a knowledge-based economy, it is "Curiosity" that is the Mother of Creativity and Innovation.

8. So why are we putting greater emphasis on the importance of research in science? The history of science has shown that basic research was the foundation of many revolutionary technological innovations. Let me just highlight a few familiar examples. The invention of lasers, for example, can be traced back to the basic research conducted by a number of scientists including Albert Einstein, who was the first to recognise in 1917 the theory of "stimulated emissions". Today laser technology has a wide variety of applications in surgery, telecommunications (lasers with fiber optics), printers, precision drills and other machine tools.

9. Another example is xerography. The term, xerography, may sound alien to you. This technology was invented in 1938, but it was commercialised only after years of research in technology, basic science and engineering. Xerox Corporation sponsored both the basic and applied research which led to today's modern high-speed copier.

10. The ubiquitous Internet had its humble beginnings in the military and academic community - the ARPANET whose primary goal was to enable scientists and engineers across the country to share ideas and information. Thanks to advances in digital electronics which had its origins in the development of logic circuits in the 1850's and the effort of many scientists, the Internet is now an important communication tool.

11. The Human Genome Project which began in 1990 at the National Institute of Health is another case in point. It was the earlier, basic advances in such wide-ranging fields as molecular biology, genetics, microbiology, computer science and robotics that made possible the achievements in the mapping and sequencing of the entire human genome. As we all know, knowledge of the human genome sequence will ultimately give us a better understanding of the underlying human body and disease processes. In fact, it has already provided intriguing insights into diseases and human ailments such as breast and colon cancers.

12. Scientific research will be the wellspring of the new economy. As basic research becomes more important for technology and innovation, research scientists and engineers will be in demand as they seek to find the appropriate industrial applications for the knowledge from basic research and help to solve complex technological problems. To sustain science and innovation in the long term, we need an adequate and well-trained pool of new researchers.

13. Today, you have the unique opportunity to meet with scientists and researchers here and at the research labs. Hopefully, you will see in them role models and mentors whom you can look forward to join in your undergraduate and postgraduate days later.

14. The National Science and Technology Board (NSTB) is committed to building and training a cadre of professional scientists and research engineers. The Board is providing every available opportunity for young bright students to realise their career goals in scientific research. Several initiatives have been launched to nurture the scientific workforce. Recently, the NSTB announced the launch of the new National Science Scholarships Programme. A total of S$500 million has been set aside for the next five years for PhD scholarship awards and fellowship awards. This is the first time a scholarship is offered to students from undergraduate right up to postgraduate level. This clearly signals the commitment of the government in supporting eligible students who wish to pursue their research interests in physical and biomedical sciences.

15. At the school level, the National Science and Technology Board and the Ministry of Education have set up four science and technology centres in the North, South, East and West clusters of school zones. These centres are equipped with more specialised equipment and provide students with an environment to carry out higher-level research projects and investigations. The cluster science and technology centres in the South, East and West zones have been completed recently while the North Zone cluster, which was built in April 2000, has been expanded.

16. In addition, the Ministry of Education, the National Institute of Education and the National Science and Technology Board are working in collaboration with top overseas centres of excellence in the teaching and learning of the Life Sciences. Two of such centres are the Dolan DNA Learning Centre (DNALC) at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York and the University of Washington in Seattle. The objective of this collaboration is to introduce our science teachers to the latest discoveries and applications of the Life Sciences and equip them with the necessary training and resources that can be adapted for use in the classroom. These training attachments are for about 4 to 8 weeks in duration.

17. Scientific discoveries and inventions have been pushing the frontiers of human progress. Many of you here today will be responsible in pushing that frontier further. You will be a significant part of the nation's competitive edge. There's never a more exciting time to be in science than now. Even scientists of my generation are themselves echoing this sentiment.

18. I commend the joint effort of the National Science and Technology Board and its partner organisations for organising today's forum and Science 2001. Special mention must be made of the various organisations namely, the universities, polytechnics, public sector research laboratories, hospital research laboratories, statutory boards such as the National Library Board, Singapore Science Centre and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, for working in concert with the National Science and Technology Board to organize Science 2001. Our private sector sponsors and media partners such as Life! have also played an invaluable part in making science come alive.

19. Let me leave you with this thought. My generation has provided the foundation for the knowledge economy. You have the opportunity and the challenge to bring it to a higher level. Opportunities abound for you. You are limited only by the boundaries of your own imagination.