PUBLISHED ONApril 20, 2025 10:10 AMByBhavya RawatMinister for National Development and West Coast-Jurong West GRC anchor Desmond Lee highlighted his team's plan to improve job options and security for the constituency's residents.
Speaking to the media at the People's Action Party (PAP) Boon Lay branch on Sunday (April 20), Lee said that the team wishes to continue the Jobs @ West Coast programme by extending and intensifying it through a number of ways.
This is given that the initiative, which was launched in 2020, has supported residents.
"We want to support them (with the) initiatives that we see rolled out today. (By) bringing jobs directly into the heartlands to cater to a few groups of people," he said, adding that the team is focused on helping workers in trade-exposed, external-facing sectors, middle-aged and older workers as well as younger residents who are anxious to land a job after graduation.
Referencing the Singapore Business Federation and Singapore National Employers’ Federation’s statements that some Singapore-based firms embedded in the US and China supply chains are opting to absorb penalties rather than proceed with shipments subject to tariffs, Lee said that this might lead to employers implementing a hiring freeze or carrying out retrenchment exercises, which would in turn affect residents working in such industries.
Earlier, Lee had attended Bringing Jobs to Your Doorstep — a community-based outreach initiative by the NTUC's Employment and Employability Institute (e2i).
Speaking at the event, he said that over the last two years, more than 55 jobs and skills-related events have been organised for West Coast GRC residents.
He added that close to 10,000 residents in the constituency alone have received support with job matching, career counselling, career transition, resume building and training courses in the last five years.
Lee also expressed his gratitude towards the attendees well as event organisers.
“I would like to thank e2i and all our partners for making today's event as well as all these initiatives possible for all of us.
“It is partnerships like these that allow us to make a real and meaningful difference in the community.”
Also present at the event was Dr Hamid Razak, who will be contesting in the constituency alongside Lee, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Finance and Education Shawn Huang, Ang Wei Neng, and Cassandra Lee.
Cassandra Lee, 33, a long-time grassroots volunteer in Jurong and a lawyer, and 39-year-old Dr Hamid, an orthopaedic surgeon, are new additions to the ruling party's GRC team.
Desmond Lee and Dr Hamid were seen interacting with attendees at the fair as they visited the booths set up to disseminate information about upskilling and resources to aid job searching.
Over 3,500 job vacancies were curated for the fair by e2i and its partners. Attendees also had access to skills-building workshops, personalised career coaching and e2i's digital career tools at the event.
The programme is expected to train over 300 youth over the next year.
At the event, e2i formalised its strategic partnerships with key community stakeholders through a Memorandum of Understanding.
These stakeholders include social enterprise Findjobs, NTUC, NTUC LearningHub, and youth organisation Raydee 2 Win!.
These partnership aims to strengthen collaborative efforts in empowering young PMETs and residents from low-income backgrounds by providing targeted career support, skills training, and accessible career resources.
The parties agreed to collaborate to assist Singaporean workers, including PMETs and youths in Institutes of Higher Learning.
Meanwhile, the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) announced its slate for West Coast-Jurong West GRC on Sunday morning.
The team will be led by chairman Dr Tan Cheng Bock and comprise secretary-general Leong Mun Wai and vice-chairperson Hazel Poa as well as newcomers Sumarleki Amjah, 53, and Sani Ismail, 49.
During the 2020 General Election, PAP narrowly won West Coast GRC with 51.69 per cent of the vote against the newly-founded PSP, led by former PAP stalwart Dr Tan.
When asked how he feels about taking on PSP in the upcoming election, Desmond Lee said that he and the team respect the work Dr Tan, a political veteran, has done and his contributions to Singapore and his former ward of Ayer Rajah.
"What we want to bring to the residents of West Coast and Jurong West is a team that is a mix of more experienced... (and) younger candidates who will bring in new ideas, fresh ideas," he said.
This team will interact with older, more experienced candidates to bring the community forward, tackle new challenges and connect with residents of all ages and backgrounds in West Coast-Jurong West GRC's diverse community, he added.
The PAP team has since lost its anchor S. Iswaran, who resigned in January 2024 following a corruption probe. The former transport minister was later jailed, then placed on home detention.
In its report released in March, the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee recommended that West Coast GRC absorb some estates in Jurong West and Taman Jurong — the latter a PAP stronghold — and be renamed West Coast-Jurong West GRC.
Estates in Harbourfront and Sentosa were carved out and moved to Radin Mas SMC, while districts in Dover and Telok Blangah were moved to Tanjong Pagar GRC.
The new West Coast-Jurong West GRC will have 158,581 voters.
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