MOF Open House

Went for MOF open house today and met Lim Siong Guan. Witty, intelligent, sharp, compassionate, sensitive to the average Singaporean. Now I know how he became a PS at 33, and has been a PS since 1981. Wish I could write more about what he said, but I've gotta go back to camp. Will fill it in when I get back.

Ok so I'm back and here are some quotes from the session, as best as I can remember them.

"It's not about the money, money is merely a tool for us to effect change."

"How many of you live in 3-room HDBs? Are you in touch with the average Singaporean?"

"Some people think we should get rid of GLCs to allow for the smaller companies to compete. But what they don't understand is you can't just get rid of such a large company - it has to be sold off. So it's either a case of having a large company owned by another large company around, or a large company owned by the government."

"Work from home? MTI tried it out once but it failed. What was missing is the element of human interaction which is critical in work."

"The real skill you'll discover as you rise is the ability to manage resources, and to use them to influence decisions."

"Some ministries are like crying babies... you have to learn to find out who really needs help."

"It is important to develop instincts... a feel for things"

When asked about how much MOF influences Temasek:
"Temasek is totally autonomous... we read about what they do in the papers like you do"

I also found the whole PPP concept rather appealing. And Lim Siong Guan knew a thing or two about PKI and web security - way to go Mr eGovt man!