Opening Address by Mr Lee Tzu Yang at the 2025 PSC Scholarships Award Ceremony

Opening Address by Mr Lee Tzu Yang, Chairman of the Public Service Commission, at the PSC Scholarships Award Ceremony on 25 July 2025

Guest of Honour, Mr Chan Chun Sing, Coordinating Minister for Public Services and Minister-in-Charge of the Public Service

Head of Civil Service, Mr Leo Yip

Members of the Public Service Commission

Awardees of the 2025 PSC Scholarships

Distinguished guests, family members, school leaders and friends

1. We are also honoured today by the presence of ambassadors and representatives from China, France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States. Your commitment to education, diplomacy and cultural exchange profoundly enriches our scholarship recipients’ experience. Thank you.

2. Now today is a proud day. Not just for you, our 60 PSC scholarship recipients, but also for all those who have helped you — your parents, your teachers, your friends who have supported you. Thank you all for helping to nurture these remarkable young men and women, for believing in them, and for encouraging them to join the Public Service.

3. To our scholars: you are here because of the promise you show for the future, and also because of the promise you make to serve your country and your people. I know you have been very busy rehearsing the performance for this afternoon. So please remember the scholarship holder’s pledge that you have been rehearsing. This is the beginning of your journey to making a difference to the lives of the community who made it possible for you to come this far. When you seek to achieve great things, remember not only skills and experience matter, but most important of all — your character, your commitment, and keeping the faith with others who believe in you. Carry that responsibility with humility, and let it remind you of the challenges that now lie ahead.

4. A commitment to Public Service is a promise to serve Singapore and Singaporeans. Unlike many in the private sector, you will not be able to choose who to serve. But you still must learn and understand the complexity of all the people that you serve in order to meet their needs and their aspirations. Your service to them is grounded in purpose – to build better lives – and can only be delivered if you retain their trust. I know you will still be tackling studies and examinations in these next few years, but your success is not only about these. It is about how you lead, how you serve, and how you learn to maintain the trust of others in you, to uplift their lives.

5. This year’s recipients of scholarships have a wide range in background and experience, and will pursue studies in fields in different environments. This reflects the diversity of strengths we seek in the Public Service.

6. In total, 52 out of 60 – or 87 per cent – of our scholarship recipients this year will be proceeding for their studies overseas. Twenty-eight will go to the United Kingdom, 19 to the United States, and five to Germany, France, and China. I am pleased that 87 per cent is the highest percentage of overseas scholarship studies in recent years.

7. The range of institutions and disciplines – from Computational Analysis and Public Policy at University of Chicago, Physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to Engineering at Tsinghua University in China – reflects the complexity of the world in which we live and must find our way.

8. This year also, we welcome our first recipient of the revamped PSC (Public Finance) Scholarship. Designed to groom future leaders for finance portfolios in the Public Service, the Public Finance scholarship now supports a wider range of disciplines, including Business, Economics, and Finance-related courses, in addition to what was previously Accountancy. Our inaugural recipient of the revamped PSC (Public Finance) Scholarship is Immanuel Lau, and he will pursue Politics and Economics at Northwestern University.

9. Whether studying locally or overseas, your opportunity is to look at what others do and learn from it, critically assess and apply not just brains but also your heart, to be curious but also discerning, in taking charge of your own development. Better understanding the world around us necessitates more than books or digital media, it requires building external networks of people with whom you can have good conversations, discussions and friendships. Your objective is not just to obtain a good degree, which I am sure all of you will, but you should use your opportunities wisely to understand how, for example, social policies impact different people, how science and business serve societies but can also present a threat if choices are not guided by ethics, and how, perhaps most important of all, good ideas are tested and shaped by realities.

10. Singapore’s Public Service is respected around the world. As you prepare for your career, please ask yourself what kind of leader do you want to become, and what can you do to be the best at it. Embrace literacy in new fields like digital and AI but keep people at the heart of your decision-making.

11. As I conclude, let me express our gratitude to the many partners who have made this possible — to our international partners and diplomatic missions; to our families, educators, university leaders and Public Service agencies.

12. And to our scholars — thank you for stepping forward to serve. I wish you every success in the journey ahead.