SM Lee Urges Singaporeans to Keep Upgrading Skills as Global Uncertainty Grows

Record Growth Brings a Warning Against Complacency

Singapore's economy grew by nearly 5 percent in 2025, incomes increased and inflation eased. PSA Singapore handled more than 44 million containers, while Changi Airport served 70 million passengers, both record achievements. Yet Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong warned that Singaporeans must keep learning and upgrading their skills as global tensions threaten the conditions that support the country's prosperity.

Speaking at the Teck Ghee Edusave Awards and Teck Ghee Citizens Consultative Committee Bursary presentation ceremony, Lee described a country performing well at home while facing an unpredictable world outside its borders. His message connected national economic strength with a personal responsibility: Singaporeans need to remain useful and valued as work and technology change.

Singapore's stability, predictability and reliability have made it an attractive partner for multinational corporations and investors. Record activity at its port and airport reflects the strength of its role as an international hub. Maintaining that position requires continued effort from workers, businesses and the government.

Lee urged Singaporeans to keep improving themselves, including by learning skills related to artificial intelligence, or AI. He linked that effort to their ability to contribute and support themselves:

We cannot rest on our laurels. Instead, they should upgrade by learning new skills such as those related to artificial intelligence to stay useful and valued, and to be able to make a contribution and look after themselves in life.

Singapore's response rests on its people. As a small, open economy with no natural resources except its population, the country depends on their knowledge, skills and ability to adjust. Strong results in 2025 provide a foundation, but the pressure to prepare for change continues.

Why Global Trade Tensions Matter at Home

Lee pointed to the United States trade war with China and plans to take over Greenland as signs of a changing global order. He warned that imbalances in world trade could bring more tariffs and import barriers as countries move to protect their own interests.

Tariffs are taxes on goods entering a country. Import barriers are other restrictions that make it harder for goods to enter a market. For Singapore, which depends heavily on international business, changes to those rules can affect the environment in which companies operate, even while the country remains a stable place to invest.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, describes a global economy moving from resilient growth towards a more uncertain course. It projects slower global growth, with uncertainty about trade policy weighing on economic prospects. Substantial trade barriers, tighter financial conditions and weaker confidence are expected to hurt growth worldwide.

Southeast Asian businesses also anticipate disruption. The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025 says 41 percent of businesses in the region expect restrictions on global trade and investment to have major effects on their operations over the next five years. That share is nearly twice the global average.

Singapore has a direct interest in keeping international exchange open: services trade accounts for around 70 percent of its gross domestic product, or GDP. GDP measures the value of goods and services produced in an economy. The scale of services trade helps explain why restrictions beyond Singapore's borders matter to its economic stability.

Businesses Prepare for Effects That Take Time

Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong has explained that tariffs and trade policy changes take time to move through supply chains. A supply chain is the sequence of businesses and activities involved in producing and delivering a product. Changes at one stage can require adjustments elsewhere.

Companies are reviewing their longer term plans, restructuring production and diversifying their markets. Those decisions form part of the response to a trading environment in which access to markets and the cost of doing business are less predictable.

The government established the Singapore Economic Resilience Taskforce, or SERT, to address immediate uncertainty and help Singapore adjust to the changing economic environment. Its purpose connects the pressures businesses face now with the need to prepare for a different global trading system.

Skills Upgrading Starts With the Individual

Lee placed individual workers at the centre of Singapore's response. He urged Singaporeans to take responsibility for their employability by continually updating their skills. Employability means having the abilities that allow a person to find work, keep working and move into another role when circumstances change.

AI and other rapidly advancing technologies are changing the nature of work. Jobs and the skills they require are evolving faster than before, which means knowledge gained during formal schooling can become outdated sooner than it did for earlier generations.

SkillsFuture supports continued learning beyond school. Its Level-Up Programme is designed to encourage people in the middle of their careers to make a substantial renewal of their skills. The aim is to help workers move into new roles, benefit from economic development and achieve real wage growth, meaning pay gains that improve purchasing power after inflation.

Lee's call to learn AI skills sits within a wider view of education and preparation for life. The government also seeks to develop students as whole persons, with values, resilience and a Singapore identity alongside academic ability. Technical knowledge and personal development are both parts of that approach.

Employers Need Adaptable People, Too

Companies are being urged to transform and reinvent themselves as workers upgrade. The World Economic Forum reports that 96 percent of employers in Southeast Asia see a need to invest in improving or adapting the capabilities of their existing workforce. That proportion is higher than the global average.

Employers expect the skills they need to change substantially over the next five years. Demand is growing for network and cybersecurity skills, which support connected systems and protect them against digital threats. Businesses also expect greater demand for human skills, including resilience, flexibility and leadership.

Resilience and flexibility are expected to rise in importance faster than purely technological skills by 2030. For workers, the message extends beyond learning a particular tool. Being able to adjust to changed responsibilities and circumstances is becoming more valuable alongside technical proficiency.

The government is supporting business transformation through grants and schemes. The Business Adaptation Grant helps companies assess the effects of tariffs and obtain advice on improving their supply chains. This gives businesses support as they consider changes to production and markets.

Funding support for basic human resources certification has also been temporarily increased. Human resources teams manage workforce matters, and stronger leadership in that area is part of helping companies handle their employees' needs during a period of volatility.

Education Moves Beyond Examination Results

Singapore's education system is changing in both its approach and its structure to support continuous learning. The shift has been described as moving towards inspiration rather than competence alone: students should want to learn, take ownership of their learning and become more independent, instead of relying only on examinations or outside expectations for motivation.

More varied educational pathways are intended to serve different learners. Full Subject-Based Banding allows students to take subjects at different levels according to their strengths. The approach recognises that a student's abilities can vary from one subject to another.

Education has also widened to include applied learning, social and emotional learning, and discussions of global issues and climate change. Applied learning connects knowledge with practical use. Social and emotional learning develops the ability to understand emotions and manage relationships.

These changes support adaptability, the broader ability to respond when conditions change. The aim is to develop students who can continue learning in unfamiliar circumstances, alongside giving them the academic skills, values, resilience and sense of identity Lee described.

Learning Continues After School and University

Lifelong learning is becoming part of Singapore's national approach to managing uncertainty. It is understood as more than a way for individuals to remain economically productive. It also builds the human and knowledge capital the country needs to respond positively to external shocks.

Human and knowledge capital means the skills, experience and understanding held by people. For Singapore, strengthening those resources connects individual learning with national resilience. A workforce that can adapt supports the country's ability to adjust when international conditions change.

Institutes of higher learning are becoming places for continued education, rather than serving only people completing their initial studies. They are also working to remain relevant to industry needs. That direction connects education more closely with the changing requirements of employers and workers.

SkillsFuture, the Level-Up Programme and changes within education institutions share a common purpose: keeping learning available throughout life. Schooling provides a starting point, while continued education helps people renew what they know as jobs develop.

Support for Workers Is Also About Social Cohesion

President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, in his address at the opening of the 15th Parliament, described the period as a critical juncture marked by fundamental changes in the global order. He linked Singapore's resilience to enabling every worker to adapt and thrive.

Tharman said individuals and the country needed to prepare together for economic transformation, with workers receiving the skills to pursue new opportunities:

We cannot hold back this tide of change. But we can prepare ourselves individually and collectively to navigate it with confidence. As the economy transforms, we will empower workers with the skills they need to adapt and seize new opportunities.

The government's response includes stronger safety nets, such as the Jobseeker Support Scheme for displaced workers. The purpose is to ensure that people do not face uncertainty alone while the economy changes.

Efforts to support workers on lower wages also include skills upgrading and productivity improvements. Productivity means the amount of work or value produced from the resources used. Linking better skills with improved productivity is part of the effort to ensure that economic progress reaches workers across income levels.

The Workers' Party has urged the government to engage widely and consider all solutions for building a resilient nation. Its proposals include tracking underemployment, establishing a statutory minimum wage and improving social safety nets through redundancy insurance.

Underemployment concerns people whose work falls short of their capacity or needs. A statutory minimum wage would set a legal wage floor, while redundancy insurance would provide protection linked to losing a job through redundancy. These proposals and the government's measures reflect a shared recognition of the need to adapt, alongside different approaches to protecting workers.

India Cooperation Broadens Singapore's Options

Singapore is also strengthening international partnerships while pursuing changes at home. Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's recent visit to India resulted in five agreements to deepen cooperation in financial technology, green shipping and semiconductors.

Financial technology, often called fintech, applies technology to financial services. Green shipping concerns efforts to make maritime activity more sustainable, while semiconductors are the components used in electronic devices. Cooperation in these areas forms part of Singapore's effort to secure opportunities in a changing economy.

The partnerships are rooted in shared values and a deep reservoir of trust. Cooperation also extends to manufacturing, sustainable industrial parks and supply chains. Expanding those connections provides alternative markets and opportunities for Singaporean businesses and workers.

Lee's message brings these domestic and international efforts together. Singapore's strong economic performance in 2025 sits alongside an uncertain global outlook. Continued learning, business transformation, support during job transitions and trusted international partnerships are the main elements of its response.

The Essentials

• Singapore's economy grew by nearly 5 percent in 2025, with higher incomes and lower inflation.
• PSA Singapore handled more than 44 million containers, and Changi Airport served 70 million passengers, both records.
• Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong urged Singaporeans to keep upgrading their skills, including in AI, amid global uncertainty.
• Services trade accounts for around 70 percent of Singapore's GDP, making changes to international trade a direct concern.
• Some 41 percent of Southeast Asian businesses expect major effects from trade and investment restrictions over the next five years.
• Some 96 percent of employers in the region see a need to improve or adapt the capabilities of their existing workforce.
• SkillsFuture, the Level-Up Programme and education reforms support continued learning and adaptability.
• Business grants and the Jobseeker Support Scheme support companies and workers during change.
• Lawrence Wong's recent India visit produced five agreements covering cooperation in areas including fintech, green shipping and semiconductors.