Opening Remarks by Minister for Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs Edwin Tong SC at the Dell InnovateFest 2026
18 September 2026 Posted in Speeches
Mr Andy Sim, Vice President and Managing Director, Dell Technologies, Singapore
Mr Kelvin Koh, MINDS,
Mr Ron Loh, SPD,
Partners,
Sponsors,
Students,
Ladies and gentlemen,
1. Good afternoon.
2. Very happy to join you here. This is the 4th edition of Dell InnovateFest, a hackathon-with-a-heart. That makes a difference.
3. Let me start by congratulating all our winners, and every student who has taken part in this year’s edition.
4. Today, of course, is the time to celebrate those teams whose ideas have stood out, and maybe get hired by Dell as well. But I think it is not just that. I think today is also an occasion to simply recognise every participant who has dared to challenge himself or herself, to step forward a little bit out of their comfort zone, to tackle a difficult – but I think, increasingly meaningful – challenge that we see in Singapore.
5. Over the past six weeks, student teams from our polytechnics and universities have immersed themselves in the challenges of inclusive living. We did not start with theory, and as Andy says: “it is not a lesson you learn from the classroom, but in practice and in person”.
6. You visited care facilities and spoke with the many beneficiaries to learn more about their challenges and lived realities. You worked with 30 mentors from the industry, and refined your solutions along the way. Engaging, retracing, getting new ideas, challenging them, and then refreshing the ideas. You were also given access to AI and cloud-native technologies to build, test, and turn your ideas into practical solutions.
7. That combination is really important because technology is not for technology’s sake. Bringing together technology, expertise, and then shaping it to develop a real understanding of the people that we are trying to serve is the most important: because we start off not with technology, but with a purpose.
8. And platforms like InnovateFest – bringing people, energy, and interest together – are really important in cultivating such opportunities for learning.
I. Innovation that creates equal opportunities
9. As you know, we are living through a really tremendous period of change and disruption through technology, such as AI, GenAI and so on.
10. AI itself is developing at a breakneck, remarkable speed. What was once high-powered, cutting edge just a few months ago, will be quickly overtaken in just a few weeks’ time. AI is developing at a remarkable pace: it is just completely changing how we learn, how we work, and how businesses operate. And increasingly, how we can solve complex problems.
11. For Singapore, this is of course disruptive. I think people are worried, and perhaps rightfully so, as we confront and navigate these new challenges. But I think it also presents us with enormous opportunities.
12. We are ourselves a small country, and we have always been a small country. We do not have a large domestic market that we can count on like our bigger neighbours, or vast natural resources that we can tap into. But we have always overcome our constraints innovatively through people, talent, creativity and ideas. And I think our special ability is the ability to convene, to bring people together and to aggregate, so that the power of “one plus one” is well more than two.
13. That is Singapore’s secret strength. And that same approach must guide us in the use of AI.
14. Our ambition should not simply be to adopt more technology as I have said, or to build the most sophisticated or cutting-edge AI systems for the sake of doing so.
15. But instead, we should ask ourselves:
a) What can we master the technology to do for us?
b) Who benefits from the new innovations?
c) And can we use them to give more people the opportunity to participate fully and inclusively in our society?
16. And that is where this year’s InnovateFest offers a really compelling answer. It focuses on inclusive and independent living for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (PWIDs) and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).
17. I, in fact, also like to say that they are not PWDs, but just persons with different abilities. They do some things differently from you and I; and in many cases, they do some things much better than you and I. And I think our challenge is to use technology to find that special quality in each of them.
18. So our students at InnovateFest today were challenged to build solutions that will enable PWIDs and persons with communication difficulties to be able to navigate their everyday with greater confidence and independence.
19. I am really encouraged by the thought that has gone into the solutions. You will hear about them later on, but some teams have explored how AI can help persons with communication difficulties express themselves better and recover when conversations break down. Others have looked at how technology can help PWIDs plan activities, make healthier choices, navigate everyday situations, and overcome everyday obstacles. Something that perhaps you and I take for granted. PWDs or persons with different abilities, they react differently and navigate differently.
20. But what stands out to me is that these solutions are not designed to make decisions for PWDs. They are designed to give individuals greater agency: remember I said just now, more convening power and the ability. I think that is the ability to empower them with greater agency to communicate what they want, make their own choices, and participate more independently.
21. That is what inclusive innovation is really all about.
22. It is not simply about doing things for people. It is about giving people the tools and opportunities to do more for themselves.
II. Technology with people at its centre
23. There is another important lesson from InnovateFest. Good innovation does not begin with technology. It begins with the person.
24. Before developing your solutions, many of you spent time at MINDS and SPD facilities, and you spoke directly to the people whom you wanted to design your solutions for, the beneficiaries. I think that is the process that matters.
25. It matters a lot, because at the end of the day, one day when you look back at the six weeks you spent doing this: yes, the innovative solutions are important, but I think you will look back and realise that the process is equally, if not, more important. The process of understanding persons at MINDS and SPD – how they see life, how they navigate life, and what solutions we can design for them to make that process easier.
26. Because inclusion requires us all. It is not just inclusion for the sake of PWDs, but inclusion means for all of us to think of how we might be in that position, to understand the barriers that others experience — barriers that oftentimes are invisible to us. They are not immediately apparent, and you might not be able to see it. When you size a person or a group of people up, you might not be able to discern it.
27. In fact, I thought I will share something about this aspect with you that we have been doing at my ministry, the Ministry of Law.
28. Last year, at the inaugural Access to Justice Symposium, there was a lawyer. Her name is Peggy Yee. If you Google her, you will see she is a strong advocate. She is a cancer survivor, senior lawyer and she uses her time and skills for a whole range of different causes.
29. And one of her causes is to better support persons with invisible disabilities. So she brought this up and said, “What can you do in our criminal justice system for persons with invisible disabilities? How do we allow them to better navigate the system? How can we be fair to them?”
30. And I agreed with her that we should come together to study this issue and develop real, tangible and practical solutions.
31. In January this year, we launched the Inclusive Justice Taskforce, co-chaired by my colleague Senior Parliamentary Secretary Eric Chua and, of course, Ms Yee.
32. The Taskforce brings together a diverse group: lawyers, policymakers, law enforcement officers, healthcare and social service professionals, community partners, caregivers, as well as advocates for the disability community.
33. I am very glad that both MINDS and SPD are represented on the Taskforce, and it is important that we hear directly from your experience. Your experience gives us a lot of bandwidth and ideas as to how we need to be scoping the proposals and solutions.
34. The Taskforce’s remit spans the entire criminal justice journey, from the front end to the back end. It examines existing measures and considers tangible improvements that we can make to better support PWDs and mental health conditions, whether they encounter the system as accused persons, victims or witnesses.
35. The Taskforce, I am happy to say, has been very hard at work. Its members have taken stock of the support measures that we already have today across the entire criminal justice journey, and have begun discussing preliminary recommendations on what the gaps might be, how we can address them better, and how we can strengthen support for persons with invisible disabilities navigating the system.
36. This very careful, consultative work will help to ensure that its eventual recommendations are practical, well-considered and grounded in the experiences of the people whom the system serves.
37. Ultimately, as I have said just now, for all of our innovation and technology, you must start with the people. If you start with the people, then you are more likely than not to get the solutions right. I tell you this because I believe that there is a clear parallel with what you have been doing here at InnovateFest.
38. As the saying goes: “If you want to go fast, you go alone. If you want to go far, we go together.”
39. I think that is the spirit and ethos that we are trying to tap into, and it captures our starting point: no single organisation, profession or Government agency will have all the answers. We need to listen to the people whom we seek to serve, understand the challenges from their perspective, bring different expertise, skillsets and know-how to the table, different experiences, and then come together to create a solution collectively. That is the power of the “one plus one”, which will be much more than two.
III. Partnerships that turn ideas into impact
40. This is why platforms like what we are developing and building here, like the InnovateFest, are so invaluable.
41. Since 2023, InnovateFest has helped to equip more than 11,000 students with industry-relevant skills in AI and cloud-native technologies.
42. And what is equally valuable is the ecosystem that exists around the students.
43. To Dell Technologies, thank you very much for creating and sustaining this platform, and for your longstanding partnership with MINDS.
44. To MINDS and SPD, thank you for opening your doors and sharing your expertise, your experiences, and being generous in showing what it is that you can do, but also what it is that you might need for others to do. It is a two-way street. As much as we think that it is always one-way, trying to find a solution to help PWDs, I think PWDs can equally teach us something different, and more about ourselves and about the community that we live in.
45. And to the many industry partners, mentors, educators and judges – thank you for investing your time and expertise generously in our young people. I think that is the right approach. I mentioned that Singapore is small. We have our people talent that benefit tremendously from generous mentorship from people who have gone down the path before, who had maybe made mistakes along the way but are willing to show the way forward. And I think when we stand on the shoulders of giants continuously, we will reach further and further. That is what I would like to see Singapore do.
IV. To our students
46. Finally, I reserve my last words for the students here today.
47. The award ceremony will, of course, mark the conclusion of this year’s competition. But I certainly hope it will not mark the end of your journey.
48. Continue to use platforms such as this and others to share ideas, challenge assumptions, and explore practical solutions together.
49. The solutions you have developed today is not static. It may continue to evolve. Sometimes because we see a new challenge or problem, or because something does not work so well. Some may need further testing. Others may turn into a different form altogether as you receive more feedback. And that is a healthy and growing part of innovation.
50. More importantly, take with you the mindset that has brought you here in the first case – the desire to want to challenge yourself, to push the envelope and boundaries, to never see something as a given. And when you see problems, ask yourself: what can you do? What can you contribute to make it better? And then work with others to find that solution.
51. As AI becomes more capable and advanced, the opportunities before your generation will grow. Use those capabilities well and be adventurous. Use technology not simply to make processes faster or more efficient, but to give people greater independence, to find a solution that empowers. And make society more inclusive, compassionate, kinder and more understanding. And not simply to demonstrate what AI can do, but to ask what AI should do to improve people’s lives.
52. Today we hear about AI and some of its advancements, but also some of its ills. But I think if we ask ourselves not just what AI can do, but what it should do and how can it make a positive impact on our society.
53. If we can combine Singapore’s capacity for innovation with a strong commitment to inclusion, I think we can build a future where technology will expand opportunity rather than narrow it. And where every individual has the opportunity to participate, contribute and live meaningfully with dignity and confidence.
54. Once again, my warmest congratulations to all the winners and participants of Dell InnovateFest 2026.
55. I really look forward to seeing what else you will do with your ideas and where you will take your ideas even further.
56. Thank you very much.
Last updated on 18 September 2026