STATEMENT BY AMBASSADOR KAREN TAN, PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF SINGAPORE TO THE UNITED NATIONS, AT THE HIGH-LEVEL THEMATIC DEBATE ON ADVANCING GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN AND GIRLS, 6 MARCH 2015

Mdm Chairperson,

1                       Thank you for giving me the floor.  We commend the President of the General Assembly for a well-drafted concept note.  We have benefitted from hearing the panellists’ perspectives on the two critical elements of quality education and skills development to empower women and girls. 

2                 It is indisputable that education is a key enabler for the empowerment of women and girls.  We are especially pleased that we have moved beyond talking about access to education to talking about quality education.  In Singapore, we regularly review our policies and have in recent years moved towards a more flexible and diverse education system, giving our students more choices which cater to different strengths and interests.  We also provide women and girls with vocational training, ranging from engineering to technical courses.  As a result, our women are well-represented in traditionally male-dominated courses, such as heath sciences, as well as natural, physical and mathematical sciences. 

3                 In considering what policies and programmes support women’s access to decent work, it is important to have flexible labour market policies that protect employees’ interests while not undermining the viability of companies.  This should be complemented by comprehensive policies on continuing education and training to enable the workforce to stay employable.  In this regard, Singapore strengthened our Employment Act last year to enhance protection to workers, including better protection against unfair dismissal, pay deduction, etc.  We also work with labour unions and employers to implement job assistance and skills training programmes to encourage stay-at-home mothers and older women to return to the labour force. 

4                 It is important for us to recognise the role and value of women entrepreneurs in society.  We have thus introduced business and entrepreneurship programmes in secondary schools, to provide boys and girls with the opportunity to develop knowledge and skills to start and manage a business.   I am happy that the number of women entrepreneurs in Singapore has grown over the years.  For eg., Ms Pranoti Nagarkar Israni, founder of Zimplistic, created “Rotimatic”, the world’s first robotic cooking technology for flatbread!  I am optimistic that we will see many more interesting and useful inventions as more women are empowered to pursue their business ideas.  Thank you.

.     .     .     .    .