BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei - President Tharman Shanmugaratnam said all the roles he plays – including those taken up in his private capacity – further his duties as president, as well as Singapore’s national interest.

These include being a member of the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and co-chairing the Global Commission on the Economics of Water that aims to transform water governance.

In November 2023, Parliament voted to amend the Constitution to allow the president and ministers to take on international appointments in their private capacities, if it is in line with national interests.

Responding to a question about whether the constitutional change made a difference to his work, Mr Tharman said that things are not very different from before.

“Nothing I do is for private interest,” he told reporters on Jan 26 on the sidelines of a state visit to Brunei. This is the first time he has commented on the matter since it was debated and passed in Parliament.

“The term ‘private capacity’ that’s used in the Constitution is a bit of legalese, but it simply means that there are some roles I could play internationally where I have to express independent views, so that we are credible when I’m chairing various bodies, for instance.

“They are all in furtherance of my presidential duties and the national interests,” he said. “That’s the basis on which Cabinet decides on which bodies I should play a role in, and it’s working well so far.”

Since the Constitution was amended, he has made working visits to New York and Switzerland.

He was in New York from Nov 27 to Dec 4, 2023, where he delivered a lecture at Columbia University as part of its World Leaders Forum series and had bilateral meetings. These were done in his traditional head of state role, said Mr Tharman.

Also on the New York trip, he participated in a plenary of the Group of Thirty (G-30) as the chair of the Board of Trustees. G-30 is a grouping of eminent thought leaders in economic policymaking, academia and the financial industry. As chair of the board, he noted the need to “express myself independently, even if everyone knows I am there as president”.

Earlier in January 2024, he was on a working visit to Switzerland, where he went to Davos for the WEF annual meeting and met other heads of state and government in his capacity as Singapore’s president.

Some of the leaders he met included Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Mr Tharman also attended a meeting of the WEF Board of Trustees in Davos, and co-chaired the Global Commission on the Economics of Water in Zurich.

On both these occasions, he said he had to be “credibly independent, although I’m still there as president of Singapore”.

Mr Tharman reiterated that being able to represent Singapore as its president and also share his independent views in his international appointments have been working well.

He added: “I intend to be active in furthering Singapore’s interests abroad in both these roles.”