Transcription
This year's MTI economic dialogue is taking place against a backdrop of heightened uncertainties in the global economy. Since Liberation Day, I'm sure you know what Liberation Day is. If you don't know, you can always Google or ChatGBT or find out more. Since Celebration Day, the US has made deals with its key trading partners such as the EU, Japan, and South Korea and implemented reciprocal tariffs on those without a deal. It has also extended its truce with China. However, there are still significant uncertainties. Negotiations with China, India, and Switzerland are still ongoing. Details on how the deals will be implemented remain unclear and, in fact, we have already seen a number of conflicting interpretations emerge.
The US has hinted that further sectoral tariffs, such as on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, are imminent. The effects of the tariffs will take time to flow through our supply chains, and we can expect these costs to exert margin and price pressures in time to come. This will impact both consumer and corporate spending and slow down growth in the global economy. We must also watch out for the next order effects of the tariffs. Countries impacted by the tariffs may adjust their trade and investments with other economic partners. Let me just give you an example. If a country has now decided to buy more agricultural products such as rice or soybeans from the US, it may then decide to buy less from its other trading partners. One of our neighboring countries has already decided that it's going to buy more oil from the US and therefore less from Singapore, quite explicitly.
Countries which have pledged investment commitments in the US may also decide to scale back investments in other parts of the world, including in Singapore. Companies are also likely to re-evaluate their long-term plans in response to these new tariffs. For example, companies may decide to restructure their production and supply chains to take advantage of the lower tariff levels imposed on certain markets for the exports to the US. Companies may also decide to diversify their market and supply chains.
Earlier this year, we formed the Singapore Economic Resilience Task Force, SERTF, to help Singapore navigate the near-term uncertainties and to chart our way forward in the new economic landscape. Our focus at the start was to strengthen our collective sense-making of the tariff, uh, uh, developments, as well as to help our businesses and our workers manage the immediate impact of the US tariffs. Last month, we announced that we will introduce the Business Adaptation Grant that will be rolled out next month to help businesses adjust to this new landscape. Last week, we announced that we will roll out the Graduate Industry Training Ship Program, or GRIT, from October to help fresh graduates gain industry-relevant experience and skills, which will facilitate their transition into full-time employment eventually.
Even as we manage the immediate uncertainties, we also need to position Singapore well for the new economic landscape. This is why we recently convened an Economic Strategy Review under SERTF to develop a forward-looking economic blueprint for Singapore, with five committees formed. The first one is to strengthen Singapore's global competitiveness. The second one, to leverage technology and innovation. The third, to nurture our entrepreneurship. The fourth committee, to enhance human capital. The last committee, to manage the impact of the restructuring process. The ESR will study how we can navigate structural shifts so that Singapore can continue to strive and stay relevant in the future economic landscape.
One such shift is in technology, such as AI. The acceleration of developments in AI, combined with automation and robotics, will reshape industries and jobs. We must encourage our companies to invest in practical AI solutions that will help them raise their productivity, accelerate time to market, and drive the creation of new value-added products and services. At the same time, we must proactively identify job roles that will be affected by AI so that we can target our upskilling and reskilling interventions to help our workers move into high-value jobs enabled by AI. And most importantly, we want to transform both enterprises and workforce in a complementary way so that AI becomes a tool for enhancement and not displacement of labor.
As we grow our economy, we must ensure that benefits and opportunities are shared. Otherwise, economic progress may become divisive instead of inclusive. This is especially so if our society becomes more stratified and less mobile, which may not only entrench the disadvantages faced by the less well-off but also entrench the advantages faced by the more well-to-do. I spoke earlier about our efforts to reskill and upskill our workers in AI. More broadly, we have been renewing and refreshing our efforts at skills upgrading to help our people stay relevant to the changing demands of businesses and industries. Last year, we enhanced SkillsFuture with a Level Up program to encourage and support Singaporeans to undertake a significant skills reboot in the middle of their careers. By doing so, we want our people to be equipped with the skills to take advantage of the opportunities in new industries and new jobs in the future economy. This will, in turn, enable them to benefit from economic development, achieve real wage growth, and raise their standards of living.
At the same time, we must pay attention to segments within our population who are at greater risk of being left behind. These include PME roles that may be replaced by AI and rank-and-file workers in sectors that are undergoing restructuring. This is why we introduced the SkillsFuture Job Seekers Support Scheme earlier this year to provide temporary financial support for individuals who may be involuntarily unemployed. However, with greater volatility in the economic landscape ahead, we are studying the need for broader system-level support to help them bounce back into gainful employment.
As we chart the next chapter of Singapore's economic transformation, our economists play a vital role by providing policymakers with rigorous evidence-based analysis and policy insights through their analysis of structural changes in the global economy, such as the shift in investment and trade flows that I mentioned earlier. Economists help us stay ahead of these shifts so that we can position ourselves early and move fast when the opportunity arises. The work of economists also helps policymakers to identify areas of opportunity and guide the design of our policies and programs to allow us to seize these opportunities. And these, in turn, can help us design more targeted interventions in our industry development, enterprise transformation, and workforce reskilling by evaluating the impact of policies and programs. Economists also help policymakers understand the real-world impact of their policies and decisions and guide them in calibrating their measures to achieve the right outcome. For example, economists have studied the effectiveness of capacity-building programs such as IMDA's "Go Digital" program, as well as programs that were implemented during recessions, such as the Job Support Scheme and the Job Growth Initiative Scheme. The findings of such evaluations have helped policymakers refine our programs to better support firms and workers and achieve better outcomes.
Today, I'm pleased to present the Economist Service Scholarship and Academic Awards to our budding economists. To all the recipients, my heartiest congratulations to you on your achievements, and I look forward to your contributions to the Singapore economy in time to come. This year, we celebrate SG60. We should take heart in how far we have come and the strong foundation we have built. Indeed, for a small country with no natural resources to achieve the economic success we have today is truly no mean feat amidst a most uncertain, volatile, and even disruptive world ahead of us. Let us continue to be bold and stay nimble so that we can overcome the challenges and seize the opportunities ahead of us to grow our economy. And while we push for economic growth, we must continue to strengthen our society, stay united, and work together so that we can build a stronger, more dynamic, and more resilient Singapore. Thank you.
Hi. Um, I'm, my name is Wilson, and I'm from Nanyang Junior College. So I have a question about the the AI replacing jobs and the declining population. So earlier you mentioned that with AI and robotics and automation, a lot of jobs are being replaced, and so I understand that this will cause more unemployment. But at the same time, since the population is declining, there is a less overall labor force. So with AI replacing jobs and humans needing less jobs, with less humans in Singapore, would you say that we are currently facing a problem or a perfect situation?
Well, in neither. Let me explain to you. Maybe you want to sit down. Uh, I think, um, technology is like what we've done with, uh, computerization. I think, uh, maybe you have not seen the world without computers. Uh, maybe two or three decades ago, when computers were first introduced, uh, many people were worried that computers will replace workers. Yeah. In fact, computerization has replaced many jobs. Uh, in the good old days, during my time, we have this job called a typist. Their job is just to type. And in my, in my days, when I was a young officer, we have this thing called a typewriter. And the typewriter eventually evolved into a word processor. Well, that's a marvelous invention because with a typewriter, every time you type wrongly, you got to blink, you got to change, and, uh, life was very difficult. And when computers came about, it makes a typist's job very easy. So they were all welcomed. But over time, beyond the word processor, now you have a computer, now you have email, now everybody types themselves. So, typist job is no longer, uh, uh, available. So no longer relevant. So there are many typists who no longer have the job. But then we upgrade them. We prepare them for the future. So that instead of just typing, they now go into other work that is associated with computerization. They can contribute, uh, to the work, to the, uh, um, production of administration jobs and production jobs. So I think the idea is to, the job may change, but we need to continue to upgrade our people so that they can continue to be adaptable, to be able to fill the new jobs that we created. This way, then you may lose the jobs, but you don't lose the worker, provided you are able to continue to upgrade them.
But there's also the concern that some of the workers may not be suitable for the job. Then you have to then create new jobs that suit these new, uh, these workers. So I think it's a, it's a skills issue. It's a matching issue. You will create more jobs. Uh, computerization and AI will create new jobs. But the new jobs may not be those that existing workers are able to do. And the only way to bridge that gap, or one way to bridge the gap, is really through skills training and upgrading so that the workers who are doing today, doing jobs that are replaced by AI, they can be upgraded so that they can do the jobs that are enabled by AI. So this way, then we minimize dislocation of workers. So even if jobs are being changed through AI, we upgrade the workers so that they can continue to progress together with progress in technology. So if you don't succeed in doing so, then you would have an unemployment problem. So it's not a perfect solution. It's not a perfect match, but we need to continue to work very hard to do the matching so as to minimize the disruption to the employment. Sorry, it's very complicated, but you have gone through the computerization process, you understand the anxiety and how eventually it worked out. It's important for us to continue to work on the workers' upgrading and training.
Hi, good afternoon, DPM Gan. My name is Shamine, and I'm from Yunoya Junior College. I would like to ask a question about the role of ground-up communities in implementing economic policies because just now you mentioned that, you know, for Singapore to continue to thrive, we have to be united. And I was wondering how exactly, like, the sense of togetherness and being united will lead to actual outcomes. Thank you.
I think businesses are always ground up because, uh, you're doing business, it cannot be top-down from the government and say, you must do this business, you must do that business, and you must go and, uh, open a hawker center, and you must go there and start an engineering firm. We can't do that because the government will lay down the policies, will create the environment that is conducive, uh, to businesses, to enterprises, um, to, uh, industrialization. And we may have policies to support some specific sectors that are critical to us. But to do the business, it must be the businessmen. Must be ground up from, uh, business entrepreneurs who have a vision of new businesses they want to create. That's how they start. And many, uh, um, JCs and polytechnics and universities do have an entrepreneur club, entrepreneurship club of some sort to encourage their students to try out in running businesses, whether you run a small shop or store in a school canteen or or compound, to to try your hand, to understand what doing business is all about, what are the challenges, and what are the, uh, issues, and how do you find solutions, how do you marshal resources, and so on. So I think there are opportunities for students to do, uh, this, uh, to try their hand at developing enterprises and be part of the economy. And for, uh, for the community ground-up, uh, uh, initiative to make sure that we stay united. This will include many of the community events that we organize and we engage in to bring residents together so that they get to know one another and they also care for one another so that we have a family spirit that when one of us are in trouble, having difficulty, all of us come together to see how we can help one another. So there are many ways that we can do. One way is to have a regional or localized job matching services. There will be many enterprises, small enterprises, um, local enterprises in the community. They're looking for workers, looking for, uh, for employees, and there are many residents who are also looking for jobs that are nearby so that they don't have to travel long distances. And providing job matching at the local level will provide that opportunity for the businesses and the, uh, potential residents to come together and to work out something. So I think these are things that we can do. And we are, we also have local initiatives that started up social enterprises that provide employment opportunities for some of the, uh, more vulnerable residents in the community. So many of these are possibilities.
Where do you stay, by the way? Amoy? Amokio? Very good. Can you, uh, start some initiative? Think about what you can do in the Amokio community and to see how you can reach out for those that are more vulnerable. Whether you want to help those that have special needs, or look out for those who are lower income, or those who are temporarily displaced out of a job, find opportunities to work with them. So you can talk to your, uh, community organization or the CDC, our Community Development Council in in Amokio, and see how we can work together to initiate some of the community initiatives.
Which school are you from? Yunoya Junior College. Yunoya Junior College. Your teachers here? I think a few of them are here. Oh, very good. So you can, uh, maybe think of initiating some of these ideas and, uh, you can write to me if you want, so I can lend you some support to start some of these initiatives. I think it's a good experience to be able to do something in a community and make a mark and contribute to community development. Thank you.
So my name is Friend, and I'm from NUS Economics. So I will ask you two short questions about youth and career. So first question is, many young people nowadays are very concerned whether their university degrees will still remain relevant in a fast-changing society. So what are some advice we can give to youth about choosing skills and careers that will stay still viable in the next 20 years? The second question is about yourself. So basically, I noticed you actually studied engineering in university. So now we are in an economic discussion. So actually, I'm taking economics and engineering, two degrees. Yeah. So I just want to ask, as a youth also studying this, I'm very curious, what are some skills and knowledge you have, thinking about from your engineering background, that can help you to better in your current role in governance and economics?
Let me just, uh, address your first question, um, uh, whether the skills, the degree that you have, will be relevant in 20, 30 years' time. The answer is, that's actually the wrong question. Uh, the question should be, how do you stay relevant over the next 20, 30 years? A degree is a part of the process to equip you, to make you relevant, uh, uh, for the job, for the, for the economy that's emerging, right? So I think, therefore, if you have that mentality, then you realize that it's not the degree that really matters, it is your ability to continue to acquire skills, to acquire knowledge, and that is most important. And the degree actually helps to equip you to so that you have the necessary skills to be able to continue to acquire new skills and knowledge. So I think, therefore, the answer really is, you need to continue to upgrade yourself. Getting a degree is not the end of the story, and you need to continue to upgrade, continue to stay relevant, continue to understand where the economy is going, and continue to upgrade and and and acquire new skills. And that is why we have this SkillsFuture Level Up program that is only available for those who are 40 and above. The idea is that by the time you reach 40, you actually need a major reboot in your skill sets, and therefore this scheme will allow you to go back to school to acquire new sets of skills, change your career pathway, and have a new environment, basically getting a new qualification, not necessarily a paper qualification, but it's important to have this structured learning as part and parcel of your career plan, and not just by the way, I have time, I go, I don't have time, I don't have to go for this training. It's actually part and parcel of your learning process. And if you truly believe in lifelong learning, and this is it, SkillsFuture Level Up, so I hope you will continue to stay relevant by acquiring new skills. Don't depend on the degree that you have at this point in time, because in 20, 30 years' time, you will need new skills and new understanding and new knowledge.
And you ask me, um, between economics and engineering, and you are better than me. You got two degrees. But I must also say that increasingly, the world is going to be more complicated, and it's very hard now, even in the university, you find it's very difficult to have clear faculties. Many of the faculties are actually cross-disciplinary. You study engineering, you need to understand a little bit of finance, a little bit of economics, so that in engineering, it's not just about finding the solution, but you need to find the most cost-effective engineering solution that involves finance, economics, and many other factors. And even if you are an engineer in the department, maintenance department, you still also need to understand how to manage human capital, how to maximize human capital potential, how to do HR management, and all this. So I think it's going to be multidisciplinary. Those who are in economics, in finance, must also understand a little bit of basic engineering and science so that you understand the new technologies that are emerging. How do you assess the economic potential of some of these new technologies? So you will need to understand a bit of technology, a bit of engineering, and a little bit of everything. So I think you, you have to take your training in a university as a basic training that will equip you better so that you are able to absorb and acquire more knowledge and skills as you go through your life journey. So I think if you look at it from that perspective, uh, uh, you will be successful and you will be able to stay relevant for many more years to come. Thank you very much.
Great. Next question. Um, hello, my name is Sebastian. I'm an exchange student here at SMU. Uh, you mentioned the risk of rising inequality as a byproduct of becoming a more developed economy, which is certainly a problem where I'm from in the UK. And also the importance of Singapore's response times to global economic changes. So my question is, how can Singapore balance policies that reduce inequality with maintaining corporate flexibility in the face of economic uncertainty in the world?
One of the key strategies, one of the key levels of, um, um, equality, one of the strategies to narrow the inequality really is what I said, training and upgrading. Because if you are able to give them skills, it's like, you know, the old saying, you must teach him how to fish rather than give him a fish. So I think, uh, through skills training and upgrading, we are helping everybody to be able to level up, to keep the, uh, inequality as narrow as possible, to give opportunity to everyone so that they have a chance to upgrade themselves, to tap on the new opportunities that will emerge. And this way, we'll continue to allow everyone to be able to progress and keep the, uh, uh, um, people together, united. And this way, I think we'll be able to make much more progress than otherwise. Okay.
Good afternoon, DPM Gan, and Mr. Professor. Uh, I'm a student from Hong Institution. In your speech, you previously emphasized the international challenges posed by rising geopolitical tensions, from increasing isolationism to the weakening of global institutions like NATO. My question relates to a critical issue for Singapore locally, foreign talent. Given our aging population and low replacement rates, how does Singapore balance the need to continue attracting foreign talent with the risk of social stratification and political tensions within our society? Thank you.
Thank you. I think it's quite related to what I mentioned earlier. Uh, we do have our constraints in terms of our population growth, and we need to continue to keep Singapore open, open to investments, open to trade with, uh, the rest of the world, open to talent, open to ideas, open to people who are able to bring us, uh, the network, the investments, innovation, and connectivity. So I think many of these are very important to us to keep Singapore open. But at the same time, it is important for us to always focus on developing our own people as well, growing our own timber, growing our own enterprises, and developing our own talent. So that's why I mentioned the Singapore government invests heavily in our education to prepare our young for the future. We have one of the best schools, one of the best syllabi, and many countries are learning from us on our education system. We make sure that we have the best trained teachers and the strongest school leaders that are able to lead our schools and our training and education institutions. SMU here, you are here today, is one of the well-renowned institutions of education. So I think these are the investments that we put into to allow us to develop our talent. We are at the same time also focusing on, uh, um, adult education and training. As I mentioned, I think SkillsFuture recognizes that your education in the early years, education in the first phase, is not adequate to last your lifespan. And therefore, you need a major reboot of your skills and knowledge halfway through your career, 40, 50 years old at that range. So I think, therefore, we continue to invest in training and upgrading of our local talent, even with, uh, um, the, uh, foreign investments that are coming to Singapore, and the MNCs who are operating in Singapore. We are also working with them to see how they can invest in training and upgrading our local workforce because the companies, these international companies, don't come to Singapore for the benefit of international talent. Because they come to Singapore because of the, as I mentioned, one of the key competitive advantages we have is a highly efficient, nimble workforce, an adaptable workforce that we have, and that is our value proposition. And in order for us to continue to, uh, uh, make that a value proposition, we need to continue to make sure that our workforce remain nimble, remains adaptable, and remains high quality. And that is done through education and upgrading. And therefore, we also work with our international companies who are here to see how we can continue to develop and nurture our own talent and workforce.
One particular area that we are very keen to see how we can give it an extra push is to develop regional, if not global leaders who are Singaporeans. Um, because if you look around, many of the MNCs, whether it's in Singapore or globally, those who are at the senior management level tend to have global exposure. They have been working overseas before, they're working in the region before, or they're working in the international environment before. This will give them the knowledge and the skills to be able to handle multinational business segments. And in order for you to become senior management in these MNCs, it's important for our managers to have this international exposure. And that's why I think last year we introduced the idea of a Global Leadership Program to develop Singaporean senior managers who have international exposure. So we are also working with these MNCs to see to identify some of the promising local Singaporean managers and send them overseas to their subsidiaries, to their social companies globally, so that they have this international exposure. When they come back, then they become a much more well-rounded, exposed, uh, uh, leaders, so they can then lead the organization at a different level. And even if they don't come back, they stay overseas, they become regional directors or heads of regional operations in the overseas operations, that will also be a very good opportunity for development of our, uh, uh, uh, local talent. So there, that's why, therefore, we focus a lot on developing our local talent in conjunction with many of these enterprises to hope to develop local leadership as well. So I think we keep ourselves open, but at the same time, we must continue to invest heavily in developing our own. Thank you.
Good afternoon, Deputy Prime Minister Gan. Um, my name is Jonathan. I'm from right here at SMU. I'm a social science student. So, actually, I've got two questions. One to do with trade, and the other to do with industry. So, the first question to do with trade is, you spent a lot of time this year in the US and around the world talking to your fellow, you know, leaders in trade industry around the world. And you've also talked about how we need, we are looking to the WTO possibly to help, you know, establish a much more structured and stable and principled way of promoting free trade in the world. And the WTO has been frozen in the previous rounds, have been frozen since the early 2000s, and, you know, the recent Trump tariffs have further weakened the WTO, most definitively. So what vision have you seen emerge, both from a Singapore perspective and from other countries, on how we can change the WTO to bring the US back in to promote free trade once again? The second question is, you were saying that you were looking towards a 3 to 4% growth rate, you were, and that we need to find ways to promote that. In the past, Singapore has achieved that through dramatic economic transformation, very successful economic transformation from decade to decade. What kind of economic transition are we looking towards, and how, and the demands that is going to put on our workforce to constantly upskill? How is Singapore going to help young people address the stresses of that?
I think a very good question. Um, uh, first, on the multilateral organization, the WTO continues to play a very important part. You may notice that the US has not withdrawn from the WTO, and that this is because the US also hopes to be able to make the WTO work. But you have to also understand that the world has changed, as I mentioned, it's a new world. The, uh, multilateral free trade that we have been used to may no longer be viable, and they will need to find a way to adapt the, um, free trade that we are used to to a new way of trading with one another. What it means is also that we have to find a way to make sure that it is fair to everyone and everyone benefits from the trade, um, because if it is, uh, um, u, uneven, it's not likely to be sustainable over the long term. So it will be a period of adjustment, a period of restructuring, a period of, um, um, reorganization, and see how we can work together. And it's also possible that we are beginning to think about whether, rather than, um, uh, uh, an organization that everyone is involved, whether even within the WTO, we can have a different structure, different architecture that will be more adaptable, more flexible, and more nimble, that we can move faster.
One example is what we call a Joint Statement Initiative, JSI. Never mind what it means, there's a historical reason why it's called JSI. But JSI is an initiative that we bring like-minded countries together on specific issues that we share the same idea, we share the same ambition, we share the same interest, and we want to move forward together, but not the whole world will agree. Right? So maybe a majority, 70, 80, or 90% of the, uh, members are aligned, but today, under the WTO rules, you need everyone to agree before you are able to embark on it. This JSI allows us to come together to discuss what we want to do together, and without the need to have everyone to agree. But there's one criteria, and that is you have to keep it open to anyone who wants to join, for as long as they follow the same rules, believe in the same thing, they can join into this initiative. And I give you an example, we have a JSI on e-commerce. And because e-commerce is emerging, and in recent years there's a lot of interest in how do we come together to make sure there's interoperability, there are rules governing e-commerce so that there are, uh, uh, uh, ethical, uh, uh, practices, and there are, uh, certain restrictions on introduction of customs duties and so on, to prevent obstacles being put in place for e-commerce activities. So we want to promote and encourage the development of e-commerce and digitalization standards and so on. So those are prescribed under the JSI on e-commerce, and today there are 70, 80 countries who have agreed, and we come together, and Singapore is one of them. And we hope that among these countries who agree, we can move forward with regard to e-commerce, and without the need to have everyone agree on e-commerce, but we keep it open. Any countries who are prepared to follow the same structure and rules, they can join us, and we can move forward. So these are new, um, uh, architectures that will allow us to do so.
And I mentioned, uh, uh, earlier on, on the CPTPP, and together with the GCC, Gulf Cooperation Council, and we are also thinking of how we can work together between ASEAN and GCC. We are also thinking about how we can come together, and not necessarily to have a free trade agreement. That's one possibility, but it may not be necessary. It may be a collaboration on specific areas. Digital economy is one area, for example. So there are different architectures that are being evolved to provide new platforms for collaboration between countries, between regions, between economic groupings. So this will give us more opportunities to cooperate, even in this, uh, uh, volatile environment. I think this will create more opportunities for many of us. For young people like you, uh, uh, you should focus on how to keep tab on the development, to keep a watching brief, understand how the world is evolving, understand the dynamics, and always keep yourself abreast with the technology, and the opportunities will come our way. And the government's job really is to find ways to share with you some of these opportunities and provide, uh, um, uh, facilities that will be able to support your learning and your upskilling so that you can always stay relevant, stay ahead of your competition, and this way you will continue to do well for many more years to come. So I think this is how we can work together between our younger generation and the government to continue to see to provide opportunity for you to stay abreast with the development and always have the opportunity to be able to seize the job opportunities that will come our way.
I'm Ryan Vika from Innova Junior College, and I will say that it's a pleasure to be here today to ask you this question, which is rather simple. These days, many young people do not want to follow the usual office or corporate path. Instead, they hope for a more peaceful life, one that's closer to nature. So, uncertain and un, so uncertain and fast-changing. How can Minister you support people who would like to live and work in different ways like this?
I think each one, young people, uh, even old people, it's the same. Every one of us have a different, um, aspirations. We have different objectives in life. We have different targets in our life. And each of us will also follow a different, somewhat different pathway. Some may want to be a writer, some may want to be a musician, some may want to be a scientist, some may want to be a fireman. When I was young, I wanted to be a fireman. And, uh, some want to be astronauts. When I grew up a little bit older, I wanted to be an astronaut. And, well, some want to be a teacher. I've always wanted to be a teacher. And I still want to be a teacher. And I hope one day I'll have a chance to teach. Uh, and I hope SMU gives me an opportunity at some point to teach the young people. So I think our, our ambition, our sort of aspiration, each of us will be different. And in fact, throughout our life, our aspiration may also change as time goes on. The, the, uh, it's very difficult for the government to tell you what your ambition should be, what your aspirations should be, because everyone is made differently. And what the government can do is really to provide opportunities for you to excel in whichever way that you think will suit your ambition and your aspiration. So I think it's something that we will continue to work with young people and the old people alike to see how we can work together to provide opportunities for you to maximize your potential in the areas that are of interest to you. So, so I think that's the best way I can describe our partnership between the government and and the people to provide opportunity for you to realize your ambition, your vision, your aspiration, uh, uh, to the maximum of your potential. Thank you.
Thank you. [Music]