Speech by Minister for Defence, Mr Chan Chun Sing, at the Tanjong Pagar GRC, Queenstown and Radin Mas SMCs’ 60th National Day Dinner on 16 Aug 2025

A very good evening to all residents of Tanjong Pagar, Happy National Day. This year is SG60. There are many things that we can rejoice about, but there are also many things on the horizon that we will have to take care of. I will speak candidly on some of our challenges, and also how we intend to overcome them together. As usual, I will first speak in Malay, then I will speak in Mandarin and I will round up in English.

So let me first start in Malay.

Malay

Hari ini, sedang kita meraikan SG60, kita berbangga dengan perjalanan kita bersama sebagai sebuah negara. Dibina atas kepelbagaian kita, daya tahan kita, dan keyakinan kita pada hari esok yang lebih baik.

Berbekalkan semangat ini, saya ingin mengiktiraf perpaduan dan kemajuan masyarakat Melayu kita. Pelajar kita mencatatkan kemercelangan di sekolah, politeknik, universiti, baik diberikantempat mahupun  antabangsa. Daripada bidang penjagaan kesihatan kepada kesenian, kita menyaksikan masyarakat Melayu kita mengatasi halangan dalam sektor bukan tradisional, menyesuaikan diri dan menceburi kepelbagaian dalam dunia yang cepat berubah. Perniagaan milik Melayu makmur dalam bidang fesyen, makanan dan minuman, platform digital dan perusahaan sosial, menyepadukan tradisi dan inovasi, memaparkan semangat jati diri Melayu moden.

Semangat gotong-royong, sikap menghormati warga emas, dan mengutamakan keluarga dan kepercayaan menjadi teras masyarakat tersebut. Perkongsian antara masyarakat Melayu dan Pemerintah tekah membantu menangani pelbagai isu bersama.

Sedang Singapura menulis bab seterusnya, marilah kita mara ke hadapan dengan penuh tekad dan keyakinan. Kita harus memanfaatkan kejayaan masa lalu kita, dan merapatkan jurang sosial dan ekonomi. Kita mesti menyokong satu sama lain dan memastikan tiada sesiapa yang ketinggalan. Kita mesti memperkasalkan golongan belia kita untuk menceburi industri baharu dan peluang global yang menanti.

I will now speak in Chinese.

Chinese

大家晚上好。我知道大家今年都非常关心国际形势，我们的生活费、物价、我们的工资，还有我们的就业前景。

当然，在这时刻，我们都知道国际局势非常不确定，每天都有新的不确定因素。我可以理解，政府也可以理解大家的担忧。不过，我希望和大家分享的是，请大家放心，政府了解大家的忧虑，政府也会竭尽所能地帮助大家。

最重要的不是我们能给多少消费券或者是SG60的补助券。除了用消费券和补助券来帮助大家短期所面对的问题，更重要的是我们如何把国家的财政管理好。其实，要对抗通货膨胀，全球的通货膨胀，最大的因素可以说是我们新元的价值。

如果今天新加坡政府没有好好管理我们的财政，不论是国际上的大国、小国、大公司还是小公司，都不会对新加坡的新元有这么大的信心。一旦国际社会对新加坡的货币失去信心，大家可以想象，一个走弱的新元会让我们克服通货膨胀更加困难。所以政府会努力把我们的财政管理好，让我们有一个更稳定的新元来对抗国际的通货膨胀。

另一方面，大家都可能很期待明天会不会又有红包分给大家。有些人也说是不是只是接近大选时才会分红包。其实，我想跟大家分享一点——这并不是大选的问题。我们的财政政策中，每一届的政府都需要平衡我们的开支。所以如果在任政府的第四或第五年，我们有财政盈余，那我们将会和大家一起分享。

但是我们不能开空头支票。每一任政府都要好好地处理我们的财政，得到了财政盈余才可以和大家分享。不过我们也知道，我们在分享的时候也需要照顾到弱势群体，那些更需要帮助的家庭，我们将会竭尽所能来帮助这些家庭。这也代表着不是每一个家庭都有同样的需要，希望大家能理解。

在这个过程中，最重要的是我们不能留债给子孙。所以大家可以放心，只要我们把经济管理好，获得的财政盈余，我们将会竭尽所能和大家一起分享。有福同享，有难同当。有粥吃粥，有饭吃饭。这是我们对国人的承诺，也是这一代政府对国人的承诺，一路以来都没有变。所以希望大家能放心。

第二，对所有在座的年长人士来说，我们最关心的就是你们的健康。所以政府将会推出许多措施，来鼓励大家保持身心健康。最重要的不是说我们的医药费有多少的津贴。我们希望把更多资源投资在预防性护理上，让我们的年长者能安享晚年，而不需要担心医药费的高涨。

当然，我们也了解有些家庭还是会有生病的情况。在这个过程中，我们也会尽力帮助大家渡过难关。

English

Being a Good Steward of Government Finances Enables Us to Support Those in Need

Now let me just quickly translate what I mentioned in Chinese. Most of us are very concerned about the global situation, the impact on our jobs, wages and prices. I just want to assure everyone that the government will make sure that we manage our finances well, because the most important thing to counter the global inflation is that we have a stable Singapore dollar. If the Singapore dollar weakens because people do not have trust in our financial management, then our challenge of overcoming the global inflationary challenges will be made that much harder. 

The second thing is that every term of government will have to balance its budget so how much we can share with our people will also depend on how well we manage the economy and our finances. In every term of government, we are able to share more towards the later part of the term. That is because we have accumulated some surpluses in the early parts of the term. But regardless of the different parts of the term, we will do our best to make sure that we share the fruits of labour with everyone. So, everyone, please be assured that we will do our best to take care of everyone.

But having said that, we must also acknowledge that the needs of different families will differ. So, I will ask for your forbearance that in our help schemes, different help schemes will be targeting different segments of our population. Not everyone will get everything similarly, and that is because not everyone may need the help similarly. But we will always aim to target more help for those families that are more in need, and that will continue to be our principle. I hope that we will all agree that this is the right way for us to do our financial management, where we give more help to those who need more. Which means that sometimes those of us who are more able will get a bit less, but I hope that this is the solidarity that we have with the families in greater need. 

The second thing I mentioned in the Chinese speech was that beyond our financial management, the most important thing is the health of our seniors. But I do not want us to just focus on the medical subsidies. More importantly, we must do preventive health care, where we will invest more resources into the prevention of health issues for our seniors. This is what we will focus on in this term of government, to make sure that we widen the support, to prevent fewer seniors who will fall sick or get into serious issues. But having said that, we fully understand that there will still be families who will require help, and we will do what we can to help them.

Uncertainties in the Global Environment and Global Economy

Let me now turn to my speech in English proper. As I mentioned in the Chinese speech, I know what is on the mind of everyone. All of us here would be deeply concerned with the global situation, not just the wars that are happening in Europe and the Middle East, but also the economic contestations, the tariff wars and many other uncertainties. The good news is that in the first half of this year, our GDP came in at 4.3% year-on-year. This is stronger than what we had expected. But even as we welcome this good news, we must be clear-eyed about the challenges ahead, we should not get carried away, because part of this growth came from front loading. Front loading means that businesses accelerated production and exports ahead of the tariffs to avoid being caught up by the uncertainties from the tariffs, but this boost is likely to be only temporary.

Looking ahead, we are concerned with the uncertainties in the global environment that will slow down the investments or will reduce the confidence of investors all around the world. This is not caused by the tariffs alone. If it is just the issue of tariffs, once we know how many percent, the businesses will make the consequent adjustments. The bigger challenge for all businesses is the uncertainty over the rules and the tariffs. Because of these uncertainties, many businesses are holding back their investments. When businesses hold back their investments, the impact will not be immediate, but the impact will be in the mid to longer-term. It means that the jobs that should be created in the coming years may be reduced, and this will have an impact on the job prospects of our people and the salaries that our people can enjoy.

If the productive capacity reduces or not rise in the coming years, then the issue of inflation will become another challenge. This is the real impact of the global uncertainties, rather than the tariffs per se. The tariffs, once the percentage is out, we know what to do, but if it is uncertainty over the rules and the rates, and if it causes an impact on the longer-term investment, that is our bigger concern. So, the global economic landscape therefore remains unpredictable, and businesses are adjusting their responses, and this will not be a short-term challenge.

If we are not careful. It is not about economic growth coming down and reverting to the previous growth rate. If we are not careful, the capacity of the global economy might be impaired for a long time. For some economies, it is not a U-shape, it is not a V-shape, what is most scary is an L-shape, and that will have grave implications on all countries, especially for small countries like Singapore that depends so much on trade.

Maintaining Our Relevance and Supporting Singapore’s Interests

It is not about us choosing sides. It is about ensuring that we remain relevant, so that others will want to partner us. But relevance is not a given. It is something that we must keep working at, it is something that we must earn. With relevance comes responsibility, being sought after means facing expectations, and we must navigate these expectations carefully.

Today, perhaps, it is a backhanded compliment that many countries would like Singapore to be on their side. In a way, it is a compliment to us that people find us relevant. But when people expect us to be on their side, there are also heightened expectations on what we say and what positions we take on international issues, and external parties will continue to try to influence how Singaporeans think or react. But we must never import foreign quarrels and ideologies that do not reflect our own domestic context into our country. We must make decisions based on our own long-term interests, rather than be swayed by others to do their bidding or to be their proxies. As I have said previously, we are not here to take a position that is pro-Country A or to take another position that is pro-Country B, but we are always here to take a position that is pro-Singapore's long-term interests – that is what the government will always make sure.

But today, there is yet another danger that is lurking on the horizon. It is not about us choosing sides. It is about other people having already decided which side we should be on, according to their needs or according to their agendas and wishes. Now, this is a most dangerous world whereby the rule of law, the principles undergirding our successes in the previous decades, are slowly eroding. This is something that we have to watch very carefully, so that, as they say, if we are not on the table, we want to make sure that we are not on other people's menu. It is not something to be taken lightly, and the government and all our agencies, together with our people, will have to collectively sense-make this new and emerging global situation, and collectively make the best decisions in Singapore’s long-term interest for us to navigate this challenging world.

Placing Singapore in Good Stead to Seize Opportunities Even in Uncertain Times

However, having said that, it is not all doom and gloom. Even in the darkest of times, there will be opportunities for Singapore. Even in the toughest of times, we must play to our strengths. There will be opportunities for us to seize, and this will depend on what we do together as a nation.

First, we must continue to maintain our relevance and keep reinventing our propositions for others to want to work with us. We must develop tangible capabilities, be it on the economic front or on the security front and offer real value propositions for others to want to partner us. So that is not about us choosing sides, it is about having others to choose us to be on their side.

Confidence and security go hand in hand, and we cannot have one without the other. Confidence comes from knowing what we have, the strengths, the skills and the resources to be successful. Security comes from the certainty that our position is earned and not given, and that others respect our ability to deliver. When we are confident of our capabilities, others will trust us and partner us. We do not have to go around bragging about our capabilities, but we can be quietly confident that over the last 60 years, we have built up a store of goodwill. We have built up real capabilities that can make a positive contribution to the world and for partners to see us as a valued partner.

Second, in a chaotic and uncertain world, we will need to be consistent and coherent. In a world of unpredictability, we must nurture stability, both for our people and for investors. Consistency lays the foundation for long-term growth and resilience, and consistency and coherence engender trust in us.

Let us take a look at an example, today, while we say that investors are holding back and hesitating about investment, there will still be many investors looking around the world for the best possible place to invest. And this is not just absolute, it is also relative to how we compare with other people. Investors are not just looking for the highest returns for their investment, but they are also looking for reliable place to put their investments, where their investments can be governed by the rule of law, where their intellectual property can be protected. So this is where we have an opportunity. Singapore's stable political system and government that can plan long-term is, today, rare and valuable in the world. With our stability and our ability to think long-term and execute consistently, these can be our competitive advantages in a more uncertain world, and this can give investors the confidence that their investments will make good here for the long haul.

Long-Term Planning Will Help to Continue Driving Singapore’s Success

To demonstrate that we can think and plan long-term, we must continue to invest in our people through education, training and equipping the current and future generations of workforce with the skills to thrive in the world. That is why, when I was the Minister for Education, we emphasised not just of the foundation given to our children in their first 15 years of their school life, but we want them to be successful, we want to continuously re-skill them even in the next 50 years after they leave school.

Today, our investment in the early years of our children is part of the foundation what we need to do well and distinguish ourselves is how we continue to invest in our people beyond the first 15 years into the next 50 years, even after they have left school.

Next, what gives people confidence of our ability to execute consistently over the long-term, is the way that we manage our finances and budget, as I mentioned briefly in my Chinese speech. If we manage our finances well, people will have confidence in the Singapore dollar, and people know that their investments here will earn them a good rate of return. When people look at us thinking in the long-term, investing in long-term infrastructure like T5, the Tuas Mega Port, or even talking about how we are going to do our coastal protection for the next 100 years, people know that Singapore and Singaporeans are serious-minded people. We are not just here for the next few years, but we are here for many more decades – if not centuries to come. These are things that send a subtle signal to our potential investors about what we mean, by thinking long-term and how we are able to execute them consistently.

So, whether it is our economic strategies or our defence and security, all of us can rest assured that this Government will continue to think long-term, to act responsibly and to act responsively to our people's demands – not just in this generation, but the future generation.

In this chaotic world, some have likened the Singapore market to a bond market, steady and predictable, rather than volatile like an equity market. In times of turbulence, consistency in returns may not be bad nor unimportant to people's portfolios.

Third, there are opportunities that will open up for Singapore as businesses and investors actively seek to diversify their risk. Today, companies are not looking at just-in-time production, but companies are looking for just-in-case production as well. Increasingly, we hear people talking about the Plus One strategy. Everyone is hoping to diversify their reliance on major markets. This is an opportunity for us – Can Singapore be the place where we are known, not just for just-in-time, but also just-in-case? Can Singapore be the Plus One in other people's strategy? If we can seize opportunities and do so, then I will say that even in a turbulent world, we will have our opportunities cut out for us.

Unity Will Propel Us Forward

But to do all these that I have mentioned, what is fundamental to our success is the unity in our country, the unity of purpose amongst our people, the unity of purpose between the Government and Singaporeans. Our cohesiveness will continue to be tested by external forces that may attempt to try and pull us in different directions. We must always remember that other people can fight their fights, but we must never let other people use us for their purposes. Everything comes from this basic premise that we will stay united to execute our long-term plans to give confidence to the world, and that we will determine our own future going forward.

Today, we celebrate and commemorate SG60. To all the young people here, I just want you to know that I joined the Government at SG23. We walked the journey from SG23 to SG60 with the efforts of the previous generation. I want all the youngsters here to have confidence that you will be the generation that will lead us from SG60 to SG100. Nothing will please me more to be able to see NDP100 on the 9th of August 2065 that will be the milestones that we are all aspiring to [reach].

I know that our generation, just as the previous generation, will do all we can to support you, to enable you to do an even better job than what we have done for you. It gives us confidence that every generation of Singaporeans will endeavor to do better, not just for themselves, but every generation of Singaporeans will always be clear-eyed about our challenges and enable the next generation to do better than ours. This is our commitment to our people, and this is what distinguishes us as fellow Singaporeans.

If you just stand outside this hall, you will see what we have done. You will see how Singapore has been transformed, from the early years where our tallest building were just the two-storey shophouses along Tanjong Pagar Road. Then you see the new flats coming up, where we have the shops below Block Four area and the flats above. Then you see Pinnacle@Duxton, our latest generation of public housing flats. But can I say this: we are not done building Singapore. I am sure the younger generation amongst us today will make sure that one day, 40 years later, when we stand outside here, we will see an even better Singapore, not just in terms of infrastructure, but in the kinds of bonds that we have, in how we help one another to take the lead throughout all these years - be it COVID-19 or any other economic challenges. So long as we put our hearts together, unite as one people and be clear-eyed about our long-term challenges, I am very confident that we will get to SG100 and beyond.

On that note, I want to thank all the grassroots leaders. I want to thank all of you who are present, because the success of Singapore today has never been premised on the effort of just one or a few people. The success of Singapore today and the success of Singapore going forward, will always be premised on the unity and cohesion of our people, where everybody chips in, regardless of race, language, religion, regardless of our background. Every one of us will have a part to play to get us to SG100 and beyond.

On that note, happy SG60 and we look forward to SG100. Thank you very much.