WE ARE celebrating our nation’s 40th birthday on August 9. Many celebration dinners and other programmes are being held all over Singapore throughout this month to mark this special occasion.

We have gone a long way from a third world country to a first world country with many first-class facilities that we can certainly be happy and be proud of. However, it was not an easy journey, especially in our early years of independence. In fact, in the early years many observers had doubts about our ability to survive, much less to succeed.

Nonetheless, Singaporeans were up to the challenge with unity, hard work, resourcefulness, courage, determination and fighting spirit.

Our unions and workers contributed significantly to our success. We helped to promote industrial stability and confidence to attract investments. Many multi-national companies came to Singapore and provided many good employment opportunities for our people.

During difficult times, like the recession in 1985, the Asian financial crisis in the late nineties and recently the Sars outbreak in 2003, we worked together positively and made sacrifices decisively and we soon rebounded strongly.

Going forward, we will face more uncertainties. There will be stronger competition. The driving forces of globalisation and rapid technological developments will bring about changes in the way we work and the way we manage our relationship with one another.

Many companies will continue to restructure to strengthen their competitiveness. This will result in job losses. At the same time, employers look for workers not only with better technical skills and qualifications, but also with soft skills, like leadership, management and communication skills.

We have learned many lessons when we dealt with our challenges in our earlier years. Our unity, resilience, fighting spirit and ability to adapt quickly and positively to changes help to strengthen our competitiveness. We must continue to hold steadfast to these core values.

How can our unions improve their contribution to help workers to be better able to adapt to the increasing pace of change? One way that is often stressed upon is to help them with better opportunities to be regularly trained and upgraded.

Another way is to help them obtain a better understanding of the changes and the pace of restructuring that is taking place in our economy, as well as how these developments would affect their continued employability.

And as our workers quickly prepare themselves with relevant skills and adopt a mindset to confidently adapt to the new economy, they can remain employable in the fast-changing and competitive world.

Our unions have made significant contributions to help our economy achieve strong and steady growth. As we prepare to journey into a future of promise and happiness, let us strengthen our resolve to enhance workers’ ability and confidence to learn and adapt.