Also present were about 50 staff and members of the Nanyang Technological University, the beneficiary of the $20 million Tan Chin Tuan Centennial Fund.

The gift to the university is one of several events organised by the Tan Chin Tuan Foundation to celebrate the centennial of his birth.

Tan Sri Tan died at the age of 97 in 2005.

The foundation contributed $10 million which was matched equally by the government. It will fund a professorship, a forum and an exchange fellowship in engineering.

Tan Sri Tan's daughter and TCTF Chairman Tan Kheng Lian, 74, said it was fitting that her father's birth centennial be marked with the launch of an educational fund named for him.

Speaking to the Straits Times before the dinner, she said, 'Dad was passionate about education. He said, 'Unlike money, nobody can take education away from you'. I think he would have been happy to know that we are following in his wishes to support education.'

Read the full story on Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.