Testimonials
Liu Ling (in green blouse), KAIST University (Korea)
Alumni of Experience@Singapore: Engineering & Technology, 27 to 31 August 2009
It was a great pleasure to participate in the Experience@Singapore programme. Previously, I traveled to Singapore 10 years ago when I was in primary school. This summer, during the 5-day tour from 26 to 31 July, I got to know Singapore better with my Korean and Chinese friends as well as our Singaporean tour guides Richardo and Gary. In a line, Singapore is a green garden country with diverse cultures and dynamic industries.
Singapore is a modern and well-planned city in harmony with nature. While travelling around Singapore, I never saw a single area without green plants around. I could easily noticed many beautiful tropical plants such as the coconut trees, red-color bamboos and many more plants wherever I passed by. Besides the greeneries, zoos, bird parks and the deep blue sea were a feast for the eyes. More surprisingly, the traffic in Singapore was extremely in order. Through Richardo’s explanation about the ERP (Electronic Road Pricing) and vampire cars (cars that only go out at night and weekends), I began to understand how the Singaporean government made efforts in traffic control. Strict policies are also applied to environmental protection. When visiting Jurong Island which is the main site for petrochemical industry in Singapore, I found that there were no dirty pollutants coming out into the air or the ocean as a staff in Shell told us that pollutants are not allowed to be discharged, and the only thing that comes into the air and the ocean is water.
Another interesting fact that I found in Singapore is that wherever we dropped by including companies, restaurants, even the dance club, we could see people with different nationalities having fun together. This made Singapore truly global. Collaboration among people from various nationalities and cultural backgrounds seemed rather mature in Singapore. This is certainly good news for people seeking a global career. In addition, due to the many cultures in Singapore, I got many choices to fill my dining table. Except for Chinese and Cantonese food which I am familiar with, Malay, Indian, Thai dishes are also popular in Singapore. Basically, you can find food from all over the world here in Singapore. In the hawker center, one dessert called “Chendol” with durian topping definitely impressed on me since I am a big durian fan. Living in such a colorful city will be exciting for me.
The highlight of the programme was to explore technologies and industries in Singapore. I learned about industries in Singapore through first-hand experience. We visited famous companies from various industry fields including energy, semiconductor, biomedical science and clean technologies. A number of global companies set their branches in Singapore to handle business in Asia. As an Electrical Engineering student, I was very excited when putting on cool uniform and walking in wafer fab guided by a senior staff from TECH semiconductor. There are always plenty of opportunities for engineers working in different areas to have a job in Singapore as we heard from all the companies. The city of Singapore may appear to be peaceful, but dynamic industries really exist and keep developing. In addition, as we went to research institutes such as Fusionpolis, Biopolis, NUS, NTU as well as A-STAR, I noticed that Singapore focuses on education and research heavily. For people who pursue further education and more advanced research experiences, Singapore will be the perfect destination. Most importantly, the good policies for workers in Singapore were very attractive to me. I visited three generations of public housing in Singapore and realized that it is an ideal place to settle down since it is a very safe city and people probably could afford an apartment house after working two years in Singapore. That’s probably another reason why we could see many foreign talent who enjoy working in Singapore.
Our tour in Singapore only lasted for 5 days, but it will be a long-lasting memory to me. After revisiting Singapore, I found it a young nation with a favorable geographical position, strong administration as well as a long-term view for its development. Now, I am on my way to become a fresh graduate and I hope that I will meet the beautiful city again in the near future and show it to my parents and friends. For me, Experience@Singapore Programme was not only a valuable experience but also a chance to enrich my knowledge. I would like to thank every staff from Contact Singapore sincerely.