Ho Ching lauds Ng Kok Song’s contributions to Singapore wealth management amidst presidential election campaign

SINGAPORE: Ho Ching, former CEO of Temasek Holdings and wife of Singapore’s Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, recently took to Facebook to offer words of admiration and gratitude to Ng Kok Song, the former Chief Investment Officer of GIC.

This comes amidst Mr Ng’s unexpected announcement of entering the presidential race on 19 July.

With a career in public service spanning 45 years, Ng Kok Song has held influential positions at both GIC and the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

He currently holds the position of executive chairman at Avanda Investment Management, an asset management company he co-founded in 2015.

Recalling an interaction from two decades ago, Mdm Ho highlighted Mr Ng’s vision for Singapore’s potential as a leading wealth management hub in Asia.

“He thought then that Singapore could be a wealth management hub for Asia and believed in equipping our people with the right training,” she wrote.

However, due to GIC’s mandate to only invest outside of Singapore, it was Temasek that took the initiative and invested in starting the Wealth Management Institute (WMI) in 2003.

Mdm Ho emphasized the crucial condition she put forth: that Mr Ng chair the WMI. Mr Ng took on the role, leading with distinction. Today, the institute boasts approximately 20,000 students, offering both online classes and short certificate courses.

While the upcoming presidential race sees Mr Ng competing against former senior minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, entrepreneur Mr Geroge Goh, and NTUC Income’s former chief executive Mr Tan Kin Lian, Mr Ng’s decision to run appears to be influenced by concerns about the integrity of Singapore’s national institutions.

Mr Ng has continually underlined the need for a president who stands independent of political affiliations.

However, given his close ties with PAP politicians during his 27-year tenure in GIC and the substantial assets contributed by Temasek and GIC to help launch Avanda, Ng’s claims of political independence have been met with scepticism.

This is further underscored by the whopping US$3 billion (S$4.05 billion) received from Temasek Holdings under Mdm Ho’s leadership in 2016.

As Singapore awaits its next presidential election, Mr Ng’s decision to run is seen by many as a move to prevent an uncontested election, which would not reflect well on the democratic process.