MFA Press Statement: Commemoration Ceremony for the 50,000th Singapore Cooperation Programme Participant

Minister for Foreign Affairs George Yeo today officiated at a ceremony to welcome the 50,000th participant of the Singapore Cooperation Programme (SCP). (The full text of Minister Yeo's speech is attached at Annex A.)

2 The 50,000th participant of the SCP is Ms Shifana Ali from the Republic of Maldives. Ms Ali, an Aeronautical Information Services Officer, is currently attending a course conducted by the Singapore Aviation Academy on "Fundamentals of Aeronautical Information Services - Applications and Concepts" from 15 to 31 October 2007.

3 The SCP was formally established in 1992, bringing together the various technical assistance programmes offered by Singapore under a single framework. Since then, the SCP has reached out to participants from 168 developing countries spanning the Asia Pacific, Africa, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean. (Please see Annex B for further information on the Singapore Cooperation Programme.)

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
SINGAPORE
19 OCTOBER 2007

Annex A

SPEECH BY FOREIGN MINISTER GEORGE YEO AT THE COMMEMORATION CEREMONY FOR THE 50,000TH SCP PARTICIPANT, 19 OCTOBER 2007

Distinguished Participants of the Singapore Cooperation Programme

Ladies and Gentlemen

1 I thank all of you for joining us as we celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the Singapore Cooperation Programme. Today, we also mark an important milestone: the number of participants reaching 50,000.

2 I would like to acknowledge the 56 international participants attending the two courses on the "Fundamentals of Aeronautical Information Services - Applications and Concepts" and "Integrated Water and Waste Water Resource Management" who are here with us today. They come from 44 countries in the Asia-Pacific, Africa, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean. I hope you will have a good experience here, learn from each other and make new friends.

SCP - Its Past, Present and Future

3 For many years after we became independent in 1965, Singapore was fortunate in having friends in many countries who shared their developmental experiences with us. Without all the assistance we received, our passage from the Third World to the First would have been much more difficult. Now that we are better off, we hope that what assistance we can provide to others will be of some use.

4 At first, different ministries and agencies did what they could in an ad hoc manner. After some years, we decided that we had to be more organised. The Singapore Cooperation Programme was formally established in 1992 under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Over the last 15 years, the range of Singapore Cooperation Programme's activities has expanded both in scope and reach. We have been able to take in altogether 50,000 participants from 168 developing countries. We now train about 6,000 participants a year.

5 We have to work within the resources we have as a small country. We focus our efforts on areas where we can make a difference, principally in human resource capacity building.

6 Over the last 15 years, the Singapore Cooperation Programme has included some major assistance projects. Please allow me to touch on a few of them:

(a) Singapore has committed a total of S$88 million to the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI) since its inception in 2001. The most concrete manifestation of our support is the four IAI training centres that we have set up in Phnom Penh, Vientiane, Yangon and Hanoi. To date, more than 11,000 participants have attended programmes in the four IAI centres.

(b) Singapore helped to set up a National Productivity Centre in Botswana. The Botswana National Productivity Centre has since become a regional training centre for productivity improvement in southern Africa.

(c) Singapore launched the Small Developing States Technical Cooperation Programme (SIDSTEC) in 1999 to help Small Island Developing States achieve sustainable development. To date, the Programme has trained over 4,800 officials from 41 island developing states.

(d) Under the auspices of the Asia-Middle East Dialogue (AMED), Singapore is contributing to human resource development through two regional training centres - one in Qatar and another in 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.

Looking Ahead

7 Looking ahead, the Singapore Cooperation Programme will have to evolve to meet changing developmental needs. Apart from traditional areas like good governance, infocomm technology, civil aviation and port management, we will give greater attention to transboundary concerns like sustainable development, healthcare management, climate change and environmental management.

8 To increase our reach, the Singapore Cooperation Programme will forge more partnerships. We already have more than 30 international partnerships with developed countries and international organisations. By so doing, we have been able to do more with the same resources especially in the range of courses we offer.

Conclusion

9 We are committed to doing our part as responsible global citizens. Though we are small, small can be beautiful, or at least this is what we want to believe. There are many beautiful small countries in the world.

10 Our motto is "Joining Hands, Making Friends". We hope that through our various programmes, Singapore will be able to develop deep friendships with many countries. At the individual level, we hope that the friendships forged will be for life. We are getting better now at keeping links to SCP alumni.

11 Let me conclude by congratulating the 50,000th Singapore Cooperation Programme participant. I wish all our international participants here a fruitful training programme and a pleasant stay in Singapore. If all goes well, we should not need to wait another 15 years before welcoming the 100,000th participant.

Annex B

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.