IMechE Singapore Branch Annual Dinner and signing MOU with IES

The 2023 Annual Dinner was held on 9 January 2024 in the Pandang restaurant at the Singapore Cricket Club. It was a special event which included the signing of the MOU with IES (Institution of Engineers Singapore).

The Annual Dinner proved to be popular with the members with 70 in attendance. Our Guest of Honour was Mr Dalson Chung, the President of IES,  he was accompanied by 4 other IES VP's. The other dignitaries were from The British High Commission (BHC), BritCham, Energy Institute, Institution of Engineering and Technology with apologies from IMarEST and RINA institutions. IMechE was represented by our President, International Member of the Trustee Board, with SEAR Chair and the Business Development Manager attending in person.

It was an activity packed evening with Andy Bell and Eleven Kim as emcees who ensured a smooth flow of speeches, dinner and technical talks.

The welcoming speech by Kogi Oberoi (Chair IMechE SG Branch) highlighted the signing of the MOU was a culmination of six years of collaboration between IMechE and IES. He invited other dignitaries to use this as a template to forge inter Institutional relationships.

He concluded by saying The BHC was supportive and will facilitate a round table meeting. Dalson Chung reiterated the perceived benefits of this collaboration to contribute to their Green Plan and Sustainability initiatives. He foresaw collaborations in the areas of education and developing Young Members would be on a stronger footing resurrecting a very old MOU that had long lapsed.

The first Technical talk was by Lauren Babuik, Head of Singapore Climate, Energy & Nature Team on Global Environment Facility. It was full of facts on a fast-moving topic. The second speaker, Jeff Obbard gave an update from the recent COP 28 meeting, the key question was 'is it too late' to control the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius?

There was tension in the air whilst the nominees for the YM of the year award were declared. WANG SHI HUI from Republic Poly was announced as the 2023 winner. 

President, Giles Hartill previously sent an encouraging letter that was read out and the input from Chris Chong, who was online, was communicated to the meeting, this followed by signing of the MOU by Kogi Oberoi and Dalson Chung. 

A final thank you was extended to the organisers, guests and members.

It is pleasing to report that the first two collaboration meetings between IES and IMechE have already been held and an action plan developed.