Minister to public servants: Stay humble to build better Singapore
Singapore's 145,000 public officers were urged yesterday to stay humble as a reminder to themselves that for the country to progress, they need to convince Singaporeans to pull together with them as a team.
The whole-of-nation approach in mobilising people "to walk the journey with us" was the thrust of the message by Minister-in-charge of the Public Service Chan Chun Sing in a video posted online by the Public Service Division yesterday, to mark the start of the annual Public Service Week.
"If we can do that, then there is really nothing stopping us from building an even better Singapore for generations to come," he said.
Mr Chan, who is also Minister for Trade and Industry, also urged public officers to keep having a high level of ambition for Singapore so that it can continue to progress.
He cited the Marina Bay area and the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) Central campus as examples of how Singapore's high aims have allowed it to achieve great things.
On ITE, he noted that in many countries, even their universities "do not have the same kind of facilities that we can offer to our ITE students...(to) realise their full potential and do great things for themselves, their families and the country".
Public Service Week ends on July 8. This year's theme is One Public Service: Stepping Up Transformation.
To recognise the contributions of public officers, about 600 of them will attend a reception at the Istana this evening, hosted by President Halimah Yacob.
Tomorrow, about 400 Public Sector Transformation Awards will be given to recognise excellence in fields such as service delivery, innovation and best practices.
On Thursday, a convention themed Digital Government for a Smart Nation will be held to inspire public officers to embrace digitisation.
Officers will also visit other public organisations to better understand the work of their colleagues.
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