SINGAPORE – A new office was launched on Jan 19 for those who have ideas and want to work together with the Government, amid a push to broaden and deepen partnerships between the Government and the people.

The Singapore Government Partnerships Office (SGPO), which will serve as a first stop for such partnerships, will help connect people and groups, direct them to funding sources, and work with government agencies to identify more opportunities for collaboration.

The aim of the office is to make partnering the Government more seamless and accessible, as Singapore confronts the new reality of a more troubled world and girds itself against the impact of this on social cohesion and solidarity.

In the next bound of nation building, the Government and people working more closely together will help Singapore achieve more, said Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong.

Broadening and deepening such partnerships is a key plank of the social compact set out in Forward Singapore, he noted, referring to the exercise helmed by him and his fourth-generation leadership team. He said the Government was “putting partnerships first on its agenda”. 

“I believe we can do more to harness the expertise, the experience, the passions of Singaporeans, towards our shared goals and towards the Singapore that we all want for the future,” he said on Jan 19 at a ceremony held at Tang Plaza to launch the office.

“The bottom line is that we can achieve much more when we work together as partners.”

While there are already various platforms for government agencies to partner with community groups, it can be difficult for people to figure out which agency to approach, said DPM Wong.

The SGPO will formalise the structure for people to collaborate with the Government and is meant to strengthen such partnerships and engagements, said Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong during a panel session at the launch.

An example of past partnerships is the Housing Board working with residents to design and build playgrounds in housing estates.

Now, the new office will curate key government resources for partnership, funding and volunteering opportunities.

People can submit their ideas through the SGPO website’s Partners Portal, and these submissions will be channelled to relevant agencies. Support will also be provided to help people take things forward. The new office will also help catalyse partnerships by connecting like-minded people and organisations and directing them to resources.

In addition, it will advocate deeper citizen-government collaboration, working closely with agencies to identify more areas where citizens can play a meaningful role, and publicising these opportunities.

Ms Dawn Yip, coordinating director of SGPO, who has been involved in various public engagement efforts over the years, including the Singapore 21 exercise in 1999, said Singaporeans “always show up no matter what the issue is”, with many willing to give their time and resources to achieve something bigger than themselves.

She added that she hoped the office will provide more opportunities and means for people to show up and take action.

Such partnerships are one of the key ingredients behind Singapore’s success, said DPM Wong.

From the beginning, the Government has been deliberate about bringing diverse stakeholders together to work towards a common purpose, he added.

For instance, tripartism was promoted as a way for unions, businesses, workers and the Government to work together to spur economic growth. The grassroots movement, through the People’s Association, was also set in motion to galvanise the community to build the nation together.

Since then, the Government has set up more consultation mechanisms such as the Reach feedback unit, supported more ground-up initiatives, and opened up space for Singaporeans to contribute, said DPM Wong.

Many government ministries now have public, private and people, or 3P, divisions, to help drive their engagement efforts, he cited.

Noting how far Singapore has come in this journey, he said it is this spirit of collaboration that has seen the nation through many challenges, such as the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the 9/11-fuelled terror threats in 2001, the Sars outbreak in the early 2000s, and most recently, the Covid-19 crisis.

DPM Wong, who co-chaired the multi-ministry task force set up to fight Covid-19, said the Government, unions, businesses, people and groups coming together was what helped Singapore mount an effective response during the pandemic.

“Because of our combined efforts, we have today in Singapore a stronger sense of cohesion and solidarity, a higher level of trust, where everyone actively supports one another so that we can progress together as one united people,” he added.

But he said Singapore cannot afford to be complacent, especially as the world shifts away from the peace and globalisation of the past 30 years.

With traditional methods of cooperation breaking down, wars have erupted in Europe and the Middle East, with violence and conflict threatening to spread in other parts of the world, he added.

Such external stress, together with economic and social strain, has already taxed countries around the world, eroding trust and entrenching differences, he noted.

“We are not immune to the same powerful forces that can potentially divide us. There’s no reason why Singapore is immune to this. It’s not as though we’ve got a special vaccine,” he said.

“In fact, as a diverse multiracial, multi-religious society, we are all the more susceptible to such divisive forces in the world.”

Encouraging Singaporeans to come forward, DPM Wong said the Government will continue to study more ways to facilitate such partnerships.

“We want to create more opportunities big and small for everyone, every citizen to contribute meaningfully to our shared future,” he said, singling out the young for their enthusiasm to participate.

“I am confident that if we can encourage more people to join us in this partnership journey, we can foster a stronger sense of kinship and trust, and we can build a better and more united Singapore.”

He added that there were many more things the Government hoped to achieve under Forward Singapore and that the first tranche of major updates would be unveiled during his Budget speech, slated for Feb 16.

“Please stay tuned for the Budget. It’s coming soon,” he said.