Transcript: Remarks by Ho Ching at Fullerton Fund Management Company's 15th Anniversary Reception
Good evening, Ho Tian Yee, Chairman of Fullerton,
Jenny Sofian, CEO of Fullerton,
Members of the Board, management and staff of Fullerton,
Friends and colleagues,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Fullerton is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, as an independent fund management company.
I congratulate the Fullerton Board, management and staff, both past and present. You have charted your own path, each generation building upon the foundations laid by the previous.
I give special thanks, too, to everyone here this evening– you and many others, in and outside of Fullerton, have contributed to the success of Fullerton.
A Humble Beginning
The roots of Fullerton, as you heard from Jenny, go back 30 years, to the Treasury unit of Temasek. The unit began life in 1989 with just two staff – Benjamin Gan and Franklin Tan. During those early days, they invested in blue chips on the Singapore Exchange - and did well.
A decade later, Gerard Lee joined the Treasury unit. He broadened its strategy to cover different asset classes in the wider world. He also got the unit renamed as the Fund Management Department, or FMD.
As Gerard reflected later, FMD seemed like a pretty good name – it described what it does – till another FMD came along – the Foot and Mouth Disease! Those were exciting years.
In 2003, the unit was spun out. Thus was born the Fullerton Fund Management Company – Gerard was its founding CEO.
It took a year for Fullerton to set up its own systems and independent governance processes.
They had to get relevant licences from the MAS to do third party fund management - the conditions were strict, and MAS was, as usual, thorough, especially as Fullerton was to continue managing funds for its owner, Temasek.
Fullerton staff joked that it was easier for the cleaners and tea ladies, in those days, to access the Temasek offices, than for the Fullerton staff!
In 2004, Fullerton began offering their services as an Asian market specialist, to clients around Asia.
Earlier, Jenny mentioned the most recent strategic partnership between Fullerton and NTUC Income.
This is yet another notable milestone - two well-established Singapore institutions coming together last year, to combine their strengths, and improve their value propositions to their clients in Singapore and abroad.
However, growth, expansion and profits are not enough.
Profits, People, Planet
Businesses can succeed only if the wider community succeeds.
We have a deeper responsibility towards the society that gives our businesses life in the first place.
This responsibility is best described by the 3 P’s of profit, people and planet.
We are all familiar with the 1st P of Profits – it is the fuel for business success and longevity.
The 2nd P of People really means valuing our people, investing in them, training them, enabling them to grow beyond just being our employees.
The 3rd P of Planet may be found in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, or the UN SDGs for short.
An ABC World by 2030
In 2015, just three years ago, Singapore and 192 other UN members agreed to deliver 17 UN SDGs by 2030; that’s just 11 years from now. These promote inclusive prosperity while protecting our planet.
In Singapore, the PUB aims to deliver Active, Beautiful and Clean Water. They call it their ABC Water programme. The UN SDGs aim similarly to deliver an ABC World:
A for an Active economy, of productive jobs, sustainable cities and fulfilling lives;
B for a Beautiful society, of resilient individuals, inclusive communities and a fair and just social order; and
C for a Clean earth of fresh air, clear water, and a cool and unpolluted world.
Among the goals for an ABC World is the all-important Goal number 13 – to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
Last year, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published a special report on “1.5 degree C” – one and a half degrees centigrade. Its conclusions were sober: we have barely 10 years left before we reach an irreversible tipping point.
A Liveable Tomorrow Starts Today
Friends, Ladies & Gentlemen,
Urgent action is needed.
We must act now, to reduce our global CO2 emissions by 2030, to half of our 2010 level of emissions.
If we can do that, we will have a better than even chance of achieving the ultimate goal of zero net emissions by 2050 for a liveable earth.
One, one and a half, or two degrees warmer, seems rather inconsequential. What are the risks?
For example, one and half degrees warmer than our pre-industrial past, is just a little over half a degree more than our current global surface temperature.
But this additional half degree warmer will cause 70-90% of coral reefs to die. Another half a degree more, at two degrees centigrade, virtually all coral reefs will die.
So half or one degree more can mean life or death for our life on Earth.
Already, melting glaciers and more powerful hurricanes from warmer oceans are signalling a clear and present danger.
Combined with our humidity in Singapore, a hotter Earth means very serious climate and health consequences.
Hotter weather also means faster mosquito breeding, and higher risks of mosquito-borne diseases, like dengue, zika and malaria. High altitude countries like Nepal used to be free of dengue. But they started seeing dengue cases just over ten years ago – a clear result of global warming.
In Singapore, we got warmer by about a quarter degree Centigrade every decade over the last 70 years.
In the last 5 years, however, average temperatures in the central district, where many of us are working, went up by one degree. This is 8 times faster than before.
A big contributor is air conditioning. Do you know that 75% of our homes now have air conditioning? That means the majority of our HDB flats as well.
About 30% of our energy consumption is for air conditioning.
We can halve that energy usage with more efficient, large scale, new infrastructure like district cooling. This can help provide cooling for all households, while saving them money too.
Should we not push harder, for a faster transition, to a cooler and more energy efficient Singapore?
Globally, cattle farming alone contributes to about 10% of world greenhouse gases. Can we halve our beef intake, and replace cattle farming with more sustainable solutions?
Conclusion
Ladies & Gentlemen, Friends.
Every bit of effort counts.
At Temasek, our DNA is to:
do well as an investor;
do right as an institution; and
do good as a steward.
Fullerton is 15 years old as a company. It is 30 years old, counting from its roots as the Temasek treasury unit.
My hope is for Fullerton to remain true to its Temasek DNA, to do well; to do right, especially for your clients and your people; and to do good, for the community at large, in the critical decade ahead.
As we celebrate our successes, we all also know that a more liveable tomorrow is our common and immediate challenge.
That tomorrow starts today.
Let’s help make a cool ABC World, a reality in 10 years’ time. I look forward to your support and thank you all. Enjoy your evening.