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Speech at Opening Ceremony of MTU Asia Tukang Facility

Mr Lim Swee Say, Minister for Manpower, MTU Asia Tukang Facility

Skills, training and development

Lawrie Haynes
President, Land & Sea, Rolls-Royce

Jonathan Asherson
Regional Director, ASEAN & Pacific, Rolls-Royce

Ms Doris Schlieszeit
Managing Director and CFO, MTU Asia

Guests

  1. Congratulations to Rolls-Royce and MTU Asia on the opening of this beautiful and impressive facility here at Tukang.
  2. This facility will serve as MTU’s Asia-Pacific headquarters and bring together all business functions of MTU Asia under one roof, including HQ and innovation-related functions.
  3. As you know, Singapore is transforming its economic growth model, from one that is more driven by being manpower-led to one that is more manpower-lean.
  4. We believe that by pursuing better quality investments and jobs, and nurturing a better quality workforce, we will have a better foundation to sustain healthy economic growth even as our workforce growth continues to slow in the medium to long term.
  5. To succeed, we need to do three things right:
    • First, create better jobs for the future.
    • Second, equip our people with new and better skills for the future.
    • Third, maximise the matching of job demands with skills supply. This will better meet the needs of businesses and also create better career opportunities for our people.
  6. In Singapore, we believe that economic development should be a means to an end. It is something that will help ensure Singaporeans can have a better quality of life. In other words, we are a government that is pro-people. And we have a labour movement that is pro-worker, but also recognises that the best way to be pro-worker and to be pro-people, is to be pro-business and pro-growth.
  7. Without growth, we cannot take care of our people. Without businesses, we cannot take care of our workers. So therefore, pro-business and pro-worker, pro-people and pro-growth, they are two sides of the same coin. They are not in conflict with each other.
  8. This new facility of MTU Asia is very much aligned to our pro-business commitment to businesses and our pro-worker commitment to our people.
  9. Why do I say so? First, better investment, better jobs.
    • MTU Asia has grown from a small parts logistics operation with seven people some 40 years ago, to a repair centre, and now a highly technical facility with about 300 employees.
  10. Second, better skills, better workforce.
    • The new regional training centre will enable employees as well as customers from the region to broaden and deepen their operational skills. This will improve engine repair standards and turnaround time for complete engine overhauls.
  11. Third, better career opportunities
    • The facility will have R&D capabilities to develop customized engines for the Asian market. I am especially excited that this is the first time the company is engaging in such work outside of Germany.
    • It will also add to the growth of JTC’s Tukang Innovation Park as a key hub for knowledge-centric activities. Its proximity to tertiary institutions such as NTU and NUS will provide opportunities for collaboration between industry and academia.
    • With a strong local core here at MTU Asia, all this will translate into even more, even better career opportunities and career prospects for our people.
  12. In conclusion, the opening of this new facility demonstrates the mutual support of RR and MTU as business leaders in the world, and Singapore as a leading business hub in the Asia Pacific.
  13. We are in this together, because your success is our progress.
  14. So on behalf of the government of Singapore and the Singapore people, I thank you for helping to create better jobs, better skills and better careers for our people as you create better business growth for your company and offer a better experience for your customers.