By Lee U-Wen

FRESH out of school and still not sure what to study at university? Ask Lim Siong Guan and he replies without hesitation - engineering.

This would be a 'smart choice' for those who want to keep their options open after graduation, says the chairman of the Economic Development Board, himself a mechanical engineer by training.

Mr Lim, 61, was speaking on the theme, 'Engineering is Creation, Options and Opportunities' at the annual Institute of Engineers Singapore (IES) Charles Rudd distinguished lecture series last night.

He told an audience of 300 at Singapore Management University: 'If you choose business or social science you will not be able, with reasonable ease, to take up engineering, while many who do engineering in university can switch fairly easily, ending up possibly in the financial sector or general management - like me.'

Engineering represents options in life, and options are what allows a person to delay making a final choice, he said. 'Many young people do not really know what they want to do for their future, so choosing university courses can be quite a confusing time.'

Mr Lim, a former head of civil service from 1999 to 2005, is a Colombo Plan and President's Scholar, having earned his degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Adelaide in Australia.

He shared how he tried all ways and means to get a scholarship or bursary to study because his parents - a taxi driver father and teacher mother - could not afford the fees.

At scholarship interviews, Mr Lim admitted he would say whatever it took to enhance his chances of getting a scholarship.

'Even saying I wanted to do engineering was not because I knew that much about engineering. It simply seemed the smartest discipline to take up for the future,' he said, noting how the government then had said the future of Singapore was industrialisation.

'It was only in the course of doing engineering that I discovered that this was really fun - solving problems, thinking straight, creating stuff, making things happen, organising people, producing useful results,' he said.

And 'creating stuff' is exactly what some Singaporeans have already done to etch their name into the history books.

Mr Lim cited some examples, such as Poo Teng Pin, who invented the popular thumb-drive storage device, and ST Microelectronics' development of the first column-driver integrated circuit that is a key component of many of the world's flat-screen LCD TV sets.

Earlier last night, Mr Lim was conferred the IES Honorary Fellowship in recognition of his contributions to Singapore's economy and development.

He also presented the IES Prestigious Engineering Achievement Awards to five recipients that have 'demonstrated engineers' ingenuity and inventiveness'. Among the winners this year are the Housing and Development Board, National Parks Board and ST Electronics.

This article was first published in The Business Times on September 17, 2008.