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All these benefits cannot be achieved without the safe and reliable provision of essential air, land and sea transport services at all times and under all circumstances, including during a crisis. Sir, the proposed Bill today therefore aims to put in place measures to enhance the resilience of essential transport services in Singapore and set the foundations to protect Singapore against possible future disruptions to our essential transport firms. Our objective is to help Singapore prepare for possible extreme scenarios that may happen in future, so that we are ready for these risks.

For example, we cannot rule out the risk of malicious actors gaining control and adversely influencing our key transport entities, jeopardising the provision of essential transport services in Singapore. We have built strong relationships with the firms in our transport ecosystem and worked closely with them during peace time and crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, to provide safe, reliable and efficient services for Singapore, and we want to make sure that they continue to do so in the years ahead.

We are not alone in making moves to safeguard our essential transport services. Other countries have taken steps to protect their strategic assets too. In 2021, the United Kingdom (UK) passed the National Security and Investments Act, which allows the government to intervene in certain acquisitions made that could harm the UK's national security. In the United States (US), the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernisation Act was passed in 2018 to expand the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, to address growing national security concerns over foreign investment in US companies or operations.

[Deputy Speaker (Mr Christopher de Souza) in the Chair]

Singapore already has regulations in place to safeguard some of our essential sectors. For example, the Banking, and Telecommunications Acts require approval to be sought before a person acquires a certain percentage of shares or voting power in a licensee; and prior to the appointment of key personnel, such as the chief executive officer (CEO). The Electricity, and Public Utilities Acts also provide similar levers to safeguard the management and provision of electricity and water in Singapore, to ensure that these supplies always remain available.

More recently, the Ministry of Trade and Industry passed the Significant Investments Review Act, or SIRA, which provides the Government with an updated set of regulatory levers to manage threats posed by significant investments into critical entities. Likewise, the Ministry of Transport (MOT) would like to propose measures to ensure that our essential transport systems are able to serve Singapore and Singaporeans effectively, now and in the future.

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