SINGAPORE - The public service should engage Singaporeans in good faith during the upcoming Forward Singapore engagement exercise, said Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.

Public officers will have a central role to play in the exercise, he said, calling on them to work together with Singaporeans to come up with innovative and effective responses to the challenges ahead, as well as strengthen the social compact.

Singapore is facing challenges both externally as well as domestically, he noted in a speech on Wednesday (July 6) at the Covid Public Sector Transformation Awards ceremony at the ITE College Central.

He underscored how the country will have to prepare for a more dangerous and troubled world ahead, with growing geo-political contestation among the major powers,

Domestically, it will also have to do more to sustain social mobility and care for its growing number of seniors, said Mr Wong, who is also Finance Minister.

Census 2020 showed that residents aged 65 years and above formed 15.2 per cent of the resident population in 2020, up from 9 per cent in 2010.

"In the face of these challenges, now more than ever, we must hold together and stay united as a nation. And that is why I recently launched the Forward Singapore exercise - to refresh and strengthen our social compact for our next bound of development," he said.

Mr Wong launched the year-long exercise on June 28. Led by the Deputy PM and his team of fourth-generation leaders, it provides a platform for Singaporeans to offer ideas to shape a more compassionate and equitable Singapore.

A report will be released in the middle of next year.

Turning to the local Covid-19 situation, Mr Wong said Singapore is not out of the woods yet, as it is in the midst of a new wave caused by the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron sub-variants. These variants, first detected here in May, are more transmissible and effective at evading the immune system.

For now, most cases are not so severe and the local hospital situation is still holding up, he said, but cautioned that there will be new mutations that may be more aggressive and dangerous than Omicron.

"We cannot let our guard down," he said.

Mr Wong lauded the public service, saying it has done exemplary work in Singapore's fight against the coronavirus.

"In our darkest hours, I have always been able to draw strength from all of our public service officers," he said.

"I have met many of you over the last two years, especially those who have been working on the front lines of Covid-19. I have seen many fatigued and tired officers, but you never gave up, and you kept on fighting."

He cited how the community care facility at the Singapore Expo was set up in less than a month to deal with the surge of cases in April 2020.

There was a need to set up such a facility urgently to ensure hospitals here were not overwhelmed, and the Ministry of Health, together with private and public sector partners, converted all 10 Expo halls into a facility with 8,500 beds - almost as many beds as all of Singapore's hospitals combined.

The facility provided care to more than 34,000 patients by the end of 2020.

There are similar stories across the public service, said Mr Wong, highlighting the thousands of officers deployed at worker dormitories and those who scrambled to set up quarantine spaces to get stay-home notice hotels ready for those coming here from overseas.

He also paid tribute to officers who ran round-the-clock operations at Singapore's borders, hospitals and vaccination operations, as well as those who helped implement and enforce safe management measures.

Beyond the front lines, public officers also played a crucial role in the strategising and planning of Singapore's national response, he said, pointing to efforts to secure enough vaccines. Officers had worked closely together to identify the most promising ones and convince pharmaceutical companies to work with Singapore.

The Government could not have achieved everything on its own, Mr Wong said, noting that many local businesses and the community played key roles in the Covid-19 fight, in partnership with the public service.

For instance, the Ministry of Social and Family Development partnered 55 community organisations to help people find lodging after the pandemic struck.

Mr Wong also gave the example of how Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) partnered with local textile company Ramatex to develop and manufacture more than 10 million reusable masks.

Such examples show the public service played a crucial role in Singapore's fight against Covid-19, as well as how the country is stronger when its people stand together, he said.

"Whether it is working closely with amongst ourselves with other public agencies, or partnering local businesses and the community, we can achieve good outcomes only if we partner and work together."