Acceptance Speech By President Halimah Yacob at the Conferement of Honorary Professorship

His Excellency Sayasat Nurbek, Minister of Science and Higher Education

Her Excellency Zulfiya Suleimenova, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources

President of Nazarbayev University Shigeo Katsu

Excellencies

Distinguished Guests

Faculty and students of Nazarbayev University

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Introduction

Good morning. I am very happy today to visit the Nazarbayev University, a modern research university in the heart of Eurasia. Visiting this esteemed university and meeting its faculty and students is a happy occasion for me, as I also serve as Chancellor of the National University of Singapore, Singapore’s oldest university, of which I am a proud alumnus.

Let me first state that I am honoured to receive this Honorary Professorship from Nazarbayev University. I know that I am following in proud traditions as I wear this gown. I would like to express my deep appreciation to His Excellency President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, His Excellency Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Nazarbayev University, and the University’s President Shigeo Katsu for the honour. It has made my State Visit to Kazakhstan all the more special. 

I am also pleased to visit Nazarbayev University given its close connections with the National University of Singapore. Singapore and Kazakhstan both place a high premium on the quality of leaders in the public service. Both aim to train and groom leaders for future roles. The Nazarbayev University’s Graduate School of Public Policy (GSPP) has a longstanding partnership with the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP). I am pleased that this partnership has developed over the years. The current Dean of the GSPP is a Singaporean, Professor Hui Weng Tat, who has spent almost eight years in Astana; I think he has now become an honorary Kazakh! 

Singapore–Kazakhstan Relations

The strong partnership between the GSPP and the LKYSPP is symptomatic of the warm friendship between Singapore and Kazakhstan. 2023 marks the 30^th anniversary of our diplomatic ties. To commemorate this milestone, I am happy to be the first Singapore President to make a State Visit to Kazakhstan and Central Asia, although this is not my first visit to Astana.

Since my last visit in 2017 in my previous capacity as Speaker of the Singapore Parliament, I am amazed to see Astana’s pace of development, which is now brimming with new buildings and facilities. After my arrival on Sunday, I visited the impressive Astana Grand Mosque, the biggest mosque in Central Asia and was graciously received by the Grand Mufti. I appreciated the opportunity to go up the minaret. I am sure the Grand Mosque will be visited by many tourists in Astana in the years to come.

Singapore-Kazakhstan relations were built on the foundation of strong personal ties between our leaders. Our engagement dates back to Kazakhstan’s pre-independence days, when our founding Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew had first visited Kazakhstan in 1991. Over the last three decades, there has been a healthy exchange of visits between both sides. The baton is now passed on to a new generation of leaders to advance the relationship. We are fortunate that President Tokayev is no stranger to Singapore and has many friends there. He had served in Singapore as a diplomat in the 1970s and has first-hand experience of the Singapore story. I had the pleasure of hosting him in Singapore in 2016 and meeting him again in Astana in 2017. We had very productive discussions yesterday, where we reaffirmed the warm and longstanding relations between our countries and discussed ways to expand cooperation in areas such as supply chain resilience, digitalisation and sustainability.

I welcomed President Tokayev’s interest and efforts in fostering stronger exchanges between Central Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Our two regions are part of a broader Asia and we share a common interest in promoting peace and stability, without which economic growth and development cannot take place. It is also in our interest to work towards an open and inclusive regional architecture where all countries, big or small, have equal rights and can settle disputes peacefully.

Excellencies

Ladies and gentlemen,

Forging Ahead Together

Despite our different national circumstances and developmental needs, there is scope for our countries to share experiences and work together on common challenges. I would like to share my thoughts on three areas which are close to my heart.

First, education. From the beginning of our nation-building years, Singapore has invested resources to build up our human capital. In more recent years, we have endeavoured to better customise learning to cater to students’ diverse abilities, and to close learning gaps earlier in life. We are working to create more porosity and diversity in education pathways, to give our students more opportunities to pursue education suited to their needs and passions. Singapore values diverse abilities and strives to develop our students holistically. We are freeing up more time and space in schools to focus on developing core values and competencies for the future. We have set up initiatives to rally our community and schools to uplift students from disadvantaged backgrounds to achieve their full potential. We are also strengthening efforts to create more inclusive environments in schools for students with Special Educational Needs.

We recognise the importance of life-long learning and are working towards increasing support for skills upgrading and reskilling for adult learners. I am glad to learn that education is one of the main pillars in Kazakhstan’s “2050 Strategy”. Kazakhstan’s “National Development Plan 2025” is aimed at improving access to high quality education through investments in infrastructure and promoting inclusive educational policies throughout Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan also seeks to promote innovation and the upgrading of skills, as well as align the needs of aspiring graduates with the ever-evolving requirements of the domestic workforce. In fact, I understand that Nazarbayev University offers their students opportunities for internships and job placements with industry partners to apply their skills in real-world settings. These experiences are crucial in building up valuable human capital necessary for the labour market. I welcome and encourage more faculty and student exchanges between Singapore and Kazakhstan, which will not only bring about greater people-to-people interactions but facilitate the sharing of knowledge and best practices.

Second, women empowerment. In Singapore, we have made good progress on women’s development.  Singapore is ranked 7^th worldwide for gender equality in the latest UN Human Development Report. Almost half our university graduates are women. Women make up almost 30% of our Parliament, higher than the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s average of 26.1%. Nonetheless, more can and needs to be done. Last year, we published the White Paper on Singapore Women’s Development, after a year-long, nationwide engagement. It reflects our shared vision towards a fairer and more inclusive society, where men and women partner each other as equals, and both can pursue their aspirations freely and fully. Under this partnership approach, men and women support each other in all arenas, including in the workplace and in the family. This is essential as families are the bedrock of Asian societies like ours. Families impart values that we carry with us through life, and shape how we care for others. Families are where equal partnership between men and women is nurtured and promoted. The White Paper sets out action plans by the Government and in partnership with the community, in areas most salient to women. One key area is on equal opportunities in the workplace. Therefore, the Singapore Government is working with the employers and unions to strengthen workplace fairness, including through legislation. We will entrench flexible work arrangements as a workplace norm, to enable both men and women to better balance work and caregiving responsibilities.

Beyond legislation and policies, a whole-of-society effort is needed to break gender stereotypes, and shift mindsets. For example, employers can foster family-friendly workplaces and adopt progressive workplace practices to empower men and women to achieve their career aspirations while fulfilling their roles at home. I am glad to learn that Kazakhstan is one of the first Central Asian countries to establish a national entity, the “National Commission on Women, Family and Demographic Policy”, to promote gender equality, as well as its plans to increase the share of women at decision-making levels in executive, representative and judicial authorities by 2030. Women make up almost half of Kazakhstan’s workforce, with a respected 55% of women working in the civil service. Kazakhstan’s women are highly educated, passionate and driven individuals, and have been a large contributing factor to Kazakhstan’s growth on all fronts. This includes Professor Kunsulu Zakariya, the developer of Kazakhstan’s COVID vaccine (QazVac), who was appointed by President Tokayev as the President of the National Academy of Sciences. As a former parliamentarian, I am also heartened that women make up 18.4% percent of parliamentarians in Kazakhstan. I welcome Kazakhstan to share its experience in women leadership development as this is an area of interest in Singapore too.

Third, interfaith dialogue. My visit to the Astana House of Friendship on Sunday reminds me of Singapore, as a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society. Social stability, cohesion and the integration and inclusion of diverse backgrounds within our society are key tenets of our social harmony. There are many religious groups in Singapore and their leaders strongly believe in interfaith dialogues and friendships. For example, the Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO) in Singapore, the oldest inter-faith grouping, having existed since 1949, regularly holds dialogues to share experiences, perspectives, especially among youth grassroots leaders, to support each other in the practice of their faith. At the grassroots level, we also have the Racial and Religious Harmony Circles that bring together religious and community leaders, building trust, understanding and shared experience in each neighbourhood. More recently, I also launched the Harmony Champions Programme, a collaboration between non-profit organisation Roses of Peace and Temasek Foundation to nurture young leaders in Singapore to become champions of interfaith harmony.

In keeping with Kazakhstan’s rich experience in promoting multi-religious and multi-ethnic dialogue, you have established the influential Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, which you have regularly hosted for the past 20 years. The 7^th iteration of the Congress in 2022 was attended by more than 100 religious leaders from 50 countries, including His Holiness Pope Francis and His Eminence the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayeb.

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Kazakhstan to contribute to the International Conference of Cohesive Societies (ICCS) which Singapore had hosted in 2019 and 2022. I had mooted the ICCS to bring together eminent experts and faith leaders to promote interfaith and multicultural dialogue. At a time when many societies are becoming more polarised and divisive, it is even more critical to think about what unites us despite our differences, and improve the quality of our conversations, relationships and practice as we build more cohesive societies for the future. I believe Kazakhstan’s experience in this important area would be useful to other countries. 

Excellencies

Ladies and Gentlemen,

SG-Central Asia Capacity Building Programme

While Singapore has made progress since our independence in 1965, we certainly do not have all the answers and there is a need for countries to tailor their polices to suit their own circumstances. Nonetheless, we are humbled and glad to share our experiences with our partners and friends around the world. Under the Singapore Cooperation Programme, we have hosted close to 150,000 foreign officials since 1992 in various programmes, including in Public Administration, Civil Aviation and Finance. I am happy to witness the signing of a MOU yesterday with President Tokayev for Singapore and Kazakhstan to collaborate on a pilot programme to provide capacity building programmes for Central Asian countries in areas such as public administration, civil aviation, environment, urban development, and trade negotiations. This proposed collaboration between Singapore and Kazakhstan bears testimony to the importance our countries place on our human capital development and to find ways to support the capacity-building initiatives of other partners. This is a good example of how our two countries can forge a partnership for the future.

Conclusion

Let me conclude by reiterating my appreciation to Nazarbayev University for this Honorary Professorship and for hosting my visit to the University.

This honour is not a personal recognition, but a testimony of the strong bonds of friendship and cooperation between Singapore and Kazakhstan. I am confident that there remain many opportunities for us to explore and work together as we forge ahead and build a brighter and more prosperous future for our people. May the friendship of the Lion City and the Land of the Great Steppes endure for many years to come.

Raqmet! (Rakh-Mat, meaning thank you!)