Welcome Address by Ms Indranee Rajah, Minister in The Prime Minister's Office, Second Minister for Finance, at The Asia Sustainable Infrastructure Advisory ("ASIA") Panel Discussion 2021, on 8 November 2021, at Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre

ASIA Panel members, 

Distinguished Speakers,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. A very warm welcome to the Asia Sustainable Infrastructure Advisory (or ASIA) Panel discussion. Earlier today, we kickstarted the ASIA Panel meeting with a discussion on the “Future of Infrastructure”. We emphasised the need to embrace technology and innovative financing solutions to support Asia’s growth areas. 

2. This afternoon’s theme is “Technology in Infrastructure: Technology to Drive Sustainable Infrastructure”. This discussion is co-organised with the United Nations Environment Programme.

It is timely to drive the adoption of technology for sustainable and resilient infrastructure in Asia 

3. The climate crisis has heightened the need to develop sustainable infrastructure. Climate-proofing infrastructure against extreme weather events, as well as reducing the carbon footprint of our cities’ buildings and urban infrastructure, are key priorities. 

4. Implementing technology at every stage of the infrastructure value chain will help identify and analyse user needs, lower the costs of labour-intensive operations, and enable predictive maintenance.

5. Given the clear benefits of technology-enabled infrastructure in delivering better resilience and sustainability, we hope to see more pervasive application of technology for countries to meet their climate goals.

ASIA Panel will help shape the region’s sustainable infrastructure focus

6. Singapore has a vibrant infrastructure ecosystem which can offer technological solutions for the region’s sustainable infrastructure needs. This ecosystem developed in response to the need to overcome a key constraint – which is Singapore’s land scarcity. This spurred us into developing technical strengths by embracing technology across many sectors.

7. We now have some of the world’s most compact desalination plants and integrated waste management facilities, which provide a model for land-scarce cities to manage their water and waste sustainably. We have also come a long way in transitioning to cleaner energy sources. Drawing on our experience, we are developing microgrid platforms to support the distribution of renewable energy to remote communities across Asia.

Conclusion

8. Today, we are excited to showcase frontier and proven technological solutions from the Singapore-based ecosystem. This can help accelerate the region’s adoption of technologies. At the same time, new technological solutions will also need to be developed to address emerging needs in the region. Together with the ASIA Panel, I welcome all of you to contribute to the conversation.

9. I encourage all of you to make full use of this platform to forge new connections and share ideas on how we can leverage technology to build a more sustainable future. Thank you all very much.