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Public transport key to 'grand project’ to rebuild and reinvent S’pore: PM Lee

SINGAPORE — Describing the public transport system as an important piece of the “grand project” to rebuild and reinvent Singapore, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said it is a “multi-level design” issue that requires engineering, economic and socio-political solutions.

SINGAPORE — Describing the public transport system as an important piece of the “grand project” to rebuild and reinvent Singapore, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said it is a “multi-level design” issue that requires engineering, economic and socio-political solutions.

The public transport system is more than just buses and train carriages, said Mr Lee on Thursday (Apr 05) at a ministerial forum organised by the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD).

Aside from connecting places, and people, it is also an economic mobiliser and social equaliser, added Mr Lee. He also pointed out that while everyone wants a high quality, efficient, reliable and cost-effective public transport system, no one likes it when public transport fares increase.

But the authorities have to give the public assurance that the system is well-run and fair, and that the fare hikes are necessary and justified, he added.

Mr Lee said in his speech: “That’s a political problem, you can do the sums, you can make the audits, you can consult the managers but finally, you’ve got to talk to Singaporeans, the users, the population and persuade people the system is working well, working for them and they have to support it.”

Addressing the issue of the public transport system as an engineering problem, Mr Lee said it has to be resolved by mapping out the network to get the right connections and coverage, and tap on the correct technology and engineering methods.

There needs to be sufficient capacity to support present and future needs, as well as design the system for easy and effective maintenance so that the trains can run safely and reliably, he noted.

In order to tackle the system’s economic problem, the authorities have to think about how to structure the industry so that the various players — including operators, asset owners, the Government and the commuters — are incentivised to do the right things, and ensure that the system runs well.

Mr Lee added: “How should each party be paid for their services? Should they be incentivised by profits so that they watch their bottom line and that they save every dollar, or reimbursed for costs so they don’t hold back when they need to spend and when costs really go up? How much should commuters pay? How much should the Government subsidise their fares?”

Calling them “difficult questions”, Mr Lee said that they have to “think through carefully” when designing the system.

He added: “Each possible answer has its pluses and minuses. We have to evaluate the trade-offs carefully and holistically, decide what will work best, on the whole, for Singapore.”

QUESTION & ANSWER WITH PM LEE

After his speech, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spent about half-an-hour taking questions from the students. The questions touched on individuals whom PM Lee admires, Singapore’s political system, and artificial intelligence, among other things. Here is an excerpt from the dialogue:

Q: Do you think it is by design, for our country to have a one-party democracy? And given the increasing desire from the younger generation to have more diverse voices in the Government, is it time to reexamine our political system?

PM Lee: First of all, it is not a one-party democracy, it is a multi-party democracy. But it is a multi-party democracy in which one party is dominant. It did not start out like this, if you studied the history of it, you will know that we started off with very rambunctious parties, very lively and intense politics. And it became like this through a series of accidents of history, as well as the effort by the PAP in early years to stretch out to become a national movement.

I think that has worked well for Singapore. You are now in this position where you have one party which is in a strong position, and you have other parties which are trying to make headway. Does it mean it will always be like that? I do not think so. I think it depends first, on how well the PAP can perform and secondly, how well the opposition can convince people that they can do better than the Government, or that the Government is doing things wrong… There is no certainty in these things…

If the population supports the PAP and you say, well, I now will purposely cut back so that somebody else can grow bigger, I don’t think that’s wise or even a workable thing to do. Because in a small country like Singapore, it is hard enough for us to build one team which will work well. My approach is we try our darndest to make this work well, to get good people to work for Singapore. And they have to be good people on both sides, in the government, in the leadership but also in the opposition. You need honest and straight people who want to do good for the country…

There are many possible ways to design the system. Unfortunately, there is no way which is ideal and there is no answer which is foolproof. And it is one of those situations where the more you have a safety net for the performer, the more dangerous the stunts the performer will do…

But I would say we make the system work and we adjust incrementally from what is working.

For example, we’ve created Non-Constituency Members of Parliament (NCMPs). Why? Because we wanted to have the advantages of a system where one party can be very strong and yet will never completely shut out the others. So we’ve got up to nine NCMPs now, I think in the next election there will be up to 12 NCMPs, and we hope they will make a contribution…

If you have the right people… they will be able to stand up and hold the government to account… and make an impact. And then in the next election, they will win more. If we don’t have the right team, you can have 20, 30 (opposition members) because of proportional representation, (but) it will not be of help… And a proof of that is the PAP before they came into power, they had three seats in the Legislative Assembly, Mr Lee Kuan Yew was one of them… Today, they don’t have such a person in the opposition.

Q: My research is about how to use Artificial Intelligence or AI to help the design process. My question is, some people say AI may take away job opportunities for humans in the future. In your opinion, how should Singapore develop AI so that it will not take away job opportunities but actually create more? How can we compete with big nations like China and America in terms of AI capabilities?

PM Lee: AI is going to progress. (There are) developments around the world, the Americans are doing it, the Chinese are doing it, I’m sure the Russians are doing it too. And we in Singapore, we have some researchers in this field, in SUTD as well as in the other universities. The developments we will benefit from are what we can develop ourselves, but also what is happening in other countries in the world…

What I need to be able to do is to make sure that my people in Singapore are able make a living, and to be able to contribute and add value even when AI exists. And it depends how fast it happens. If you look at driverless cars for example or driverless buses, it’s completely possible, it takes time but it will happen. If overnight, we can have all our buses driverless, Then I have several thousand bus drivers – or probably even more than that – who may be displaced and who will have to find new jobs. But if this happens over a period of time... then that is time for me, for the next generation, instead of becoming bus drivers, they can become something else. They can become bus engineers, they can become planners or they can become people who are running the company. And that will enable us to displace and to adjust…

I think that it means that we must master the skills. If you are in IT, then you should learn about the technology. If you are not in IT, you should learn how to make use of the technology.... you should still keep up to date, well at least be familiar, read about it so that you can use it as an ordinary person, as a lay person who is not intimidated by what’s happening in the world.

Q: Singapore has this arms race going cashless since your announcement last August. But many merchants have not made the great leap to go fully cashless. Has the Singapore government considered maybe imposing on cap on transaction fees to make cashless (transactions) more affordable for such merchants?

PM Lee: Well, actually some of the systems are on very low transaction fees, even almost zero because they are trying to get people on to their system. It has not yet caught on in a big way. Transaction costs are something which we have to watch, because if it actually costs a lot of money to operate the cashless system... then that makes it a much less desirable thing to do. But there are ways to bring the costs down and I think we should try our best to do it.

Cashless is one of these chicken and egg problems, everybody needs to do it and then everybody will feel that it is good to do. We are trying to breakthrough, we have some good apps. Each of the banks have their own apps, and we’ve got a system called PayNow so that even with different banks I can pay you... We are making progress, not as fast as I would like, but we are making progress. And I hope that if SUTD students have a better idea how to make the apps, and would like to make a startup, to make a breakthrough, please go for it. Because you’ll never know if you do manage to do that, it will make all the difference to the system.

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