It is indeed a great honour and pleasure to be able to serve a third term as the President of the Singapore Pest Management Association. 

The Association has come a long way to be a well recognized and internationally acclaimed organisation. This is possible because of the dedicated service of our very committed Governing Council in the past. We will miss the Councillors who have chosen to move on and retire. ‘A BIG THANK YOU’ to all of them and we wish them well. We shall always remember them as without their sacrifice, commitment and dedication, we would not be what we are today. 

We are indeed encouraged to see new and younger members who have come forward to join the Governing Council. This is significant as it speeds up the process of renewal and succession. We warmly welcome them and look forward to their active contribution and participation to fulfil what we have set to achieve. 
For the new term, we shall pursue the following objectives:

• Continue our mission of raising the professionalism of the industry through training and education ;
• Engage our members in activities which bind us as a closely-knitted organisation ;
• Maintain dialogue and involvement with the relevant Authorities and institutions;
• Cultivate a socially responsible industry;
• Connect members to the global Pest Management Industry.

Looking ahead, I see several challenges and opportunities in the coming years which will test our strength in keeping up the high standard of services and professionalism expected of this industry. These include:

• Quality public health pest management, in particular, effective mosquito and rodent pest management to preclude the outbreak of mosquito and rodent borne diseases ;
• Emerging threats in the increase of bedbug infestation globally;
• Increasing pest resistance to insecticides;
• Greater demands on pest management emerging from implementing the ‘City in a Garden’ concept and  ‘Green Mark Accreditation’ for buildings;
• Stringent requirements and judicious use of chemicals in pest treatment to protect our precious water resources from pollution.

These are the realities of the environment we work in today. We must prepare ourselves for all these challenges and pursue our mission with excellence.

We work in very exciting times. We need your help, and together with the support of our young and energetic Governing Council, we are confident that we shall continue to do well for the industry.

Thank you.

Mr Andrew E L Chan