My heartiest congratulations to ASPRI on your 25th anniversary.
The Process Construction and Maintenance (PCM) sector has been a critical ecosystem partner to the growth and success of Singapore’s Energy & Chemicals (E&C) sector anchored around Jurong Island. ASPRI, as the lead Trade Association representing the PCM players, driven by its core values of “Connect, Engage and Grow”, displayed steadfastness in fostering strong public private partnerships to bring about capability building, promote safety and raise productivity levels within the PCM sector which contributed to attracting E&C investments into Singapore.
The ASPRI-Westlite Papan dormitory is one clear example of the product of strong public private partnerships between ASPRI, Plant Owners, dormitory operator, Centurion and various government agencies. Designed with the workers well being and productivity in mind, it was the first work-live-play integrated living concept to be rolled out. The dormitory’s close proximity to Jurong Island and training facilities have provided PCM companies the convenience of upskilling their workforce and enhancing worker productivity, significantly enhancing workers’ rest and ability to work safely. Even in our most recent memories of navigating through the COVID global pandemic in 2020/2021, it was this emphasis on fostering open and constructive tripartite engagement and relationships that steered the E&C and PCM sector through the challenging times, ensuring our essential E&C activities remain operational despite disruptions on the manpower access and movement front.
The PCM sector grew in the last 25 years on the back of Singapore’s E&C sector. Looking ahead into the next 25 years, companies in the sector will need to look beyond the local market, to access and capture regional and international opportunities for continued growth. Outside of Singapore, there are other growing centres of E&C activities in the region for which our PCM companies can build on their experiences in the local market to serve these requirements. Demand for oil and gas will continue to grow, driven by the rising affluence of the middle class and increase in industrial activities and growing population especially in Asian economies. To compete effectively in overseas markets, our PCM companies can band together to hunt as a pack, and come up with differentiated value proposition leveraging on data and technology to deliver value added offerings to the overseas clients. Underpinned by the core values of “Connect, Engage and Grow” but expanding it beyond Singapore, we see ASPRI playing a crucial role in connecting our PCM companies together and helping them grow through business partnerships and opportunities overseas.
On the home front, in line with Singapore’s commitment to the climate change agenda, PCM companies, as partners to the E&C plant owners, can take the initiative to look at how they can apply their existing multi-disciplinary engineering know-how or seek out technology partnerships to innovate and develop new product or service offerings to plant owners to help to decarbonise their operations on Jurong Island and/or provide new slate of products relevant to the energy transition.
At Enterprise Singapore, we look forward to our continued partnership with ASPRI to help PCM companies innovate, transform and capture new opportunities in both energy transition and overseas markets.
Esther Xu
Director, Marine & Offshore, Energy & Chemicals, Enterprise Singapore