ESM Goh: Government committed to training finance practitioners

THE Government is committed to developing skills for the financial sector amid various forces reshaping the industry, said Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong.

He was speaking at an event on Thursday evening where industry association Institute of Banking and Finance Singapore (IBF) recognised six senior executives for professional excellence.

"As you know, I am in the midst of an election... What I find missing at the hustings so far is a serious debate on the future of our economy. And yet the economy is central to our lives," Mr Goh said.

Mr Goh said that the megatrends of technology and demographic change are reshaping the financial sector.

Work is becoming borderless and Singapore's workforce will face even keener competition.

Future workers need to develop distinctive creative, conceptual and critical thinking skills that cannot be replicated by computers. They also need to be able to use new media technologies to communicate, he said.

"Employers must be alert to the changing environment and take responsibility to develop the workforce. They must be willing to invest in the continual skilling up of their employees, and inculcate a culture in which learning and improvement are the norm," he said.