Opening Address By Ms Indranee Rajah, Minister In Prime Minister’s Office And Second Minister For Finance National Development, At The Building Singapore Festival, At Vivocity On 5 September 2025

Monday, 8 September 2025

I am delighted to join all of you this morning at the inaugural Building Singapore Festival. The Festival showcases what our Built Environment professionals do and how their efforts impact and shape the way we live, work and play.

The Built Environment sector (or BE sector in short) forms the backbone of Singapore’s physical landscape, encompassing  all the man-made infrastructure such as buildings, roads, utilities, and public spaces that we use daily.

Taskforce Recommendations to Uplift the Sector

We have ambitious long-term infrastructure plans, such as the Long Island, Greater Southern Waterfront, Changi Terminal 5, to ensure that Singapore remains a global city and an endearing home.

To turn these complex developments into reality, we need capable and passionate BE professionals. Last year, we formed the Taskforce for Architectural and Engineering Consultants to uplift the professions and ensure that they remain attractive to aspiring architects and engineers. Mr Chaly Mah, Chairman of Surbana Jurong Group, co-chairs the Taskforce together with me. The Taskforce also includes representatives from industry firms and associations, Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) and public agencies.

Over the past year, we engaged more than 400 stakeholders, including students, in-service professionals and industry leaders to hear their concerns and suggestions. I am happy to announce that today, we are launching our Taskforce report. Let me highlight some of the key recommendations.

Making BE Careers the Careers of Choice

First, we want to inspire the younger generations to join the BE professions to become architects and engineers. A career in the BE sector is one which has lasting impact. Their imprints can be seen all around us – be it our towering skyscrapers, underground infrastructures or our homes.

While the Taskforce observed that many students aspire careers that can make tangible impact on society, many were less aware about the unique opportunities a career as an architect or an engineer can provide. Hence one key recommendation is for firms and our IHLs to co-develop an enhanced internship programme, aptly named ‘INSPIRE’.

This internship will benefit participating firms and students alike. It will have a longer internship period for more practical learning outcomes. Interns will be exposed to real-world projects and be able to put their knowledge into action. They will also be paired with mentors to guide them at the workplace and their future careers pathways.

Ms Sabrina Mahbub, a final year architecture student at NUS, recently completed her internship with architectural firm, Aedas. Sabrina was able to take part in real-life projects under the guidance of a dedicated mentor. Through her experience, she learned about the responsibilities of a practicing architect, including design, coordination and client management. She honed new skills such as 3D modelling, and uncovered her interest in project management. This allowed her to gain clarity on viable future career pathways. Most importantly, she saw how her efforts contributed to tangible outputs for the built environment.

The Taskforce also highlighted the importance of having competitive salaries to attract talent. We are glad that many industry heavyweights, including DP Architects, Beca, Arup, and Surbana Jurong, have heeded the call. They have committed to hosting interns under the INSPIRE programme, and will offer higher starting salaries to successful interns who eventually join the firms.

To ensure that our BE students can meet the industry’s future needs, the Taskforce also recommends our IHLs to continually update their curriculum. For instance, the NUS College of Design and Engineering has included elements of sustainability and the circular economy into its curriculum. Students will also learn about cutting edge topics, such as predictive methods for assessing infrastructural health and lifespan, and technologies that transform waste into building resources.

I encourage students to participate in the INSPIRE programme, to experience first-hand what architects and engineers can really do. And be ready to make your own mark on Singapore and the world.

Growing a Dynamic & Progressive Sector

The Taskforce also recommends that the industry capitalise on new technologies, such as Generative AI, to transform how architects and engineers can work more effectively.                                                                     

Take for example, Architect Pan Yi Cheng from Type0 Architecture. Rather than developing all the architectural models from scratch, he uses computational design and AI tools to generate them and finetune design ideas. And instead of sharing multiple design versions with other project parties, he uses a common digital space for real-time collaboration. This puts everyone on the same page and reduces duplicative work.

These technological enhancements empower our professionals to minimise mundane administrative tasks, so they have more time to think creatively and explore innovative solutions to complex challenges.

Fostering Sustainable Businesses

Next, we want the BE sector to be better positioned to invest in human capital, offer competitive remuneration, and drive long term growth. However, the Taskforce has received feedback that some companies fee-dive to secure work. This creates an unhealthy business environment where firms prioritise winning contracts through low prices, instead of competing on quality. This ultimately limits firms’ ability to pay competitively and invest in their workforce.

To steer firms away from such unsustainable price competition, the Taskforce recommends both public and private sector buyers to continue emphasising quality-based procurement. For example, the Government will update our procurement evaluation criteria to further disadvantage bids that are too low, and disincentivise fee-diving.

The Taskforce also recommends consultants and their clients to use the Value Articulation Frameworks developed by SIA and ACES. This tool provides a structured approach for consultants to demonstrate the value of their services and justify their fee proposals to their clients.

These efforts will create more sustainable business environments that are conducive for firms to thrive.

Building a Culture of Appreciation, Respect and Empathy

We must also ensure that the working experience in the BE consultancy sector is rewarding and meaningful. Building the future of Singapore entails much hard work and working with many stakeholders behind-the-scenes. But with a little bit of care, we can improve workplace well-being and engender a more collaborative environment, for our BE consultants to flourish.

This is why the Taskforce has developed a BE Charter for Appreciation, Respect and Empathy, or BE CARE, in short. The charter provides best practice guidelines that project teams and firms can adopt to develop more collaborative relationships amongst teams and strengthen workplace culture. 34 firms, including GuocoLand, CapitaLand Development, JTC, and PUB, have committed some of their projects for the implementation of BE CARE, and will progressively explore implementing the charter within their organisations. This underscores the sector’s collective commitment to making the BE sector a great place to work in.

The Taskforce also recommends service buyers and society at-large, to better recognise and appreciate our BE professionals for their hard work. Through simple gestures, such as featuring the BE consultants who had worked on particular projects when profiling completed projects, we can express our thanks to the hours of hard work that made the building possible.

The active turnout of Singaporeans from all walks of life for this Festival is another way by which we honour our BE professionals for their invaluable contributions to Singapore.

Leveraging TACs to Strengthen Firm Capabilities

Last but not least, the Taskforce advocates for the BE Trade Associations and Chambers (TACs) to build stronger in-house capabilities and provide transformation support to their member firms. This includes competencies in areas such as sector branding, talent outreach, technology adoption and HR.

For instance, our BE TACs have partnered with the Institute for HR Professionals to help firms uplift their HR and career development support capabilities. Firms can assess their HR areas for improvement and introduce best practices to close any gaps.

I am heartened that some progressive firms have embarked on their HR transformation journey. ECAS Consultants, for example, used the Human Capital Diagnostic Tool (HCDT) to gain insights on improvement areas, and has introduced comprehensive talent development and competency frameworks. These initiatives provide clear pathways for staff’s career growth and skills upgrading.

Our TACs have the potential to amplify their impact and catalyse long-term growth of the sector. I call upon the TACs to work and pool resources together to make this a reality.

In conclusion, let me say, throughout the Taskforce’s engagements, we witnessed the unwavering commitment of various industry stakeholders, coming together to improve the attractiveness of BE professions and nurture a strong pipeline of talent. I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to everyone for your dedication in making a difference to the BE sector.

To all our parents and younger ones here, the BE sector is one with exciting and meaningful opportunities. All the familiar and beautiful structures and spaces around us that we see in Singapore every day, are the results of the hard work by generations of BE professionals. Their work has continued long beyond the time that they have actually spent working for some of them.

The future of our built environment is for the younger generation to imagine. Some of the young ones may actually be designing and dreaming a Singapore of the future. So I can’t wait for some of you join us on this journey to make our mark and shape the future of Singapore.

Thank you all very much, and please enjoy the Festival!