By TEH SHI NING

SINGAPORE relies on its young talent from both overseas and local universities to lead its future transformation and progress, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last night.

Speaking at the Cambridge 800 Gala Dinner, organised by the Cambridge Chapter of the Oxford and Cambridge Society of Singapore, Mr Lee outlined both the changes that Cambridge University has seen in its 800 years of history and the different experiences generations of Singaporean Cambridge graduates have had.

Students there today, he said, would experience a very different Cambridge from that experienced by those who were there before or just after World War II.

'In this globalised world, for the talented and qualified, all doors are open,' said Mr Lee. These graduates have many options besides returning home. Also, graduates who do return, he said, do so to a 'vibrant and cosmopolitan city', one which is no longer a colonial society fighting for independence, nor a fledgling nation.

'They come back, not to be a tiny and privileged elite, but to join a thick layer of talent educated locally and abroad, who contribute in many fields - in government, the private sector, and the professions, or academia,' said Mr Lee.

He thinks that there remain opportunities for young people to fulfil their dreams. 'Their mission . . . is to take Singapore to beyond anything which we could imagine when I was in Cambridge, or when my parents studied there,' he said.

Even as today's youth head to Britain, but also to America, China and elsewhere to pursue their university education, Singapore is 'also investing heavily in our local universities', Mr Lee said.

This investment, he said, is so that 'even those who cannot go abroad get a first class education', and as many of these local university students as possible 'have the chance to spend a semester or two on exchange programmes abroad, see the world'.

The new Singapore University of Technology and Design, for instance, is 'a project for the 21st century', that will 'give many of our ablest students an outstanding education in technology and design, and reflect the spirit of our society and our people', he said.

This article was first published in The Business Times.