Opening Remarks at the Youth Panels Appreciation Dinner and Dialogue

1. Hello everyone!

Reflecting on the Youth Panels journey

2. I arrived early tonight and as I walked around, I saw many familiar faces and I could feel a palpable sense of camaraderie amongst you. Looking back on the past 15 months that we have been together, getting to know one another and navigating this learning process, I still remember a few sessions we had:

   1. We held one at Catapult, and another in Parliament where I gave you a short tour, and then we discussed some of the pressing issues that were on your mind.

3. While the outcomes from the Youth Panels are important, and you have come up with 11 recommendations, I think the journey has been even more valuable:

   1. The journey of making sure that your views are being heard, considered, and delivered to the public – I think that's critical.

   2. The journey of getting to know one another across different backgrounds, beliefs and faiths. Whether you are studying, in National Service, or already working, you are coming together and dealing with some of the critical issues of our time that are of interest and of importance to all of you.

4. That’s why we also made sure that beyond the 120 of you in the 4 panels, together we reached over 5,000 youths, including at the Youth Policy Forum with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong last August.

Where we are now

5. I want to now offer some points as food for thought.

6. We have four Youth Panel “hacks”. How can these “hacks” make a difference? Why do these four “hacks” matter especially in light of the current global situation?

7. As you have heard frequently, especially over the past weeks, the world order is changing. But what does that mean?

   1. I thought of an image: Suppose you took a basketball and bounced it as though you were going to shoot some hoops, and suddenly the rules of the game changed, and the court that you are playing on suddenly becomes a football pitch – the ball isn't going to bounce. Now, how is this relevant?

8. In today’s world, we tend to think that Singapore will continue to bounce back from whatever crisis that is occurring. But today, there is no guarantee that Singapore is going to bounce back, because the rules have changed:

   1. The rules regarding nation states, how they deal with each other, whether in the defence space, like what is happening with Ukraine, Russia, and the US.

   2. Or the world order with regards to trade – that has also changed. The rules-based order, which is important for small nation states like ours, has now been undermined.

9. What is the impact that it will have on us?

   1. For #JobHacks, focusing on exposure to Southeast Asia, if you think about the world in terms of the various groupings – ASEAN, Europe, Latin America, and so on – these groupings are being frayed. How do you then make sure that Singapore stays connected amid the fragmentation?

   2. For #LifeHacks, which looks at financial literacy and making sure that people have enough emergency funds, if the ball doesn’t bounce back, increasingly, nation states will have weaker fiscal balance sheets. Because with trade uncertainty, businesses will start to take a couple of steps back and reduce their investments. The possibility of at least a technical recession is very real, and the fiscal strength of nations will be impacted.

   3. For #GreenHacks, the withdrawal of the US from the Paris Climate Agreement impacted what the world was trying to do in climate change. Countries with net zero targets may reduce their commitments to support their economies.

   4. And for #TechHacks, as many of you know, the technology space is becoming more fragmented. And this is not the time to be fragmented because technology represents important social commons. If we do not steward regulations together on privacy, online safety, and AI, different countries or blocs will have different rules. And you already see the issues surrounding social media and the impact that it can have on democratic processes, misinformation, and authenticity.

Where we are headed

10. So, the issues that all four panels looked at are affected. Having laid out the court and the gameplay, what can Singapore do, as a small island city of just 750 square kilometres?

11. Some people say that if you're small, you cannot have a foreign policy, or that small states don't have agency – we are just price takers.

12. But Singapore has agency. We can do something, and we must do something.

    1. Globally, we have been in talks with our counterparts in the United States, Europe, and ASEAN, and we also have an existing array of 27 free trade agreements, such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and Pacific Alliance-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (PASFTA). These help us connect to the world, even if the world does not connect.

    2. We must have agency to lead on issues like AI governance and climate. For example, Singapore’s work on the ASEAN Taxonomy for sustainable finance helps structure guidelines for climate-related investments, which can help strengthen ASEAN’s approach to trade.

13. We also have agency domestically.

    1. First, we convened the Singapore Economic Resilience Taskforce just yesterday that involves businesses and unions, to understand how the global shifts are impacting them and how they need to be supported, so that they can continue to operate and do business with likeminded jurisdictions and countries. That is the budget supporting our businesses in this period of uncertainty.

    2. The budget also looks after our households, like what the #LifeHacks Starter Savings Plan recommendation is about. In a period of uncertainty, people may lose their jobs, how then can we better support them, especially lower-income families? Our ability to support households comes from our fiscal strength, bequeathed to us by previous generations. Now it's up to us to steward it in the storm we are heading into.

Conclusion

14. This work that you all are doing is important, and it doesn't stop here. MCCY and the National Youth Council (NYC) have a series of youth engagements under SG60 this year. I hope that as pioneers of the Youth Panels, you will work together with us to change the ground so Singapore can bounce back up in this period of uncertainty.

15. In addition to our youths, I would like to thank our agency colleagues who have supported the Youth Panels throughout these 15 months.

16. Thank you very much for all your contributions!