New Cabinet line-up: PM Lee brings in new faces with private sector experience

Former managing director and chief executive of IHH Healthcare Tan See Leng, 55, has been appointed a full minister.

The newly elected MP in Marine Parade GRC will be a Minister in the Prime Minister's Office as well as Second Minister for Manpower and Trade and Industry.

In announcing his new Cabinet yesterday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong brought up Dr Tan's experience as a medical professional and business entrepreneur, and said he would add a private sector perspective to economic policymaking, to make sure policies are effective in helping businesses and addressing their problems.

"Being also posted to MOM ( Ministry of Manpower), he will help align our economic and manpower policies to reinforce each other," PM Lee added.

The Prime Minister said his Cabinet needs people from the private sector, "who have been on the receiving end of policies, and who know what policies can work and how the impact is on people and therefore what can we do to help people, help companies and businesses and the population solve their problems".

Besides Dr Tan, he also highlighted new face Alvin Tan, who is director and head of public policy and economics (Asia-Pacific) at LinkedIn, and backbencher Rahayu Mahzam, a lawyer.

Mr Tan, 40, will take on the role of Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth and Trade and Industry, while Ms Rahayu will be Parliamentary Secretary for Health.

PM Lee said Mr Tan's knowledge of social media and the digital media industry will come in useful for his roles in the two ministries.

In a Facebook post yesterday, Manpower Minister Josephine Teo said she has asked Dr Tan "to champion the health and wellness of our migrant workers while ensuring improvements are sustainable".

Dr Tan had co-founded Healthway Medical Group, a chain of neighbourhood clinics.

He practised as a family physician for more than a decade before he sold the business in 2004 and later joined Parkway Holdings, now part of IHH Healthcare.

Under Dr Tan, IHH grew to become one of the world's largest healthcare groups with a network of 56 hospitals in Asia, including the Mount Elizabeth and Gleneagles hospitals in Singapore.

He stepped down as managing director and chief executive of the group on Dec 31 last year.

Asked how he would bring his corporate experience to bear in Cabinet, Dr Tan told The Sunday Times he had to navigate through different government policies and cross different hurdles to do business when he was in the private sector.

"Because of the fact that I am able to navigate in my past life and also understand some of the difficulties, I can articulate and form a bridge between the public and the private sector," he said.

In his Manpower portfolio, one issue he wants to look at is how to fund "longer-term needs, the healthcare needs" of migrant workers. In his other ministry, he spoke of the need to find ways to transform industries and also continually attract investments here.

Mr Alvin Tan told The Sunday Times he has tendered his resignation at LinkedIn, and is currently serving notice. Hence, he will start his new appointments from Sept 1.

Pointing to his experience in different sectors during his career, he said: "Being very interdisciplinary, that might be very helpful to government. You look at MTI, it's about job creation, its about opening new opportunities. And if we are to take on these new opportunities, a multidisciplinary approach might come in very handy."