Remarks by Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Zainul Abidin Rasheed at the official opening ceremony of the Asia Middle East Dialogue (AMED) Regional Vocational Training Centre in Amman, Jordan on 21 October 2007

Your Excellency, Minister of Labour Bassem Al-Salem,
Mr Khalil Kurdi, Director-General of the Vocational Training Corporation,
Distinguished Ambassadors from AMED member countries,
Excellencies,
Members of the media,
Ladies and gentlemen.

1 My warmest wishes to all of you during this joyous celebration of Eid. Let me also extend special greetings to the participants of the inaugural AMED course that will be held over the next three weeks.

2 I am delighted to be back in Jordan, to jointly officiate with Minister Al-Salem at the official opening of the Asia-Middle East Dialogue Regional Vocational Training Centre (RVTC). I had the honour of witnessing His Majesty King Abdullah II and Singapore President S R Nathan sign the commemorative plaque during President Nathan's State Visit last November. I remember that His Majesty had shown keen interest in the Centre. We are certainly encouraged by the strong personal support of His Majesty, without which the RVTC would not have been established. It would also be remiss for me not to acknowledge all the hard work put in by Director General Khalil Kurdi and his staff from the Vocational Training Corporation and Testing and Training Institute. They have forged an excellent working relationship with the Technical Cooperation Directorate of the Singapore Foreign Ministry in putting together a modern and state-of-the-art air-conditioning systems workshop. I would also like to thank the Institute of Technical Education for its role as the consultant to the project, and Genetron and Lab Tech for supplying one of the most advanced training equipment to the RVTC. Thank you all and I appreciate your individual contributions.

3 The establishment of the RVTC is a milestone in the AMED process. AMED was conceived about three years ago by Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, our former Prime Minister, to promote engagement between Asia and the Middle East. Mr Goh realised that Asia had links with Europe, the US and Latin America but there was a missing link with the Middle East. AMED thus sought to fill this gap. Yet, Mr Goh did not want AMED to turn into another talkshop. Instead, he envisaged tangible projects of cooperation which could be undertaken for mutual benefit. At the first AMED meeting in Singapore in 2005, human resource development was identified as one of the common issues faced by many countries. This is a subject that is very close to Singapore's heart because human resource, as many of you would know, is the only natural resource that we have. Over the years, Singapore has placed great emphasis on educating and training our people to acquire the right skill sets and knowledge to lead productive lives. Just as we have learned from others in the past, we are happy to share our developmental experience with others through the Singapore Cooperation Programme (Annex A). We therefore proposed to establish two training centres in the Middle East that could help train officials in different areas. In this regard, we are grateful to His Majesty and the Jordanian Government for hosting the RVTC. Likewise, we are grateful to the Qatari Government for hosting another training centre in Doha which focuses on training officials on public administration. Together, we hope that these two training centres will contribute to human resource development in the region and foster closer relations between Asia and the Middle East.

4 The RVTC also symbolises the warm and close relationship between our two countries. His Majesty is a frequent visitor to Singapore and knows our leaders well. As small countries, we also share a common interest in many issues. As we look forward to celebrate the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations next year, the RVTC will stand as a testament to our excellent relations.

Your Excellency, ladies and gentlemen,

5 I can think of no better place than Jordan to locate a vocational training centre. Under His Majesty's leadership, Jordan has built up a strong reputation as an education hub for the region. His Majesty has also spoken of plans to promote vocational training for Jordanians to meet the demands of the labour market. His Majesty's vision of maximising the potential of every Jordanian is something which Singapore can closely identify with. I am therefore confident that the RVTC will soon establish itself as a regional centre for excellence. I am delighted that Singapore's Institute of Technical Education, or ITE, has been selected as the training provider for AMED courses. I am very glad to see that Mr Bruce Poh, the CEO of ITE and Dr Law Song Seng, Chairman and CEO of ITE's Education Services, both of whom have been involved with Singapore's technical and vocational education for the last 25 years, are also here with us this afternoon. The ITE has played a key role in equipping Singaporeans with the right skill sets in diverse areas to support a modern economy. ITE admits more than 13,000 students in each cohort of Singaporeans and its graduates are very much sought after by the private sector. From its humble beginnings, ITE has gone on to win many awards and even global recognition. For example, ITE recently won the global Harvard-IBM Innovations Award in Transforming Government, even beating other centres from the USA and Canada. I am therefore confident the trainers from ITE will acquit themselves well in imparting the right knowledge to the course participants.

6 Let me conclude my remarks by wishing all the course participants well. It is my sincere hope that all of you will benefit and learn new skills that you can make use of in the future. Thank you.

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Annex A

About the Singapore Cooperation Programme

Since its independence in 1965 and as an island state with no natural resources, Singapore has relied on its human resource as the driving force behind its transformation from a Third World country into a modern city-state. The success of Singapore's transition was facilitated in part by the support and assistance from our foreign friends in human resource development. It is based on this same philosophy that Singapore began sharing its development experience with our friends from the developing countries since the late 1960s. We have focused on human resource capacity building programmes in areas where Singapore has the relevant experience and expertise.

2 The Singapore Cooperation Programme was formally established in 1992 to bring together under one framework the various technical assistance programmes offered by Singapore. Over the years, the scope of the SCP has expanded to meet the evolving needs of the recipient countries. When it first started in 1992, the Singapore Cooperation Programme trained less than a thousand participants from about 50 countries. Today, the Singapore Cooperation Programme trains an average of 6,000 international participants from many more countries annually. On a cumulative basis, the Singapore Cooperation Programme has reached out to 50,000 participants from 168 countries spanning across the Asia Pacific, Africa, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean.

3 Under the Singapore Cooperation Programme, Singapore has initiated several customised bilateral programmes catering to the specific needs of recipient countries. For example, the Small Island Developing States Technical Cooperation Programme (SIDSTEC) was established in 1999 to assist Small Island Developing States in the areas of sustainable development. Under the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI) launched in 2000, about 20,000 officials from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam have participated in the Singapore Cooperation Programme, with more than half of them having attended programmes conducted at the four training centres we have set up in Phnom Penh, Vientiane, Yangon and Hanoi. Under the auspices of the Asia Middle East Dialogue (AMED), Singapore has further contributed to human resource development in the Middle East through two regional training centres in Qatar and Jordan. The AMED Regional Training Centre for Public Administration (RTCPA) in Qatar focuses on the training of civil servants and developing skills and strategies for excellence in public service. The AMED Regional Vocational Training Centre (RVTC) in Jordan focuses on developing skills in air-conditioning and heating systems maintenance and diagnostics for the construction industry. Singapore also helped to set up the Botswana National Productivity Centre (BNPC) in Botswana, which has since emerged as a regional training centre on productivity issues in southern Africa.

4 In addition to bilateral programmes, the Singapore Cooperation Programme has also forged strong partnerships with more than 30 developed countries and international organisations to run Third Country Training Programmes, leveraging on the strengths of our combined resources and expertise. We have been giving greater emphasis to aligning our programmes and coordinating with our development partners to maximise the outcome of our efforts.

5 As a responsible international citizen, Singapore remains committed to play its part in sharing our development experience and expertise with developing countries in the spirit of mutual learning and support. Through such collaborations with recipient and donor partners, we hope to foster friendships and understanding among countries in this global village. This is in line with the spirit of the Singapore Cooperation Programme, which is also encapsulated in its tagline "Joining Hands, Making Friends".

6 More details are available on the Singapore Cooperation Website at www.scp.gov.sg.

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