[MUSIC]
Two summers ago, I was sitting in my living room glued to the TV screen.
The most important race of the Olympic Games, Rio 2016,
was about to begin, the men's 100 meter butterfly swim final.
Now, let me set something straight, I am not a sports fan.
>> [LAUGH]
>> I barely even make it to Arillaga Gym
and I live there just across the street. >> [LAUGH]
>> But this race was different.
The usual big names were swimming.
Michael Phelps from the US, Chad Le Clos from South Africa.
They were the favorites touted to win.
It was going to be a very tight race.
But these weren't the guys I was watching the race for, I was rooting for
a young boy called Joseph Schooling from a little country called Singapore.
Now, I want you to watch lane 4 with me. >> Clear almost.
Can he hold on? >> Is he going to make it,
is he going to make it? >> History in the pool, but
we are history that comes Singapore. >> [NOISE] Did you
see that? >> [LAUGH]
>> And my necklace is still in place.
>> An Olympic gold medal, and
an Olympic record time. >> Did you guys see that?
>> [LAUGH]
>> My jump but also his win.
>> [LAUGH]
>> Our first Olympic gold as a country.
50 years of independence, and our first gold.
And I still remember the pride I felt when they played our anthem and
raised our flag.
The tears that came to my eyes, and I was just sitting there watching my TV screen.
That was probably one of the proudest moments in our country's young history.
But the odds were stacked against us, so
few people thought we will make it to the final, much less make it to the top.
But our boy, Joseph, he had a dream.
David against Goliath.
The little country that beat the odds.
That day, Joseph fulfilled his own dream, but
he also fulfilled the dreams of an entire nation who pinned its hopes on him.
I'm not a competitive athlete, I'm a public servant, but
in so many ways, it's really not that different.
I think about how competitive my country is going to be in the global race for
talent, resources, investments, development.
I think about what nation my country wants to be and how we're going to get there.
How do you build a nation?
A nation is built on stories like Joseph's.
Stories of dreams, your dreams, mine, our families,
our communities, but also the blood, and the sweat,
and the tears that we put in to get us to where we are.
Even Martin Luther King had a dream.
A nation is built on all those dreams, and
the discipline, and the sacrifice that got us here.
Just 50 years ago, Singapore was a third-world country,
newly independent from the British, no natural resources.
It was during this time my grandparents raised a family,
when the country had almost nothing.
There were no industries, no jobs.
It was about survival then, not about dreams.
My mum growing up remembers one packet of noodles being
shared amongst five children.
One pair of shoes passed down from child to child.
By the time it got to my youngest aunt, it was tattered and torn.
My grandfather could only find employment as a clerk at the police force, and even
then, his meager salary of $200 a month wasn't enough to raise a family of six,
and so he had to double up as a watchman at night.
Life was tough but that was life then.
Everyone thought that this new country would fail.
You couldn't even find us on the map. >> [LAUGH]
>> We're that small.
But that didn't deter us.
Our leaders were determined that this little country,
we would not just survive, we would thrive.
Now, the US had 300 years of development to get to where it was at that time.
We didn't have the luxury of time and so
we embarked on industrialization and globalization at the same time.
Because they knew then that in order for this country to make it,
they had to create employment,
create economy, but most of all create an environment where people could hope,
could aspire and could dream.
And so we went out to look for companies.
We went out to look for investments, and we realized that the only way anyone was
going to invest in us was if we offered them something that other people couldn't.
Stability, transparency, and a pro basis environment.
It meant everybody had to fall in line, including the unions.
And so they came in droves.
Some of our earliest investors, American companies, Hewlett-Packard,
Texas Instruments, they're are still there today.
And they came because of the political stability, because of the determination of
the people, and because of the commitment of the government.
So they built factories, hired thousands of people.
People including my family members, their neighbors and their friends.
By their very presence, these companies required local services.
And so that gave my parents the chance to be small business owners,
start their own company, be their own boss, because that was their dream.
And, as Singapore came from third world to first,
my family also moved up socially and economically.
And by the time they got to me, I could be anything I wanted to be, I could be
a doctor, an entrepreneur, Miss Universe. >> [LAUGH]
>> That was a privilege I grew up with.
I speak three languages, I've lived on three continents,
I love Shakespeare's soliloquies as much as I love Elvis's Blue Suede Shoes.
>> [LAUGH]
>> And I'm just as comfortable having
burritos for lunch at Arbuckle as I am having Chinese food.
I am who I am because of my family, and also because of my country.
A country which today has a per capita GDP comparable to that of the US,
and we're just 5.5 million people.
We also have one of the most spectacular skylines.
>> [LAUGH]
>> Not biased.
>> [LAUGH]
>> I didn't end up being a doctor or
an entrepreneur, and I guess not Miss Universe either.
>> [LAUGH]
>> I found my calling in the public
service, where I get to make people's dreams come true,
whether they aspire to be that entrepreneur, that doctor,
start their own business, be the next Mark Zuckerberg.
Spend the rest of their lives coding in front of a computer, or
networking with the world's business leaders.
My job is to make those dreams come true.
I get to build industries, I get to bring world's best companies to Singapore.
Why? So that I can create the economy,
the employment, and the environment so
that these people's dreams can come true.
So we've won the gold.
Where do we go from here?
What got us here 50 years ago is not going to get us to the next 50 years.
Economic empowerment brought us social mobility but
it also brought a whole host of challenges, like social inequality.
And we have to address those challenges as we build the next 50 years,
the next 100 years, as we continue to build the country for people to dream.
We started off as a nation that beat the odds.
We did it with discipline, hard work, sacrifice.
When Joseph Schooling won that gold medal and he brought it home,
he embodied not just our dreams, but all the values that make us a nation.
50 years ago, we would never have imagine
the day we would win an Olympic gold medal.
And we did, with our dreams and with our values.
And, if Singapore can beat the odds, this little country,
then perhaps other cities and other countries can too.
After all a nation is built on dreams.
Thank you.
>> [APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC]