“There is need to continuously adopt new skill sets. These include building digital capabilities, designing policies and services from the people’s perspective, and coming up with whole-of-Government solutions,” said Minister-in-charge of Public Service Chan Chun Sing while addressing a gathering of public servants and other attendees.
Speaking during the Public-Sector Transformation Awards ceremony, the Minister said new programmes to help upgrade the digital literacy of public servants will be rolled out over time.
During the ceremony, 400 awards were given out to individuals and teams in recognition of their excellent service and innovation.
Stressing on the importance of collaboration both within and across agencies, as well as with society, the Minister said, “Collaboration starts from the basic premise that we have the humility to admit and accept that we can’t do it alone, and we do not always have the best ideas within our agencies.”
“It may sound daunting that we have all these new things to do, but we do not need to be afraid. If we can do these things progressively, module by module, and expose our officers to these new skills, I’m quite confident that we will continue to remain at the forefront,” he added.
Addressing a crowd of about 900 attendees, including public service officers, Chan said, “We have reached a high level and are respected throughout the world for many of the things we do, but we are never satisfied just because of where we are. We know that many other cities are trying to copy what we do, and perhaps even overtake us. And this is why we can never be complacent about being the best.”
Emphasising that the welfare of the people should be at the centre of the mindset of public officers, Chan said, “The people are at the centre of all that we do. This is the mindset that encourages me a lot when I see the public service in action because it tells us that we have the correct people with the correct values.”
During the Public-Sector Transformation Awards ceremony, the winner of the Distinguished ExCEL Innovation Project Award was given to Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) for designing the Distributed Multi-Nodal Air Traffic Flow Management Network project, which helps to ease air traffic congestion and enhance the travelling experience for passengers.
The team at Police Coast Guard developed the Unmanned Surface Vessel technology to patrol Singapore waters autonomously. This team won the ExCEL Innovation Project Award.