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Grace Fu

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The Honourable
Grace Fu
DCMG
傅海燕
Fu in 2020
Minister for Sustainability and the Environment
Incumbent
Assumed office
27 July 2020
Prime MinisterLee Hsien Loong
Preceded byMasagos Zulkifli
(as Minister for the Environment and Water Resources)
Minister for Culture, Community and Youth
In office
1 October 2015 – 26 July 2020
Prime MinisterLee Hsien Loong
Preceded byLawrence Wong
Succeeded byEdwin Tong
Leader of the House
In office
1 October 2015 – 23 August 2020
Prime MinisterLee Hsien Loong
DeputyDesmond Lee
Preceded byNg Eng Hen
Succeeded byIndranee Rajah
Member of Parliament
for Yuhua SMC
Incumbent
Assumed office
21 May 2011
Preceded byConstituency established
Majority8,217 (41.08%)
Minister in the Prime Minister's Office
In office
1 August 2012 – 30 September 2015
Prime MinisterLee Hsien Loong
Preceded byLim Hwee Hua (2011)
Second Minister for the Environment and Water Resources
In office
1 August 2012 – 30 September 2015
Prime MinisterLee Hsien Loong
MinisterVivian Balakrishnan
Second Minister for Foreign Affairs
In office
1 August 2012 – 30 September 2015
Prime MinisterLee Hsien Loong
MinisterK. Shanmugam
Succeeded byJosephine Teo (2017)
Senior Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts
In office
21 May 2011 – 30 July 2012
Prime MinisterLee Hsien Loong
MinisterYaacob Ibrahim
Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources
In office
21 May 2011 – 30 July 2012
Prime MinisterLee Hsien Loong
MinisterVivian Balakrishnan
Succeeded byAmy Khor (2015)
Senior Minister of State for Education
In office
1 April 2008 – 20 May 2011
Prime MinisterLee Hsien Loong
MinisterNg Eng Hen
Succeeded byLawrence Wong
Senior Minister of State for National Development
In office
1 April 2008 – 20 May 2011
Prime MinisterLee Hsien Loong
MinisterMah Bow Tan
Succeeded byDesmond Lee (2015)
Member of Parliament
for Jurong GRC
(Yuhua)
In office
27 April 2006 – 18 April 2011
Preceded byYu-Foo Yee Shoon (PAP)
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Personal details
Born (1964-03-29) 29 March 1964 (age 60)[1]
Singapore
Political partyPeople's Action Party
SpouseIvan Lee
Children3
Alma materNational University of Singapore (BAcy, MBA)
In this Chinese name, the family name is Fu.

Grace Fu Hai Yien DCMG[2] (Chinese: 傅海燕; pinyin: Fù Hǎiyàn; born 1964)[1] is a Singaporean politician who has been serving as Minister for Sustainability and the Environment since 2020. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), she has been the Member of Parliament (MP) representing Yuhua SMC since 2011.

Before entering politics, Fu was an accountant and had worked at Overseas Union Bank, Haw Par Group and PSA Corporation. She stood for election in the 2006 general election as part of the PAP team contesting in Jurong GRC and was elected. Since the 2011 general election, she had been contesting as a solo candidate in Yuhua SMC and had won three elections since then. Throughout her political career, she held positions in various ministries and was Leader of the House between 2015 and 2020.

Background

Fu was educated in Nanyang Girls' High School and Hwa Chong Junior College before she went to the National University of Singapore, where she completed a Bachelor of Accountancy (Honours) in 1985 and a Master of Business Administration in 1991.

Fu began her career with Overseas Union Bank as an auditor from 1985 to 1988. She then joined the Haw Par Group, where she worked in corporate planning, financial control and business development from 1991 to 1995.

In October 1995, Fu joined PSA Corporation as an Assistant Director (Finance). She took on additional responsibilities as Vice-President (Marketing) and assumed the position of Financial Controller in October 1998. She was promoted to Executive Vice-President (Finance) in January 1999. In April 2003, Fu was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Singapore Terminals. In 2004, she became the Chief Executive Officer of PSA South East Asia and Japan, where she was responsible for the business performance of PSA's flagship terminals in Singapore, Thailand, Brunei and Japan.[3]

Fu has been a non-practising member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Singapore since 1992.[4]

Political career

Fu was one of 24 new People's Action Party (PAP) candidates introduced ahead of the 2006 general election. She was elected in June 2006 as a Member of Parliament representing the Yuhua ward in Jurong Group Representation Constituency (GRC). On 1 August 2006, she was appointed Minister of State at the Ministry of National Development

On 1 April 2008, Fu was promoted to Senior Minister of State at the Ministry of National Development and Ministry of Education.

At the 2011 general election, Fu was elected as the Member of Parliament representing the newly formed Yuhua Single Member Constituency (SMC). She defeated the Singapore Democratic Party candidate Teo Soh Lung by 14,093 votes (66.9%) to 6,986 (33.1%). Following the election, Fu was appointed Senior Minister of State at the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts and Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources.

In January 2012, Fu expressed concerns over the planned 36–37% income cuts for ministers, saying that if ministerial pay was further reduced in the future, it would "make it harder for anyone considering political office".[5][6][7][8][9] Her comments contributed to the ongoing public debate over compensation and motivation of public officials, and were subject to criticism from Internet users in Singapore. Others defended her remark as fair, supporting her position that loss of privacy and public scrutiny adds a large personal cost to public positions not found in the private sector.[10][11]

On 31 July 2012, Fu was promoted to full Minister, becoming the second woman in Singaporean history after Lim Hwee Hua to become a full Minister in the Cabinet. She also held the positions of Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, Second Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2015.[12] In 2015, she was appointed Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, becoming the first female minister in Singapore to helm a ministry.

In 2018, Fu appeared in the seventh episode of the television series Eat Already? 4 to promote the ActiveSG programme launched by the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth.[13]

Following the 2020 general election, Fu became the PAP's Central Executive Committee Organising Secretary and an advisor of Yuhua SMC Grassroots Organisation.

Fu took up a new portfolio as Minister for Sustainability and the Environment on 27 July 2020. She was also Leader of the House from 1 October 2015 to 23 August 2020.

Since 2020, Fu has also been a member of the Global Leaders Group on Antimicrobial Resistance, co-chaired by Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, and Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados.

Personal life

Fu's father, James Fu, was previously a leftist journalist who became press secretary to Lee Kuan Yew when he was the Prime Minister.[14][15] Her mother was a nurse.[16]

Fu is married to technopreneur Ivan Lee and they have three sons.[17][18]

References

  1. ^ a b "PARL | MP". Retrieved 17 July 2020.
  2. ^ "2011 Honorary Awards" (PDF).
  3. ^ "PMO | Ms Grace FU Hai Yien". 7 September 2020.
  4. ^ "MP Profile – Grace Fu". Archived from the original on 9 January 2012. Retrieved 13 March 2012.
  5. ^ Hoe, Yeen Nie. "Grace Fu criticised over Facebook comments on pay review". Channel NewsAsia. Archived from the original on 8 January 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
  6. ^ Chan, Rachel (6 January 2012). "Furore over minister's pay-cut post". AsiaOne. Archived from the original on 9 January 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
  7. ^ Wong, Alicia (6 January 2012). "Grace Fu clarifies Facebook post on ministerial pay". TodayOnline. Archived from the original on 8 January 2012.
  8. ^ Seah, Chiang Nee (7 January 2012). "PAP mood turns sour over pay cuts". The Star. Archived from the original on 8 January 2012.
  9. ^ Shamim, Adam; Lim, Weiyi (5 January 2012). "Singapore's Lee Fights Voter Grievances by Accepting Pay Cut". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 8 January 2012.
  10. ^ Mokhtar, Faris (6 January 2012). "Public misunderstood my comments: Grace Fu". Yahoo! News SG. Archived from the original on 9 January 2012. Retrieved 7 January 2012.
  11. ^ Kong, Loh Chee (5 January 2011). "Deep cuts proposed to pay of political leaders". TodayOnline. Archived from the original on 9 January 2012.
  12. ^ "Singapore reshuffles Cabinet". Channel NewsAsia. Archived from the original on 18 March 2013. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  13. ^ govsingapore (23 March 2018), 《吃饱没？4》 第七集 "Eat Already? 4" Episode 7, archived from the original on 20 September 2020, retrieved 7 October 2018
  14. ^ George, Cherian (1 April 2012). Freedom from the Press: Journalism and State Power in Singapore. NUS Press. p. 103. ISBN 9789971695941. Archived from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  15. ^ Toh, Elgin (24 March 2015). "First among equals: Mr Lee Kuan Yew led a tiny island nation from Third World to First". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 11 August 2017. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  16. ^ Chang, Rachel (12 August 2012). "Grace Fu: Steely leader sticks to her convictions". The Straits Times.
  17. ^ Heng, Janice (8 March 2015). "When a woman outshines her man". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 5 September 2017. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  18. ^ A Chat with Grace Fu Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, pap.org.sg, 10 June 2006.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Grace Fu.
Political offices
Preceded by Minister in the Prime Minister's Office
1 August 2012 – 30 September 2015
Served alongside: Lim Swee Say, S. Iswaran, Masagos Zulkifli, Chan Chun Sing 		Succeeded by
New office Minister-in-charge of the Municipal Services Office
1 October 2014 – present 		Incumbent
Preceded by Minister for Community, Culture and Youth
1 October 2015 – 26 July 2020 		Succeeded by
Preceded byas Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Minister for Sustainability and the Environment
27 July 2020 – present 		Incumbent
Parliament of Singapore
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Jurong GRC (Yuhua)
2006 – 2011 		Constituency redrawn
New constituency Member of Parliament
for Yuhua SMC
2011 – present 		Incumbent
Preceded by Leader of the House
1 October 2015 – 23 August 2020 		Succeeded by
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