Public Transport and SMRT

Mr Speaker, three points. I thank the Minister for taking the hot seat. For our Jalan Besar GRC, we have just had the construction of the new train line ─ the Downtown Line 3. I think a lot of these projects, the train stations actually are, what I know, an engineering feats. I saw a lot of pride in the work by the teams and just thank you for that. And my residents thank you.

A lot of solutions that the Minister has mentioned are to do with technical and operational issues. I wanted to know if the Minister and the agencies involved have gone deep-diving into any of the HR issues. Things like, we say very broadly, cultural issues. But cultures take two to three years to establish and to change. Or even the compensation, the total compensation packages. Those are specifics that I think need to be looked into. I am especially thinking of the 90% of the engaged and good staff that the Minister mentioned in the survey that was done by Towers Watson. So, how do we continue to retain the good staff and to balance the need for accountability, of course, versus the perceived intolerance for mistakes and even blaming should things go wrong? Because that could lead to a lot of fear at the workplace and in fact makes the culture even more negative.

Secondly, also in view of the larger talent pool that you wish to attract in terms of engineering and technical personnel into the rail industry, what are the HR strategies to make sure that we can continue to attract, especially engineering and maintenance personnel, into the wider pool that is needed. These are the questions that I have.

Mr Khaw Boon Wan: I thank the Member for the very important comments. The internal HR policies and what changes they need to do, that is for SMRT to follow through. As the Member spoke, I looked at the SMRT leadership at the Public Gallery and they were nodding their heads. So, they know the importance of this.

At my level, it is more about the whole rail industry, how can we make sure that this rail profession remains attractive, especially to young Singaporeans. We do a lot of work together with institutions, doing roadshows. It is a hard slog because engineering as a profession is itself not so attractive. And specifically to rail, and especially when you read about all these rail breakdowns, why would they want to join the industry?

At the civil service level, we have made a lot of changes. Salaries are adjusted, professional status has improved. We have to encourage young Singaporeans to realise that there is a lot of scope and opportunities to deal with very exciting projects. And also to reach out to the females. Each time when I visit the operators, LTA, I am very happy to find young girls joining in the industry. And some of them are actually challenged by these problems that they regularly hear about SMRT's breakdown. And they said, "No, I think I want to make a difference." That kind of passion will translate into very good work practices and pride in their work.

I think we can be optimistic that we can tackle this problem and at the same time attract Singaporeans to join this sunrise industry.