Speech by Mr Leo Yip at the Annual Public Service Leadership Ceremony 2025

Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong,
Minister Chan Chun Sing,
Chairman and Members of the Public Service Commission,
Colleagues and Friends,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

1.            A very good afternoon to all of you and thank you very much for being here.

2.             Let me start with some words of appreciation and commendation. Firstly, I thank the 19 Public Service Leaders who have retired or are relinquishing their appointments this year. You will see their names later, but I want to commend and thank each of them for their contributions and dedicated service.

3.            I would like to specially thank four of my colleagues who had stepped down as Permanent Secretaries earlier this year – Mr Chan Yeng Kit, Mrs Ow Foong Pheng, Ms Tan Ching Yee, and Mr Jeffrey Siow. I worked closely with each of them over the years, and I truly value very much their camaraderie. And I, on all of your behalf, thank them for their significant contributions, their leadership and decades of dedicated service.

4.            I also congratulate the 20 officers who have been appointed as Public Service Leaders, and the 111 officers appointed to the Public Service Leadership Programme (PSLP). I welcome them on board this leadership journey.

SG60: Leadership Reflections

5.            Every year, at this gathering, we reaffirm our commitment as leaders of the Public Service. This year is especially significant because we celebrate 60 years of our nation’s independence – 60 years since our improbable beginning as a nation.

6.            Our Public Service has played an important role in this improbable success story. This includes each and every one of you, as leaders in the Public Service.

            a.    I thank each and every one of you for your hard work, and leadership across the service.

7.            In this SG60 year, it is timely for us to reflect on the public service leadership we need to contribute to the next chapter of nation-building.

8.            Our governance system has indeed been the cornerstone of Singapore’s exceptionalism.

            a.    But as the world changes, and as our own society evolves, we must continue to strengthen this governance system to sustain Singapore’s exceptionalism.

9.            We are navigating an era of great change, great uncertainty, and high volatility. Global economic shifts, the relentless pace of digital transformation, and climate change are just some of the challenges that define our times.

10.         For Singapore to remain exceptional, we must maintain the balance between continuity and change – continuing what has worked well, whilst being open to effecting change to respond to new circumstances.

11.         This afternoon, I want to highlight two areas where we must drive significant change as public service leaders, and also two areas where we must sustain continuity.

Our International Work

12.         One area of change is our work to safeguard Singapore’s place in the world and protect our interests internationally.

13.         The international landscape has become more fragmented, volatile, and dangerous, with heightened geopolitical tensions.

            a.    Today, the language of diplomacy coexists with the language of conflict, with terms like “war” appearing quite frequently in the global lexicon.  

14.         The concept of “geo-economics” has also gained prominence in recent years, as countries use economic tools to secure strategic industries and achieve not just economic but geopolitical objectives.

a.    So we have transited from an era of globalisation and free trade, to one characterised by fragmentation, protectionism and industrial policy.

15.         At the same time, we are seeing more complex global challenges in areas like cybersecurity, climate change, and artificial intelligence.

            a.    These are problems of the global commons that demand collective action.

            b.    Yet, at a time when cross-border collaboration is more critical than ever, some countries are choosing to turn inward.

16.         How then would our work change to better secure Singapore’s interests on the international front? I just want to list four. There are many others, but these four give you a flavour of the changes we need to steer in the years to come:

            a.    We will need to work more closely with other like-minded countries for mutual benefit and identify new areas of collaboration.  

            b.    We will need to work with other countries to shape international norms and rules to address emerging threats like cybersecurity, and tackle existential challenges such as climate change.

            c.    We also need to refresh our policies to secure critical supply chains for Singapore. Let us not forget one of the lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic.

            d.    We will also need to strengthen our measures to prevent foreign interference and coercion, and ensure that these measures remain fit for purpose as the threats evolve.

17.         Much of this work will require new capabilities and new ways of organising ourselves, so that we can work coherently as One Public Service.

18.         Today, every Ministry—not just the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), not just the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI)—has international-facing work. MFA has strengthened its own strategic planning capabilities in the past couple of years, while other ministries have also developed new international policy capabilities.

19.         Developing our people will be critical to doing this new work well. We are systematically identifying and developing officers for this sort of international work across different policy domains and Ministries, and availing these officers with opportunities to gain overseas experience.

20.         As leaders, we must ourselves also develop the competencies to lead such work.

            a.    This starts with recognising which aspects of international work we need to better understand, knowing what international networks we need to build, and making the effort to close these gaps. 

Mastering Technology

21.         The second area of change is on mastering technology.

22.         Technological progress, driven by advancements in computing power, software, data, and now AI, is accelerating at an unprecedented pace. Never before, in the history of mankind, has technology advanced at this speed. To harness this change, we must keep innovating.

23.         DPM Gan spoke about the importance of being open to using AI in our work. This is a salient topic, so let me add a perspective about the change that we must drive, as public service leaders.

24.         As leaders, we must not only understand the technology but master how it is deployed in our organisations. And I stress the word ‘master’. This means we must seek to mainstream AI and digitalisation into our core work processes — what we do on a daily basis in our organisations, to transform how we work, and reap significant productivity gains.

25.         Technology strategy is not just the responsibility of technology teams — it is a leadership imperative. This is because technology today can transform how our organisations operate. And change management and organisational transformation is the responsibility of leadership. Countries, governments, and companies who do this well will gain a competitive edge.

26.         As DPM Gan outlined earlier, many of our Ministries and agencies are already using these technologies, particularly AI, to improve ops processes and service delivery.

27.         But more can be done. As leaders, we should lead by example and integrate AI into our own daily work.

28.         This starts with using the suite of AI tools that are already available to us today within the Public Service, and the full range of capabilities that they offer.

            a.    For instance, we can create AI assistants on Pair and AIBots to help us with a variety of work tasks –summarising lengthy reports, drafting speeches and so on.

            b.    I recently learnt that some of my colleagues have even created an AIBot that they are training to write speeches that sound like me! Very imaginatively, they have named this AIBot, LeoLM.

29.         Over the past year, the Permanent Secretaries and Senior Public Service Leaders have undergone digital training on topics such as modernising digital systems, cybersecurity and data.

            a.    In fact, my Perm Sec colleagues and I have attended eight of such training sessions. Each session is about two hours. That is an investment of time and effort.

            b.    These sessions help us to stay on top of the technology, so that we can make better decisions in driving digital strategy, building capabilities, and effecting change through digital and AI technologies.

30.         In fact, just this morning, the Perm Secs completed a training session on AI.

            a.    We saw how AI agents were able to generate a slide deck distilling all media and public sentiments relevant to a particular Ministry, arising from the President’s Address at the opening of Parliament.  

            b.    This was done by the AI agent in just a few minutes, with a single prompt.

            c.    Of course, much more human work would be needed to refine such a deck of slides, but this draft produced by the AI agent was already a good start. If left to our own human effort, some of us might not have gone past the first slide of the deck!

            d.    Just imagine how much time each of us would save, if we can master AI and learn how to effectively prompt it to support our work.  And I stress, on a daily basis.

31.         Earlier this year, the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) rolled out a refreshed digital leadership programme for Directors, which covers topics on product development, resilience, and cybersecurity.

32.         We will progressively equip every public officer with what I call “DDA” skills – digital, data, and AI – so that all officers will have the proficiency to use these tools to do their work better.   

33.         Let me now move quickly to continuity, the second part of the duality of managing continuity and change.

Working as One Public Service

34.         Even as our operating context continues to change, there are some things that will remain constant..

35.         Our ability to work effectively as One Public Service, rather than as a group of disparate Ministries, is a key strength.

            a.    This alignment enables coherent and co-ordinated action across the entire service.

            b.    This alignment will be even more critical, given the challenges and opportunities that we now face.

36.         I just cite one example that underscores this, and this is data sharing across our agencies.

37.         We can now harness data to do all sorts of things — improve policy making, ops processes, and service delivery. We have developed a Government Data Architecture to facilitate data sharing across our agencies. The technology is there, the architecture is there. But we will only be able to harness the full potential of data for our work, if we think and work and share data as One Public Service. We have made progress along this front but we can do better.

38.         Agencies that own data must not only maintain it for their own use but also make it accessible to other agencies. This requires a certain mindset and requires a certain set of responsibilities

            a.    This means building their IT systems in a way that enables data to be easily extracted, properly managed and readily  shared. It also means they have to improve the quality of the data for data consuming agencies, and providing timely updates on data changes.

            b.    Data consuming agencies, in turn, must safeguard and use the shared data with utmost responsibility.

39.         And all of us as leaders must set the tone for this to happen. As data dependencies grow across agencies, one agency relying on another agency for their data, we must lead our agencies to ensure that data is effectively shared and safeguarded — not just within our agencies, but across the entire Public Service.  

Leading our People

40.         Another aspect of continuity is the importance of leadership in positively impacting our people. Leadership is fundamentally relational – people are led by other people, not by artificial systems, however intelligent those systems may be. I leave you with three points on public service leadership for you to reflect upon.   

41.         First, public service leadership is about having the courage to do what is difficult. As our operating environment evolves, all of us as leaders will need to drive change within our organisations. That is a given.

            a.    Leading change can be unsettling — it disrupts our comfort zone and creates anxiety.

            b.    It is our role, as leaders, to guide our people through uncertainty of change, earn their trust, and convince them that the road  of change is the right one.

            c.    Leadership is therefore about forging bonds, inspiring action, and galvanising hearts and minds.

42.         Second, public service leadership is about purpose.

            a.    Even as our work, policies, programmes, and capabilities change, the purpose of our work will not change.

            b.    Public service leadership is about expressing and exemplifying this enduring purpose: the purpose of serving Singapore and Singaporeans, improving lives, and making Singapore better.

43.         And finally, a public service leader’s heart must always be in the right place – with their people, and for their people, rather than for themselves.

            a.    As the saying goes, “People don’t care about how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

            b.    People give of their best when they believe in the purpose, and know that their leader genuinely cares, for them and the work that they do. 

44.         Let me end off by sharing a few precepts from a leadership book which I came across many years ago, that continue to resonate strongly with me through the years: 

45.         A leader is one:

Who takes a little greater share of the blame, and a little smaller share of the credit;

Who leads himself successfully, before attempting to lead others;

Who works for the good of others—in our case, the public good— and not for personal gain;

Who inspires and motivates, rather than intimidates; and

Who never places himself above others, except in carrying responsibilities.

46.         Let us strive to always be such a leader.

Conclusion

47.         In conclusion,

48.         Singapore is facing winds of change that are stronger than before, but also new waves of opportunity that are bigger than before – opportunities from the growth of Asia, the promise of technology, and the innovation and enterprise of our fellow Singaporeans. These are opportunities for a brighter future for Singapore and Singaporeans.

49.         At the same time, the complexity and cross-cutting nature of the work of our Public Service has grown. So has the complexity of leadership and exercising leadership in our Public Service.

50.         To rise to this challenge, we must lead new work, master new technologies, and organise our work and agencies to be fit for purpose for the changing times.

51.         As leaders, we must also commit to continuous growth and development. What we ask of people, we must do ourselves. We must keep asking ourselves how we can improve, and take deliberate steps to become the best version of a leader that we can be.

52.         Above all, we must lead with clarity and conviction — so that we can articulate purpose to our people, inspire them, and embody the values we want to see in those we lead.

53.         We owe this to the people we serve, to the teams we lead, and to the Public Service that we are proud to be a part of.

54.         Thank you.