Speech by Senior Minister of State for Defence Mr Heng Chee How at ACCORD Appreciation and Appointment Function 2018

My parliamentary colleague Dr Maliki Osman, Members of the ACCORD,
Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen,
A very good afternoon.

First of all, on behalf of Dr Maliki Osman and myself, we thank all of you for being here this afternoon. We would also like to thank the NDP EXCO for accommodating us today at The Float. I think it is a most appropriate venue to hold our appreciation function, to thank everyone for your tremendous contributions and also to welcome new members to ACCORD.

Since its restructuring in 2014, ACCORD has helped MINDEF in coming up with new ideas to strengthen support for National Service (NS) and defence, and more importantly put these ideas into action. In the past two years, we were busy building on the strong foundation laid by members in the previous term, and in 2017 we worked extra hard to roll out initiatives in support of NS50.

I would like to highlight two very successful events. First, we worked with the
Centre for Fathering and the Army to organise the "Dads for Life" Camp during the Army
Open House in 2017. It was fully subscribed, with 210 pairs of father-and-child participants, and that event received a lot of positive feedback. We also collaborated with Families for Life Council, who partnered the Singapore Discovery Centre to organise "Celebrating NS50" picnic, I think we saw it in the video just now, to engage families of National Servicemen in an effort to highlight the importance of family support towards NS and defence. Again, the response was overwhelming. 784 families attended, which was twice the number as compared to previous picnics organised. In a separate effort, students from various schools and institutions showed their appreciation for National Servicemen. They wrote thank you cards, gave out flowers and also composed songs and rap music.

For the business community, the NS Mark accreditation scheme, launched in August 2016, has proven to be an effective way of encouraging employers to adopt a more NS-friendly workplace culture. More businesses have begun to share NS-friendly practices in their annual reports so that other businesses can learn from their efforts, and support their NSmen employees for serving the nation, through various ways such as giving them time off to train for their physical fitness tests. The "We Support YOU in NS" initiative has also made much progress as we have now more than 400 businesses, merchants and retailers offering discounts and promotions for National Servicemen. So this number is twice that compared to two years ago.

Turning to the schools, the fitness programmes that had been implemented in Temasek Polytechnic, Republic Polytechnic and three ITE Colleges have now been introduced to the other Polytechnics as well as Foreign System Schools (FSSs) and Privately-Funded Institutions. ACCORD has also begun to widen the reach of the NS Information Sharing Sessions, first held by the Foreign System Schools in their campuses for pre-enlistees and parents, by getting Ministry of Education (MOE) schools to also conduct such sessions for secondary three students. This is only the beginning. The goal is to reach the entire secondary three cohort in time to come.

Looking back the past two years, these achievements were only made possible because of the tremendous support from the community, and in specific, wonderful support that we received from ACCORD. Dr Maliki and I would particularly like to thank Mr Tony Chew, Ms Claire Chiang and Dr Janil Puthucheary for their support in overseeing the work of the three Councils. Under your leadership, ACCORD has been able to deepen and expand our engagements with the many stakeholder groups across society.

22 ACCORD members will be stepping down with the ending of the previous term. We thank them for their time, their energy and contributions. We hope that these members, who are stepping down, as ACCORD alumni, will continue to be strong advocates and will continue to help rally support for NS and defence within your communities, your networks. Indeed, one of the most important roles of ACCORD is in helping Singaporeans understand the importance of defence and National Service. We are thankful that many of you have, through your own perspectives, made a difference, especially when there are difficult issues to grapple with. It takes conviction and courage, and we look forward to your continued support for the work done to help Singaporeans understand the critical role of National Service and how important it is to have a strong SAF as a backbone.

We would like to welcome the 18 new ACCORD members who will be appointed today. As key influencers in your own communities and leaders within your professional fields, we believe you will build on the good work done and bring fresh perspectives and ideas that will again be translated into concrete and sustainable initiatives that make good impact. For those who have accepted our invitation to continue serving on ACCORD, we thank you for your commitment and your continued support for defence, and I personally look forward very much to learning from you and to working alongside you. I having joined ACCORD also for the first time. As we progress into the third term of ACCORD, may I encourage the councils to embark on new and impactful initiatives that will continue strengthening our ability to keep to our mission, which is support for NS and the defence of Singapore.

Singapore is able to enjoy peace and stability because Singaporeans, all walks of life, stakeholder groups, believe that everybody has a part to play in building a strong defence that works to everyone’s advantage. Let me conclude by expressing our deepest appreciation to all ACCORD members - past, present and future - for playing your role and in sharing your belief in a strong defence with others. 

We hope you have a great time today and please enjoy the NDP Preview later.
Thank you very much.

More Resources

ACCORD Builds on Past Initiatives to Widen Reach and Impact

Fact Sheet: ACCORD and its Members for Term 2018 - 2020

Fact Sheet: ACCORD's Support for National Service