SPEECH BY 2M INDRANEE RAJAH AT PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS BOARD DAY OF DEDICATION 2025

It is a pleasure to join all of you today at the Professional Engineers Board’s Day of Dedication.

Today, we are celebrating not only the milestones of the newly minted Professional Engineers (or PEs in short), Specialist PEs and ASEAN Chartered PEs, but also the engineering profession that has shaped our nation and the lives of Singaporeans.

Celebrating Achievements

Through the dedication of our PEs, our buildings stand strong, our bridges connect communities, and our city thrives. Every physical structure around us is a testament to the enduring impact of the engineering profession.

We must celebrate our engineering achievements, and today’s Awards are one of the ways in which we can recognise the contributions of our engineers.

This year’s Innovative Professional Engineer Award recipient, Er. Yiong Hoi Liong, exemplifies the spirit of engineering excellence and creative problem-solving. Amongst his many innovative engineering achievements, his ground-breaking innovation for CapitaSky marked a milestone in sustainable construction – the first redevelopment commercial project in Singapore to achieve a 100% re-use of existing bored piles. The engineering feat saved 8,400 tonnes of concrete, resulting in a 37% reduction in carbon emissions.

Ensuring a Future Ready Profession

As we gather to honour the profession’s collective accomplishments, we must also plan for the future of the profession. The future of Singapore is inextricably linked with the future of engineering. All the plans we have for the future – Terminal 5, Long Island, the Singapore Green Plan, the Greater Southern Waterfront, our plans for renewable energy and a zero waste economy, and maybe, at some point, nuclear energy facilities; all of these hinge on our engineering capabilities. To achieve all these, we will need not just PEs but PEs who can accomplish the extraordinary.

Securing our pipeline of PEs and building a future ready profession therefore is not something that we can leave to chance and hope will happen organically. This is especially so given the challenges faced by the Built Environment consultancy sector over the years, including difficulty in securing a strong talent pipeline in the face of competition from other sectors and unsustainable business models. These issues have to be dealt with head on, by the Government and the professions working in partnership, in order to secure the future of the engineering profession.

This is why we set up the Taskforce for Architectural and Engineering Consultants, which I co-chaired with Mr Chaly Mah, Chairman of Surbana Jurong Group, with representatives from across the Built Environment sector, including PEB, ACES and IES.

The Taskforce released its report in September 2025, and I am grateful that various stakeholders, including the engineers, are supportive of the recommendations to strengthen the talent pipeline and business sustainability for our Built Environment consultancy sector.

I would like to thank PEB for your contributions and strong support for the Taskforce’s recommendations. I want to highlight the key initiatives that PEB has put together to strengthen the engineering profession.

Strengthening the Engineering Talent Pipeline

The first task at hand is to strengthen and diversify the talent pipeline for the engineering profession. The Taskforce observed that many students are looking for careers that can make a tangible impact on society, but many were not aware about the unique career opportunities of a career afforded to them as architects or engineers. Lack of awareness was a big problem.

Hence, a key Taskforce recommendation was to develop the INSPIRE enhanced internship programme. It will feature a longer internship period for more practical learning outcomes and dedicated mentorship, and higher starting salaries for successful interns who eventually join the firms.

In support of the INSPIRE programme, I am pleased to announce that, in 2026, PEB will recognise relevant pre-graduation internship and working experience, as part of the practical experience required for PE registration. This recognises the structured learning and rigour of the INSPIRE programme. At the same time, it will also help to cultivate early interest and awareness of professional qualifications amongst students, and enable a shorter qualification runway.

In addition, I am pleased to announce that, in 2026, PEB will create additional pathways for professional registration. First, graduates from all engineering disciplines may qualify for professional registration through PEB-approved bridging programmes. For example, a Computer Engineering graduate could qualify to be an Electrical PE by completing an approved Master’s programme in electrical engineering.

Second, the Singapore Institute of Technology's engineering masters programme will be recognised as an approved bridging qualification for professional registration, expanding opportunities beyond the current NUS and NTU programmes. These changes will broaden our talent pool, allowing more engineers with diverse backgrounds to contribute to the engineering profession without sacrificing on the quality and capability.

Beyond these initiatives, all of us play a critical role in nurturing and inspiring the next generation of engineers.

Er. Emily Tan, the recipient of the inaugural ASEAN Engineer Excellence Award, is a prime example. A trailblazer in Traffic and Transport Engineering, she has served and contributed to both PEB and the Board of Architects, as well as local and regional engineering bodies. As the founding President of the Association of Women in Construction Singapore, she and her team have supported and inspired many young female engineers in the Built Environment sector.

I would like to thank Er. Emily Tan for her contributions and unwavering dedication to Singapore’s built environment and for inspiring the young engineers.

Growing a Dynamic & Progressive Sector

Next, we need to grow a dynamic and progressive sector that can effectively harness emerging technologies and seize new business opportunities. To do so, it is critical that our engineering leaders not only possess strong technical expertise but have strong strategic management and business skills to bring their engineering practices to the next level.

To encourage our engineers to strengthen their business skills, I am pleased to share that PEB will incorporate relevant strategic leadership and business courses as part of the Continuing Professional Development framework for license renewals next year.

You all possess the technical expertise and build complex projects, but you are also businesses. Therefore you need in tandem, especially as the younger ones become more senior, to enhance their business development skills as well. These go hand in hand; they are not contradictory. But if you want to grow your businesses, it is not enough to be just a specialist in the engineering technicality. You do need to broaden your horizons to cover the business aspect.

So PEs will be able to clock Professional Development Units when attending such courses. I strongly encourage all PEs to participate in these courses, as they will broaden the breadth of your skillsets, and better prepare you for the evolving needs of your practices or organisations.

To complement the Taskforce’s recommendations and initiatives on human capital development, the Government has also been reviewing regulatory rules and processes. This will help businesses reduce costs and save time, and in turn allow our engineers to devote more time to their professional development.

For instance, we have recently improved and streamlined the fee computation methods for new buildings in CORENET X. Previously, Qualified Persons computed plan fees separately; by GFA for main buildings and by plan areas for structures.

This change reduces the number of fields in the application process, and eliminates the need for users to spend time distinguishing between different types of building works. This saves valuable time for our professionals, and enables smoother CORENET X submissions.

The Building and Construction Authority has also partnered with the Singapore Institute of Architects and PEB to offer enhanced Professional Development Units for related courses, such as openBIM training. I strongly encourage all PEs – both young and old – to attend these courses to stay abreast of industry developments.

The announcements I have just made are just a sampling of the initiatives that are coming out of the Taskforce recommendations. However, there is room and scope to do much more. These moves are just the beginning. It is my hope that the engineering profession will seize the day and apply what is your greatest strength, which is creative solutioning, not just to building projects, but to building your profession. The government stands ready to work with and support you on this.

And finally, a word to the newly minted PEs; you are now different from other engineers, you are a professional engineer. What is it that makes professionals different?

There is a reason why certain sectors and industry are called professionals. Engineers are one, architects are another, lawyers, accountants, and we are different from other service providers who provide a whole range of services.

What is the distinguishing factor of a professional? There are many things that come to mind: your values, ethics and professional expertise. But in my view, there is one thing that distinguishes professionals from the rest, which is this: the professional is the only person in the room, under the appropriate circumstances, who can say “no”. Just those two short letters, and only the professional can say that.

And that “no” comes from a place of knowledge, expertise, experience, values, ethics, and an understanding of what is it that we do. What do I say this? I say this because other services seek to please the client, and normally the client is always right. The clients pay for it, businesses and other service providers will say yes and carry it out. For professionals, we do that most of the time. But at really crucial moments, the professionals are the only ones who can say “no”.

For professional engineers, there will be many things that your clients want to do; this is fine, and they can have beautiful buildings and wonderful structures. But when it comes to safety, integrity and ethics, you are the only person in the room who can say “no”. So just remember, that is the hallmark of being a professional. It encapsulates all of the things that underpin your profession, capability, expertise, etc. This is the reason why professionals are respected, and this is why respect has to be earned, and in some cases, commanded. Your relationship with your clients should reflect that. At the end of the day when push comes to shove on certain matters, the engineer has the final say because you are a professional engineer.

As newly minted professional engineers, you will bump up against this many times in the future, where people will try to ask you to do things which you will instinctively, inherently and professionally feel is not correct. Just remember that in those instances, that is the time when you have to say “no”.

Let me conclude by congratulating our new PEs, Specialist PEs, ASEAN Chartered PEs, and the recipients of the Innovative Professional Engineer Award and ASEAN Engineer Excellence Award.

As PEs, you play many important roles; you will be guardians of public safety, problem solvers and innovators, and stewards of our resources. And most of all, remember that the future of Singapore depends on the future of our engineers. So please take care of your profession, especially the young ones entering the profession. Inspire them, impart technical skills and expertise, guide, mentor and help them to grow so that we can bring engineering to a new Golden Age in Singapore.

Thank you very much.