Transcript of Speech by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam at Official Opening of The Enabling Business Hub@Jurong

Mr Eric Chua, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Social and Family Development, and Culture, Community and Youth

Mr Moses Lee, Chairman, SG Enable

Partners, Guests, and Residents

I am very happy to join you on this important occasion. A big thank you to the many partners of SG Enable who have made our first Enabling Business Hub a reality.

We are making progress towards becoming a more inclusive society for persons with disabilities. A key challenge lies in employment. We want to ensure that persons with disabilities have opportunities to work if they wish, to gain independence, and to contribute to our society as fellow citizens.

The Government has been providing employers incentives for slightly over a decade now – through the Special Employment Credit (introduced in 2012) and now the Enabling Employment Credit, as well as a variety of grants for training, job redesign and other job support services.

So the incentives are there. And we have seen some improvement in the employment rate of persons with disabilities. It was 28 per cent in 2019; it has now moved up a little to 31 per cent, despite the challenges of COVID-19.

But we still have some distance to go to achieve the vision set out in the Enabling Masterplan 2030 that was launched in August last year: to raise the employment rate of persons with disabilities to 40 per cent by 2030. And that will mean creating another 10,000 jobs for persons with disabilities by 2030.

It is an ambitious goal. But it is achievable with full and coordinated efforts by the Government, employers, trade associations and business chambers, non-profit organisations, voluntary organisations, and fellow residents in the community. All of us must do our part to bring persons with disabilities into the workforce and into our daily lives as colleagues and as friends.

It is not only an achievable goal, it is also an important social goal. Employing persons with disabilities is not just a matter of jobs and productivity. And it’s not just a matter of corporate social responsibility, or CSR.

At its heart, it enables persons with disabilities to fulfil their desire to be useful, contributing members of society. And companies that have made the shift to a workplace that is inclusive of persons with disabilities have often found that co-workers become more supportive of each other and better motivated at work, and even customers become more understanding. In other words, embracing persons with disabilities helps to shift our culture for everyone’s good.

An example of how this has worked among Singapore employers is seen at Amazon. Amazon is an Enabling Mark (Gold) recipient, and they have partnered SG Enable to hire persons with disabilities across their operations facilities. Amazon has pledged to hire 15 per cent of its employees at its operations facilities from diverse persons with disabilities over the next three years. It has developed specialised training programmes in collaboration with SG Enable, and engaged job coaches and occupational therapists to improve workplace accessibility for all.

One of Amazon’s employees, Mr Muhammad Faezin Bin Mohamed Yasin, who has autism, has been a full-time employee at its Singapore Fulfilment Centre for over a year. Faezin was given the right training, and the centre’s leadership team connects regularly with him. He too is an example of how this works: he is eager to come to work every day. Equally, the feedback from Amazon’s employees as a whole shows that inclusive hiring has created a more cohesive and empathetic workforce.

This first Enabling Business Hub (EBH), at Jurong, and right by Lakeside MRT station, will focus on creating opportunities for persons with disabilities to work in the logistics sector in the first instance. It will establish relationships with logistics employers and support them in implementing best practices. SG Enable has worked with various partners, including Amazon, Republic Polytechnic, the Singapore Logistics Association, and Bizlink Center, to develop a training curriculum for persons with disabilities in e-commerce and logistics fulfilment.

An example of its benefits is Mr Jimmy Zhuo, who has autism. Jimmy joined Superduper – which is one of the tenant partners here at this Hub – as a last-mile delivery driver last year. With the training he received from Superduper, he is now able to do his job with minimal supervision and is in fact taking on an expanded job scope.

Beyond the logistics sector, the Hub will also engage other businesses to create more job opportunities for persons with disabilities. 

It will be especially helpful for persons with disabilities living in the West, make it easier for them to travel to and from a job and therefore stay on the job.

In fact, an important feature of the Hub is its enhanced employment support services such as intensive job coaching. An onsite team led by SG Enable in partnership with Bizlink Centre will provide a comprehensive suite of such services. It includes more intensive job coach support on-site, and for a longer period of up to 24 months, for those who need it.

The Hub is therefore one of the important and practical ways in which we can help persons with disabilities to secure work. But we all have a part to play in advocating, and actively facilitating, inclusive employment for all: as employers and trade associations who spread best practices; as co-workers who create an open, safe and friendly environment; as educators and members of the community who help persons with disabilities and their caregivers to get connected with the employment support services that have been created.

So let us go beyond acceptance and take the practical steps required to remove barriers – often invisible barriers – so that persons with disabilities are able to secure work and contribute to society as our fellow citizens. Thank you very much.