SINGAPORE – Singapore’s program for providing technical assistance to other countries provides a platform to share knowledge and best practices to overcome global challenges.
Participants of the Singapore Cooperation Program (SCP) said that the courses they attended under the SCP were useful for their careers.
Over 150,000 foreign professionals have attended courses under SCP, which marks its 30th anniversary in November. Under the program, established in 1992, foreign officials can enroll in government-supported courses.
Dr Sasha Lazovic, assistant minister at the Ministry of Education in Serbia, was in the city in September to attend a program on vocational technical education and training that was organized by SCP. He said he signed up for the course because he saw it as an opportunity to share Europe’s experience and learn about how things are done here.
“If we share the challenges, and we certainly share the challenges, then we have to find a way to share the solutions as well. The problem is that the complexity of these challenges is increasing,” he said.
“That means we have to have a large number of very skilled and knowledgeable people.”
Ms Tifa Laily Savitri, head of the international cooperation division at Indonesia’s National Civil Service Agency, said she attended a one-week virtual course on strategic leadership and public governance in 2022, which showed how the Singapore government, its public sector and society work together. .
This was highlighted during a virtual tour of a northern district during the course, where participants were able to see the area’s fiber research facilities, as well as how biomedical companies in the district do their work.
Located near Buona Vista, the district in the north has been developed by Singapore as a high-tech and research and development center, and houses knowledge-based and innovation-based industries such as biomedical sciences and information technology.
Ms. Dianne Rampadarath from Trinidad and Tobago said the trainers from the SCP course she attended in 2022 on public-private partnership in developing infrastructure projects took into account the different languages and cultural differences of its participants.
“We were all able to understand each other even though we were from different backgrounds,” said the assistant director at the Ministry of Agriculture, Lands and Fisheries in Trinidad and Tobago.
SCP also encourages stronger ties with the rest of the world, said participants such as Mr. Sulayman Gaye, who is a senior planner at the Ministry of Transport, Works and Infrastructure in The Gambia.
He attended an in-person course on sustainable urban transport planning and management in 2014, but was back in the city in 2022 to meet officials from Singapore’s Ministry of Transport to discuss areas of cooperation.
“PKS encourages the convergence of people from different cultures in a multicultural environment for participants to share experiences and best practices. So I think SCP is really encouraging cooperation around the world,” he said.
