SJI Educators Dialogue Engagement with Mrs Tan Ching Yee, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance

In the face of a fast-evolving operating environment and technological disruptions, we have to guard against complacency and entitlement, be it on an individual level or as a small city-state. This was one of the key messages from Mrs Tan Ching Yee, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, at a dialogue engagement with SJI educators.

Mrs Tan began the session by highlighting the key global and domestic trends that Singapore cannot ignore. They include geopolitical tensions, demographic challenges, technological disruptions, and climate change. In particular, on green transition, she spoke about the trade-offs between pace of decarbonisation, economic competitiveness and fiscal sustainability.

Against this backdrop, Mrs Tan elaborated on how Singapore’s fiscal policies – balancing between fiscal sustainability, growth, and equity – enable us to meet our challenges and capture opportunities.

SJI educators also took the opportunity to hear from Mrs Tan about how we could work together as a school community to ensure that Josephians are future-ready, through inculcating the right values, attitudes and skills. She stressed the importance of lifelong learning and encouraged educators to be the role model for our younger generations.

As part of Q&A, Mrs Tan also shared about the strengthening of social support in Singapore, the significance of and opportunities in ASEAN, and the considerations behind our tax regime. In closing, Mrs Tan affirmed SJI’s core values of service and community, and encouraged the Josephian community to continue contributing towards our refreshed social compact anchored in unity and inclusiveness.

We are grateful to Mrs Tan for her generosity and insights based on her extensive experiences across the public service. The dialogue certainly enriched our educators, and we look forward to more opportunities to learn together as a community!