Letter to the Editor | Ukraine war brought significant messages to Singapore — to become more self-sufficient & sustainable nation

Dear Editor,

I refer to the commentary, “How can Singapore prepare for the risks and opportunities of an increasingly uncertain world?” (TODAY, June 23).

Let us recognise an interesting fact: Risk and opportunity have relatively coexisted.

The Ukraine war has brought three significant messages to Singapore:

Foremost, it exacerbates the global supply chain and rapidly pushes up food prices. In due course, Singapore has to find ways to increase sources of food supply to stabilise and alleviate inflation effects.

Singapore can step up its efforts to develop high-tech urban agriculture and modern engineering solutions for ocean aquaculture. For example, developing urban egg farming, vegetable and goat farming and hybrid fish farms or factory-based indoor fish farms so that we can gradually become a more self-sufficient and sustainable nation.

It expedites the realignment of world order, and Singapore has to unwaveringly affirm its foreign policy of non-alliance.

Global warming leads to climate change, which unavoidably affects the annual temperature of Singapore from 26.9 degrees Celsius to 28.0 degrees Celsius in the period 1980 to 2020. The mean sea level in the Straits of Singapore has also increased at the rate of 1.2 mm to 1.7 mm per year from the period 1975 to 2009.

Nonetheless, Singapore has equipped the economic resources and technical capabilities to develop desalination plants, the technology of biodiversity and speed up its transition to green and geothermal energy.

Although the unexpected occurrence of Covid-19 has already deprived the lives of ten hundred Singaporeans, it also provides ample opportunities for testing Singapore’s nimbleness, readiness, or preparedness in response to any potential risks to public health.

Any potential risks which could undermine our national stability and security to a greater extent depend upon the persistence of Singapore’s domestic political stability, economic prosperity and the foreign friendliness of our neighbouring countries.

In this regard, the ruling party and the opposition should preferably collaborate and work hand-in-hand in many aspects to safeguard Singapore’s long-term political stability, continuous economic prosperity and sound national security.

Teo Kueh Liang

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of The Independent Singapore.