Make engineering sexy again: Khaw

TRANSPORT Minister Khaw Boon Wan wants to make engineering sexy again and attract more talent to join this "important profession'' to help build Singapore.

Mr Khaw, who is also the Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure, said this at the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) by the Land Transport Authority (LTA), PUB, SBS Transit (SBST) and SMRT Corp on Friday.

To that end, he exhorted the CEOs to "go all out and expand the number of your scholarships'' in high productivity professions such as engineering and architecture.

The idea of the MOU, according to Mr Khaw, is to bring together "our collective expertise from various infrastructure sectors and raise the profile of the engineering community''.

As a result, PUB, LTA and public transport operators SMRT and SBST are the pioneer signatories because the water utilities and rail sectors are "literally the lifeblood of our country''.

Raising rail reliability is the minister's top priority, given the recent massive breakdowns.

"Today's MoU is part of that strategy to enhance the maintenance capability of the existing workforce,'' Mr Khaw said in his speech.