Speech by Minister Chan Chun Sing at the Inaugural Ideas Festival Launch Event

1A very good morning to all of you.

2I am particularly happy to be here today, because, as Mr Peter Ho has said, this is the first time we have gathered the social science research community together.

3It is a significant milestone not just for the research community, but also for Singapore when we gather researchers and the practitioners together. It is a unique combination, and not a run-of-the-mill academic conference.

4Today, through this conference, I hope to see researchers and practitioners, including many from the Government, coming together to look at the common issues we face, facilitate an exchange of knowledge and come up, as a team, with new ideas and approaches on how we look at issues and how we find solutions.

5So on that note, I must first congratulate the organisers who have been working very hard behind the scenes to bring to life the Ideas Festival. Thank you so much for establishing this milestone for Singapore.

6I would like to share three points with everyone here this morning. My first point is that academics form quite the small community, whether in Singapore or in the world, and we would do well to remember to always collaborate, collaborate, and collaborate.

7The strength of our community is not determined by our size, but rather by our ideas, our ambitions and our networks. This is why I always encourage the universities, particularly in social science, to come together as a community and work collaboratively. We must always remind ourselves that our competition lies not amongst our peers, because our biggest challenge is to take Singapore forward, to compete with good ideas and to be a leading beacon for the rest of the world.

8Our competition is not within but rather, beyond Singapore, and these challenges are beyond what any one particular institution can overcome.

9So, my first point is to remind everyone to keep collaborating so that we keep coming up with good ideas. These collaborations must go beyond just the academic community to include the practitioners, including many in Government agencies.

10My second point is that we must never be constrained by the size of our community. We must be bold in the way we look at how we do our research, how we come up with solutions, how we define problems and so forth.

11Let me just take a leaf from our own history. Singapore may be small, but this has never hindered us from coming up with new and innovative solutions to our own challenges. We have not only done well for ourselves, but we have become interesting case studies for the rest of the world.

12While we consciously and expeditiously learn from others, we never shy away from inventing our own solutions. What are some of these examples that we can think about?

13For example, how we run our HDB system with the CPF system is unique. We built up our public housing program - that combines not just financial planning at both the individual and the macro level - but determines how we build communities.

14This comprises not just the hardware of the buildings that are being built by HDB but also a lot of the software. For instance, policies like the ethnic integration policy - people looked at this policy with bewilderment when it was first introduced, but it has now become a case study on how one might create communities that, regardless of race, language, or religion, transcend the enclaves that many cities are stuck with.

15What about other social policy innovations? From how we manage our road pricing, our public transport system, how we build a sense of identity in our schools, to how we help our people to keep pace with the rapid changes in technology and business models through SkillsFuture.

16If we think back on our own history, there are more than sufficient examples to say that we have never been shy from taking the bull by the horns and asking ourselves, how do we look at this problem afresh? How do we come up with solutions? We study how others have resolved similar issues, but we do not just copy these solutions in an unthinking manner without consciously asking ourselves if it is applicable to us, whether is it unemployment insurance, minimum wages, and so on.

17We must be able and be prepared to come up with our own innovations, whether it is the progressive wage model or the retraining allowance. So, we need to continuously find breakthroughs in our own model for our own challenges.

18This is where the Social Science and Humanities Research community comes in. Our job is not just to study what people have done and copy them. Our job is to study what we need and what others have done and to come up with new solutions that can even inspire the world. Both challenges and opportunities are out there. I look forward to you inspiring us with a new generation of policy innovations and solutions.

19I come to my third point, which I have spoken with many of you in the social science community about before. I know that many researchers feel hard pressed because though you do so much good work, it is hard for you to get published in world renowned journals as many people think that Singapore is some little place somewhere in Asia whose solutions may not be applicable to others. But that is the furthest from the truth; The power of our ideas can transcend our size and that is what we must aspire to do.

20I have discussed this with the university leadership and with the public service; if you do good research and come up with good solutions, even if you don't get published, you will be recognised. You will be recognised because you have helped us to advance Singapore's agenda, because you have helped us to bring about better solutions for quality of life for fellow Singaporeans. This is what we are committed to do.

21So I want to assure all the social science researchers here today. The benchmark of your success will not just be about whether your work is published in renowned journals. Of course, if you can do that, it's a bonus. But even if you cannot do that, Singapore, within our own ecosystem in the universities and the public service, will recognise you.

22In order for us to do substantive work and distinguish our social science research community from any other communities across the world, we must be able to marry our researchers with our practitioners because it will give us tremendous advantage. If any country in the world can get this done, it must be us. If we come together, we'll be able to recognise each other's work, respect each other's work, and this will in turn transcend what many other countries that are bigger, and with more resources can do.

23So this is what I promise you, and this is what I hope that you'll keep striving towards; your aim is not just to publish, but to bring about tangible benefits to the Singapore community. If we can do that, as a living testimony of what we can do with social science research, then you will inspire many more to come and join us, and it will also inspire others to look at the solutions unique to Singapore, challenge us, cross-pollinate ideas with us and help us to improve even more.

24So those are the three simple messages I have for you today.

25First, always remember, collaborate, collaborate, and collaborate. The competition and challenges are not within, but rather, beyond Singapore.

26Second, never be hindered or constrained by the size of our community. Instead, be inspired by the size of our challenges and what we can achieve coming up with our own innovative solutions for the good of Singapore.

27Third, never look at recognition for your work just in terms of publications, but in terms of how you can translate your research into tangible outcomes for the good of Singaporeans. That is the uniquely Singaporean way of how we approach the development of our social science research community.

28You can be rest assured that the Ministry of Education and the Government will continue to support everyone doing good work for Singapore and Singaporeans.

28I hope many of you will come together not just amongst yourself in academia, but also together with the practitioners. Look at the big challenges coming our way, define those challenges and ask ourselves how we can work collaboratively to bring up new solutions.

29There are many challenges, on how our population is aging, to the advent of AI and new technologies that will continue to disrupt our social system. How do we build an identity in a world where we are constantly subject to the larger forces, larger civilisational forces beyond us that threatens to pull us apart? How do we build a uniquely Singaporean sense of identity upon all these other identities that we are also proud of? Many challenges lie ahead of us, but with it comes many opportunities.

30On that note, thank you very much and I wish you all the very best in your journey and for the success of the Ideas Festival. Thank you.

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