Singapore Government Press Release
Media Division, Ministry of Information and The Arts,
MITA Building, 140 Hill Street, 2^nd Storey, Singapore 179369
Tel: 837-9666

Distinguished Guests,

Friends and Colleagues,

We are here today to launch the new Firefly initiative which is a collaborative programme to develop talent in MTI and six of its statutory boards. I am also taking this opportunity to announce the establishment of a new Public Sector Economist Service.

A few months ago, my old professor from the Harvard Business School, Christopher Bartlett, visited Singapore and proposed a different way of looking at the employer-employee relationship. He said that we should view employees as "voluntary investors" of their own intellectual capital. Just as traditional investors are free to move their capital around, employees are also free to invest their talent in the areas where it brings them the highest return. Just as investors would evaluate the risks and returns of their investments, employees too would weigh the opportunity costs and benefits of joining a particular organisation before committing to one, and never permanently. The old Japanese system of life-time employment no longer works. It is hard to maximise returns on your capital if you are stuck in certain stocks.

Professor Bartlett�s idea reflects the quiet revolution in talent management. Organisations have come to accept that talent, rather than financial capital, is their most important asset. "People are our most important asset" is not a cliché anymore. It has taken on a new meaning in the Knowledge Economy.

Because talent is increasingly a form of capital, it has become more difficult to manage. The balance between employers and employees has shifted in favour of employees. Educated employees enjoy greater choices and naturally become more demanding. Thirty years ago, when a young man or woman secured a job upon graduation, there was a sense of relief and gratitude. The scholarship bond meant guaranteed employment. Today, the bright graduate is bombarded with multiple job offers. The current global economic slowdown may dampen the employment market temporarily but the world demand for top talent will not slacken.

A study conducted in the US last year, at the height of the dot-com boom, found that 25% of students expected to make their first million before 30, and two-thirds expected to be more successful than their parents. Only 20% expected to stay with their first employer for more than three years. Although the collapse of NASDAQ has restored a sense of reality, the long-term trend, which is propelled by technological developments, remains unchanged.

We are similarly affected in Singapore. Because our economy is completely open and English is in widespread use, young Singaporeans enjoy much the same options as young Americans. The competition for talent is global whether we like it or not.

For parents and employers, these trends are unsettling. The war for talent will force companies to organise themselves better, and to be more responsive to the market. Companies have to market themselves to employees as "voluntary investors" the way they market themselves to financial investors.

The challenge is especially great for the public sector as an employer. We have no choice but to compete in the same arena for talent. How do we create schemes that are attractive enough so that individuals will want to invest their talent in the public service and grow with it? We are not just talking about risks and rewards, but also the quality of the work environment, opportunities for personal development and psychological and spiritual satisfaction.

A career in the public service should not only be financially rewarding, it should also be a challenge to do good, to make a difference to the lives of ordinary Singaporeans. There are many ways to make a difference. In the MTI family, we help to build infrastructure, create capabilities and improve conditions for sustained economic growth. What we do affects the lives of many people. What we do can improve or diminish the life prospects of the next generation of Singaporeans. This is the larger purpose we work for beyond our individual job assignments. Unlike the private sector, the public service is also a calling. It can provide a special job satisfaction not found in the private sector.

The Firefly idea will enhance our overall investment yield as individual investors in the public service. Through Firefly, MTI and its 6 economic promotion agencies, namely EDB, JTC, NSTB, PSB, TDB and STB, will be better able to compete for talent. By pooling our resources and increasing career choices, we will enhance our ability to recruit, nurture and retain good officers.

In our headhunt for Firefly talent, we will market the six statutory boards as a group. This offers the individual greater opportunities for personal development including overseas postings if that is the preference.

Talented Fireflies will have the opportunity to try different kinds of jobs, both within their parent agency and across agencies. This will help young Fireflies to broaden their perspective before specialising. This is especially important when the global economy is going through rapid change.

The Firefly idea will also enable experienced officers to acquire new expertise. Our goal is to make life-long learning a way of life, a part of our survival instinct. We hope that Fireflies will continue to "re-invest" in the MTI family and find their work rewarding and fulfilling.

This Firefly idea came about as a result of the recent leadership changes in our statutory boards. There was a strong feeling that we were not optimising our human resources by not cross-posting them at a young age. Mr Philip Yeo, in particular, believes passionately that the nurturing of young talent is the key to our long-term success.

In a similar way, we have to cross-post talent across the government ministries. This should not apply only to Administrative Officers. We are therefore starting a new Economist Service for the public sector. It will be an umbrella service for all economists working in government ministries and statutory boards, in the same way that the Legal and Accountancy Services are the umbrella services for lawyers and accountants in the public sector. MTI will drive the Economist Service.

As a specialist service, the Economist Service offers Public Sector Economists a challenging professional career with wide prospects. Like Fireflies, Public Sector Economists will have the opportunity to serve in different ministries and statutory boards in the course of their career. They can choose from a range of economic sub-specialties. With a single service, we will be better able to offer them better management and professional training. Remuneration in the Economist Service will be benchmarked against the salaries of economists in the private sector to ensure that we attract our share of the brightest economic brains in the country.

With the Economist Service, we hope to build up a core group of economic experts in various part of the public sector. As our economy becomes more complex and globalised, we need more sophisticated economic analysis of policy alternatives.

The Firefly idea and the Economist Service will help the public sector compete for the talent we need. While our economy has done well in the last four decades, the international competition is relentless. We have to work hard and work smart to stay ahead in the global game. Our ability to attract top talent will be decisive.

Having sound macroeconomic policies alone is not sufficient. We must also create conducive microeconomic environments for innovation, enterprise development and wealth creation. We have to harness the power of competition in specific domains. Every industry domain has its particular characteristics. ICT regulation, for example, is different from energy market management in important ways.

Looking ahead, there are three key challenges for the public sector in talent recruitment and management.

First, we have to attract a diversity of talent into our fold. Diversity is important because the future is often unpredictable.

Second, we have to develop officers with both breadth and depth. Not all officers are capable of both.

Third, we need to build a strong network of Fireflies and Public Sector Economists so that the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts. We will encourage not only professional interaction, but also social and intellectual networking. We are considering setting up a Firefly Academy to help our Fireflies and Economists interact, brainstorm ideas and learn from each other.

I congratulate the inter-agency team that has germinated and developed the Firefly idea. To implement it well, we have to learn from practical experience and make adjustments along the way. Firefly and the new Economist Service will make a difference to the quality of economic management in Singapore.

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