At General Election 2025, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong led the People’s Action Party (PAP) to receive 65.57% of the popular vote. With that “mandate”, PM Wong felt confident to focus on the future in his National Day Rally speech this year, his second as Prime Minister.
PM Wong’s 90-minute speech in English covered several pressing issues, including the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on young people, the need for long-term care in a rapidly ageing society, and staying globally competitive amidst rapid external changes. Looking to the future, he shared plans to transform the economy, nurture the youth, care for seniors, and reimagine parts of Singapore.
#1 A New Era Driven By Artificial Intelligence
In his National Day Rally speech last year, PM Wong mentioned AI only once, saying “We have all experienced the impact of the Internet over the last 30 years. Artificial Intelligence is likely to have an even greater influence on our lives.”
This year, as AI becomes even more prevalent, he acknowledged that “AI has been advancing rapidly”, and that AI is being used in the civil service with “good results”. PM Wong expects AI to “raise productivity and create new value through every part of the economy”.
PM Wong said the government would “equip and empower every enterprise, especially SMEs – to harness AI effectively, and sharpen their competitive edge”.
#2 “Jobs, Jobs, And Jobs”
Echoing the same line made by his predecessor, Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in the 2017 May Day Rally speech, PM Wong gave his assurance that even with AI and technology, the “key priority” would always be Singaporeans and helping us seize new job opportunities.
There will be more career fairs in our tertiary institutions so that fresh graduates can explore new career possibilities and interact with future employers. For the rest of us Singaporeans, we can expect a new job-matching initiative at the town level and led by the CDCs. This will match jobseekers with vacancies, especially those closer to home.
#3 SkillsFuture Level-Up Enhancements
With jobs as the focus, PM Wong also announced more enhancements to the SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme. The base Programme was announced last year for Singaporeans 40 and above to receive $4,000 in SkillsFuture Credits and up to $3,000 per month for 24 months in training allowances if they take time off from work to study full-time.
The first new enhancement PM Wong announced now extends the training allowance to be claimed for part-time courses. The second is the expansion of course offerings to include those offered by industry leaders and private training providers.
This means that workers aged 40 and above will now have even more opportunities to reskill and upskill using their SkillsFuture Credits, without the lifestyle disruption that comes with full-time studies.
#4 New Traineeship Scheme Funded By The Government
Acknowledging that young Singaporeans are “concerned about jobs – especially with the current economic uncertainty”, PM Wong recalled that during the COVID-19 pandemic, “many companies stopped hiring for full-time jobs. But some were prepared to offer traineeships.”
Although companies are still offering traineeships today, PM Wong announced that more government support would be given to ensure a “new government-funded traineeship programme” would be rolled out to ITE, polytechnic, and university graduates.
Should the economy worsen, PM Wong assured that the government is prepared to “scale up the programme”. More details would be provided soon by the Singapore Economic Resilience Taskforce, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong.
#5 Age Well Neighbourhoods
PM Wong also revealed that just over 20% of Singaporeans are aged 65 and above. This is a significant jump from about 13% in 2015. PM Wong expects Singapore to cross the 21% mark next year, which would make us a “super-aged” country by United Nations standards.
While he acknowledged that the Singaporean lifespan now averages almost 84 years, PM Wong also pointed out that the “health-span”, the period we spend in good health, is only 75 years on average. This means we spend an average of 10 years living with illness or disability.
This is why the government has been building Community Care Apartments (CCAs). These are HDB flats that combine housing with round-the-clock care arrangements for seniors. Following the success of the first CCA project in Bukit Batok, there are plans to build more CCAs across Singapore.
But PM Wong acknowledged that CCAs “cannot be the main solution”, as many seniors “prefer to age where they are”. PM Wong therefore announced “Age Well Neighbourhoods”, starting with Toa Payoh, one of Singapore’s oldest towns. Over the past four years, Toa Payoh started with 6 Active Ageing Centres and now has 13, but more sites will be identified to ensure all seniors in Toa Payoh are within 1km of one.
Toa Payoh seniors can also look forward to expanded home-based services like simple home fixes and basic health checks, as well as housekeeping, laundry and meal deliveries. These services will be similar to those offered at CCAs.
Toa Payoh, as well as “1 or 2 other areas with a higher concentration of seniors” will pilot the “Age Well Neighbourhoods”, with the Ministry of National Development (MND) and the Ministry of Health (MOH) sharing more details soon.
#6 The Future Of The North: Woodlands, Kranji, and Sembawang
Expanding on the recently announced URA Draft Master Plan 2025, PM Wong highlighted three northern areas in National Day Rally 2025: Woodlands, Kranji, and Sembawang.
He reminded Singaporeans that with the agreement to establish the Johor-Singapore Special-Economic Zone earlier this year, they can expect an expanded Woodlands Checkpoint that is 5 times bigger. Another link to Malaysia, the Johor Bahru-Singapore RTS Link, is also expected by the end of next year. The Singapore side of the RTS Link will be directly connected to Woodlands North MRT station, ensuring a seamless transfer between the RTS and the MRT.
Kranji will have a new public housing estate with space for 14,000 new homes, taking advantage of the rich natural habitat of the area. This will be ready in about 10 years.
Sembawang will be redeveloped further into a “new vibrant waterfront destination in the North”, resusing what was once the world’s largest dry dock at Sembawang Shipyard into a community space that preserves the “rich maritime character of the site”.
