Speech By Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, Minister Of State For Finance And Transport, At The I-Cube Financial Treasure Hunt, 26 August 2006, 10.35 am At NUS Central Forum

Distinguished Guests

Members of I-Cube

Students and participants

Ladies and Gentlemen

Good morning,

1. I am delighted to see so many of you - young and enthusiastic participants - joining this morning's inaugural I-Cube Financial Treasure Hunt 2006.

2. It is never too young to be prudent and financially-savvy. The Government recognises the importance of financial education and financial management as a life skill for all. Hence, we launched the MoneySENSE programme to equip Singaporeans with basic money management and financial planning skills. Some of you may be aware of the talks, seminars and consumer guides that MoneySENSE has produced, reaching out to Singaporeans. Since its launch, MoneySENSE has organised more than 100 talks and seminars for over 15,000 Singaporeans, producing consumer guides with a circulation of over 1 million.

3. It is important that students be equipped with basic knowledge and skills to manage personal finances, and understand the risks of imprudent spending habits and investment decisions. MoneySENSE has thus been running several initiatives in schools. These include working with secondary schools and tertiary institutions to organise financial literacy board games and workshops; the ?MoneySENSE Ambassadors? Programme which encourages secondary school students to budget their pocket money and share what they have learnt about money management with fellow students. More recently, MoneySENSE also worked with the CPF Board to organise an Inter-Polytechnic Financial Education Outreach Programme at the polytechnics.

4. I am happy to see that the tertiary institutions are taking initiative to also run their own financial education projects to complement the national effort. Besides individually making efforts to help students become financially savvy, you also pool your resources together to organize larger events to reach out to more students.

5. Today's I-Cube Financial Treasure Hunt is evidence of the type of programmes that can be done because of close cooperation between the Investment Clubs from NUS, NTU and SMU. And I commend all of you for this.

6. In today's treasure hunt, you will be required to face financial challenges at each station with questions based on the themes of equities, bonds, personal finance, current financial affairs and derivatives. While you remain focused on your ultimate goal of finishing first, be sure that you have fun too.

7. Let me now take this opportunity to commend the organizers, who have no doubt worked tirelessly to plan and organize this event. I would also like to thank Citibank and The Business Times. They have made a wise investment decision to nurture our budding young investors. To the participants, I encourage you to continue to develop your interest in financial matters by taking part in similar events in the future.

8. It is my pleasure to now declare the I-Cube Financial Treasure Hunt 2006 officially open. I wish all of you an enjoyable and fruitful hunt ahead. Thank you.