Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Education, Mr Chee Hong Tat

Distinguished Guests

Friends from our Aerospace Community

1. A very warm welcome to Seletar Aerospace Park. Before each edition of Singapore Airshow, JTC typically hosts an event to bring our companies and stakeholders together. We used to call this Aerospace Networking Night, but we have renamed it this year to Aerospace Community Engagement in recognition of the many partners and stakeholders that collaborate with us to support the growth of the aerospace sector and Seletar Aerospace Park.
   
   
2. I’m glad to see old friends joining us again this year, and also delighted to see new faces in our midst.

Launch of Industry Connect to build partnerships in technology adoption, talent development & environmental sustainability

1. At our last event in 2018, we launched the Aerospace Industry Transformation Map, or ITM, with the support of many of you here today. We have made good progress since.
   
   
2. Over the past two years, JTC has been partnering businesses, trade associations and Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) to support companies in our estates on Industry 4.0 and talent development initiatives. To date, more than 300 businesses in our estates have been engaged on technology adoption, and over 3,000 students have benefited from learning journeys, and project and internship opportunities in our estates. Together with the National Parks Board and the Garden City Fund, we have also brought together the industry community to contribute to the greening of our estates over the past year.
   
   
3. To encourage more collaborations and to help businesses grow, we have decided to consolidate all these efforts under a platform called Industry Connect. The platform will focus on building partnerships with business, government agencies and academia in three key areas – technology adoption, talent development and environmental sustainability. We hope that the platform can create an extra layer of value to our network of over 14,000 businesses across industries in 100 estates managed by JTC.

Talent initiatives under Industry Connect

1. Today, we will be launching a talent development initiative under Industry Connect together with the 5 Polytechnics, ITE, SSG, WSG, and NTUC’s e2i. Through this initiative, training and upskilling opportunities will be brought conveniently to companies in our estates. Companies will gain more familiarity and access to SkillsFuture initiatives and Professional Conversion Programmes (PCPs) programmes. In addition, students will be exposed to exciting manufacturing job opportunities through open houses, factory tours and industry talks, student internships, work-study programmes and industry projects.
   
   
2. We also need to thank our friends at Seletar Aerospace Park for showing the way. The Aerospace Day, which we launched in partnership with you in 2018, is a prime example of a talent initiative that we are driving at the estate-level. At Aerospace Day, companies and students interact through a day of facility visits, career exhibitions, workshops and activities; where JTC brings the whole aerospace community together to Seletar Aerospace Park to make this event happen. Following its successful inaugural run, Aerospace Day has become a signature event in the calendars of our IHLs, with over 1,800 students and 200 mid-career professionals benefiting thus far. With Industry Connect, this initiative will be scaled to more JTC estates to benefit more companies.
   
   
3. To affirm our commitment to these talent initiatives, JTC will be signing 2 MOUs today. The first will be signed with our IHLs, SSG, WSG and e2i. This will kick start our talent development initiative under Industry Connect. The second will be with the Association of Aerospace Industries (Singapore) (AAIS), the IHLs and e2i, to affirm our collaboration in talent outreach initiatives for the aerospace sector for another four years. This is a continuation of our collaboration that we started in 2018, which has seen a significant increase in the number of participating aerospace companies from 29 to 45.
   
   
4. As we continue to strengthen our manufacturing sector, I encourage more companies to embrace and partner us in these initiatives to help attract and upskill talent in the manufacturing sector.

Closing

1. I would like to express my appreciation to all of you for coming together to support the event today. In particular, I would like to thank SMS Chee Hong Tat, who has been a great champion for the many successful pilots that we have undertaken in the past two years that led the partnership with the polytechnics, ITE and agencies today.
   
   
2. As you mingle later, I hope you can also take time to enjoy your surroundings. As you are aware, we have been putting efforts into improving our estate environment to help you in your talent attraction and retention. We completed refurbishment of this area of The Oval not long ago, and this is the first time we are hosting our customer event in this new lawn. There will be new amenities at Seletar this year. Some of you would have met our upcoming pet boarding house operator, Paw Labb, at our Eco and Lifestyle Carnival in October last year. Today, we bring to you The Singapura Club. The Singapura Club has a heritage-style bistro at Haji Lane, and they will be opening their specialty aerospace-themed tea salon here at The Oval later this year. They have set up a booth at the back of this hall where you can find out more about its offerings. I am also delighted to share that the new Hampstead Wetlands Park that we are building down the road will be opened by the first quarter of this year, which will add to the biophilic environment for our community at Seletar Aerospace Park.
   
   
3. I hope you enjoy your time with us this afternoon. And to our aerospace companies, I wish you a very successful Singapore Airshow 2020. Thank you.