Mr Png Cheong Boon, Second Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Trade and Industry, and Chief Executive Officer, JTC

Dr Raj Thampuran, Managing Director, A*STAR

A/Prof Lim Tit Meng, Chief Executive Officer, Science Centre Singapore

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen

Good Morning.

1.           I am very pleased to join you at the one-north Festival, jointly-organised by A*STAR and JTC, and supported by MediaCorp, Science Centre Singapore and over 40 industry, educational, and public sector partners.

2.           One-north is an icon of Singapore’s innovation-driven economy. It brings together the growth clusters of Biomedical Sciences, Infocomm Technology, Media and the Physical Sciences and Engineering in a ‘work-live-play-learn’ environment. Today, it is home to a vibrant community – over 46,000 people from more than 400 leading companies and 800 startups, 5 institutes of higher learning, and 16 public research institutions.

3.            In many ways, we are as this year’s festival theme puts it - ‘Pioneering an Innovation Future’. The Festival is a showcase of how Research, Innovation, Creativity and Enterprise (RICE) will impact our lives by driving the future of Work, Health, and Living.

Driving the Future of Work

4.           As the Committee of Future Economy highlighted, rapid advances in technology have led to disruptive business models emerging with the potential to profoundly transform industries. Like the “Uberisation” of the transport and hospitality sectors, and the dis-intermediation of the retail sectors with e-commerce, as well as the transformation of manufacturing due to digitalisation.

5.           The Future Work pavilion at this Festival will provide a glimpse of the jobs of the future. These jobs require employees to master digital technologies and apply them to develop innovative solutions. Drop by A*STAR’s Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre (ARTC)’s booth to learn how robots, 3D printing, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) come together to revolutionise factory floors. You can also explore the possibilities of future work in smart estates such as JTC’s Jurong Innovation District and Punggol Digital District, which will house new industry sectors such as advanced manufacturing, urban solutions, smart logistics, and cyber security.

Delivering the Future of Healthcare

6.           Besides work, the future of healthcare is important to Singapore. The latest World Health Statistics report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has highlighted that Singapore ranks third in the world for average life expectancy at 83.1 years, behind Japan and Switzerland. While we also rank highly for healthy life expectancy at 73.9 years, just behind Japan, there is nonetheless a gap between healthy life and life expectancy.

7.           The Future Health exhibition showcases research and innovations that will help us live better and more healthily. An example is the Tele-Rehabilitation System Demonstration by a team from the National University of Singapore (NUS). The tele-rehab system allows medical providers to monitor the recovery of stroke patients in the comfort of their homes, reducing the need for patients to travel to a rehab centre.

Enhancing and Enriching our lives through Future Living

8.            Finally, as Singapore progresses on its journey to become a smart nation, digital technology will be a key enabler to improving the environment and quality of life for our people.

9.           The Future Living exhibition features innovations that will enhance how we live and play. These include solutions for a Sustainable City, Smart Living, and Cybersecurity. Local start-ups are leading the charge in developing many of these solutions. One such start-up is Jules Corporation, which has created app-based educational games that develop computational thinking in children to help them solve problems logically. Another start-up, AiChat, has developed a conversational Artificial Intelligence platform for companies to manage chatbots for e-commerce and customer service.

Realising our Future

10.        We can only realise our visions for Future Work, Future Health, and Future Living if we partner each other across all spheres – from government, to educational and healthcare institutions, to companies.

11.         This is the exciting value behind one-north. As a vibrant hub with major stakeholders side-by-side in a research and innovation ecosystem, one-north is like an engine spurring the creation of ideas, test-bedding innovations, and transforming technology into products and services for daily life. The one-north collaborative spirit has in fact grown bigger and better, and now has the participation of partners beyond its immediate vicinity.

12.        For the first time, X-periment!, a science carnival organised by A*STAR and Science Centre Singapore, is taking place alongside the one-north Festival. The event aims to make science enjoyable and easily understandable to the public. Visitors can enjoy a wide array of exhibits, demonstrations and interactive performances.

13.        JTC has also upped the adrenaline factor at this year’s Festival with the inaugural RACE.EAT.PLAY. Its marquee event, one-north’s first soapbox race, will flag off tomorrow. A total of 14 teams, 7 from the one-north community and 7 from the public will race soapbox cars that they have built in a showcase of speed, creativity and showmanship. There are also other fun-filled activities such as robot-jamming where you can build your own robots and fly mini-drones, as well as a future food street debuting new culinary concepts.

14.        Scientists and engineers are fun people too. The Festival will feature live performances by scientists headlined by Glorious Guts, an international science performer formerly from the Royal Institution in UK. Buskers will also perform science tricks on-the-go, and a range of fun and educational activities for visitors of all ages.