Three SAF high-fliers in permanent secretary changes

Mr Png Cheong Boon Rear-Admiral Lai Chung Han
Rear-Admiral Lai Chung Han
Mr Png Cheong Boon Rear-Admiral Lai Chung Han
Mr Png Cheong Boon

Two ministries will get a new second permanent secretary, while another two current permanent secretaries will change portfolios next month.

The Public Service Division (PSD) announced the changes in a press statement yesterday.

Mr Png Cheong Boon, 47, will be appointed Second Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Trade and Industry on June 1. He will remain as chief executive officer of JTC Corporation. Current Permanent Secretary for Trade and Industry Loh Khum Yean will continue in his role.

Meanwhile, Rear-Admiral Lai Chung Han, 44, will be appointed Second Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Education on June 19, after he steps down as Singapore's navy chief. Current Permanent Secretary for Education Chan Lai Fung will continue in her role.

In other changes, Permanent Secretary for Education Development Neo Kian Hong will be appointed Permanent Secretary for Defence Development.

He will take up his new role on June 19 and relinquish his other appointment on the same date.

Current Permanent Secretary for Defence Development Ng Chee Khern will relinquish his appointment on the same date. Mr Ng will continue as Permanent Secretary (Smart Nation and Digital Government) for the Prime Minister's Office, and chair the Government Technology Agency board at the same time.

Three of the four new or redeployed permanent secretaries were high-fliers in the armed forces: RADM Lai, the outgoing navy chief; Mr Neo, the chief of defence force from 2010 to 2013; and Mr Ng, the air force chief from 2006 to 2009.

The fourth, Mr Png, spent his 24-year career in the Ministry of Trade and Industry's statutory boards and rose to be chief executive of two of them in the last nine years: Spring Singapore and JTC.

He was an EDB-Glaxo scholarship holder under the scholarship programme by the Economic Development Board (EDB) and Glaxo.

In its statement, PSD said Mr Png's appointment as permanent secretary, "via a non-traditional path, is testament to the diversity of pathways to the office of permanent secretary, and adds further diversity to the experience and background of senior public service leaders".

Elaborating, it said: "(Mr Png's) path, along a more specialist track, is unlike officers who had been appointed permanent secretary following a more generalist career with regular rotation across different ministries."

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on May 23, 2017, with the headline Three SAF high-fliers in permanent secretary changes. Subscribe