New Acting Manpower Minister Jasmin Lau says responsiblity is to help workers, companies navigate tech changes

He added: “I moved from being a product developer to really more of a product manager. There’s a lot of explaining to people what we are doing, why we are doing certain things, and persuading people in the best way possible, in the most efficient way possible, in the most effective way possible what you’re trying to do.”

Mr David Neo, who was Chief of Army before joining politics, was promoted to minister for culture, community and youth and second minister for education.

“For this past year, my focus has really been to get down onto the ground, to engage all our local stakeholders, small groups at a time, 10, 15, sometimes one-on-one,” he said.

This is to hear from them “how they experience our policies, what is working, what is not working, and more importantly, what are our common goals and objectives”.

The most important political lesson has been to apportion enough time to listen to a diverse range of stakeholders, including arts and culture groups, heritage practitioners, community and religious groups, athletes and youth, he said.

Mr Neo, who drew some criticism recently for a remark in parliament that he made that ministers have no time to watch movies, was also asked for his response to this.

“Well, I should just not tell any more jokes,” he said. 

“As with all things, we all learn. And every time there’s criticism, I take it positively as feedback, and it’s just a matter of how things are experienced by different people.

“We look at it and then I ask myself, ‘how can I do better going forward?’ And that, I think, is the spirit in which I just keep taking in feedback.”