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Opining that Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan has one of the toughest jobs in Cabinet, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong asserted this morning that Khaw has the People’s Action Party’s full support and confidence, to applause from other party members:

“I want Boon Wan and his team to know that they have our full support and confidence.”

The head of government was speaking at this year’s PAP convention, held at the Big Box in Jurong this morning.

Pointing to the train collision at Joo Koon station earlier this week that caused at least 36 people to sustain injuries and the MRT tunnel flooding incident last month that caused a 20-hour service disruption, PM Lee said: “We have made progress, but there have been setbacks.”

PM Lee revealed that Khaw and his team are “are extremely disappointed with the recent incidents,” and added that improving train reliability is a very complicated problem and that the relevant organisations need to be strengthened to consistently perform well.

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He also said that there are the recent spate of issue plaguing the MRT network yields lessons to be learned and that the causes of MRT issues need to be established so that things can be rectified.

The PM furthermore acknowledged that the people’s frustrations over persistent MRT issues are understandable, but asserted that efforts to improve public train transport are showing results. He added that it only doesn’t feel like results are being achieved because major incidents damage public confidence:

“The best thing we can do now is to give our transport team the time and space to fix the problems.”

The PM’s speech just concluded and can be viewed here:

FB Live: Watch People's Action Party Secretary-General Lee Hsien Loong delivering his closing address at the PAP Awards and Convention 2017. Posted by Lee Hsien Loong on Saturday, 18 November 2017