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Who could fill Tony Tan’s shoes at GIC?

 

Dr Tony Tan (TODAY)

SINGAPORE: Dr Tony Tan’s possible candidacy in the coming Presidential Election could leave the door wide open for a new executive director at the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC).

Dr Tan is understood to be collecting application forms for an eligibility certificate on Thursday to contest the presidency. He will have to resign from the GIC if he is elected.

No names were readily offered as a possible replacement for Dr Tan at GIC by most of the GIC watchers whom TODAY spoke to.

However, they noted that the person should possess a long—term view managing Singapore’s reserves, have experience managing sizeable financial assets and be well—versed with the financial and banking industry.

NRA Capital executive chairman Kevin Scully, who named Temasek Holdings Chairman S. Dhanabalan — a former Cabinet Minister — as a possible replacement, said: " It has to be someone of Ministerial rank, who’s got a macro view, with a finance background and who will match the long—term liabilities of the Government and the expected returns (on investments)."

Mr Scully added: " For GIC and Temasek, there is a certain nationalistic view that it must be run by a Singaporean because it is not for short—term gains but for long—term returns."

Other watchers did not have any names in mind.

CIMB regional economist Song Seng Wun felt any successor could come from within the GIC. " This will give the Government the most comfort zone, given that it is such an important role for the institution," he said.

In 2005, Dr Tan was appointed to the then newly—created post of executive director when he retired from politics. Mr Lim Siong Guan, who was formerly head of the Civil Service, is currently the No 2 man at GIC.

Earlier this month, GIC announced the most wide—ranging changes to its senior leadership since 2007, which will take effect next Friday.

The changes include the stepping down of the Presidents of GIC Asset Management, GIC Special Investments and GIC Real Estate. Mr Quah Wee Ghee, Dr Teh Kok Peng and Dr Seek Ngee Huat will be appointed as chairmen of business groups focusing on the emerging markets.

The GIC board of directors is headed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. The board consist of four other Cabinet Ministers — including Deputy Prime Ministers Teo Chee Hean and Tharman Shanmugaratnam — and former Cabinet Ministers Richard Hu and Raymond Lim.

With GIC’s " sizeable war chest" and " high profile" , Mr David Cohen, Director of Asian Economic Forecasting at Action Economics, felt that GIC would not have difficulty in attracting interest in the role.

The possible candidate should be " someone with familiarity" with Asia given the region’s growth, he added.

While interest may be high, Mr Song felt that the pool of candidates may be " limited" . Pointing to Dr Tan’s banking experience — he was chairman of OCBC Bank from 1992 to 1995 — Mr Song said:" It can’t be just a person who has superficial knowledge of the global banking system. It (the search) is not going to be easy, but at the end of the day, it is going to be a person who has the full confidence of the Government." —

TODAY

S’pore banks have little

exposure to Greek debt

Buy local produce: AVA

ALVINA SOH

alvinasoh@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE

Chief executive officer Tan Poh Hong said support from consumers for local produce, such as eggs, will help spur local farms to increase their production to meet bigger demand and, in turn, ensure the sustainability of local farms.

Consumers can be assured of the quality of local produce, thanks to the stringent production and quality control procedures local farms adhere to as well as the short delivery time from farm to retail outlets, said AVA.

In particular, the quality of eggs produced by local chicken layer farms is assured under AVA’s Singapore Quality Egg Scheme (SQES).

Introduced in 1990, the voluntary quality assurance scheme requires local poultry layer farms to ensure that their facilities are hygienic and that quality control monitoring systems are well maintained at all times.

The eggs produced undergo monthly inspection and freshness tests by AVA to verify their quality.

The date of production and farm code are also stamped on every egg to ensure traceability.

All three local chicken layer farms are currently registered under this scheme.

Local production is an important secondary strategy in ensuring food supply resilience for Singapore, and the Government is aiming to raise self-sufficiency levels for eggs, fish and leafy vegetables to 30 per cent, 15 per cent and 10 per cent respectively. Current self-sufficiency levels stand at 23 per cent for eggs, 4 per cent for fish and 7 per cent for vegetables.

“While we have been looking at the supply side helping farmers to increase their productivity through technology and extension services, we feel that it is also important to get our consumers to support the local produce as well, said Ms Tan.

Consumers can look out for the SQES logo — which has been revised — when choosing eggs.

GUARANTEE  is  needed  by cOnsUmers  but  not  traceability which is UsefUl  Only for the aUthOrIty.— The Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) has urged consumers to complement the Government’s efforts and support the local farming industry by buying local produce, as Singapore looks to boost its self-sufficiency levels for certain produce.

Ho Ching not leaving Temasek: Sources

SINGAPORE

“HC (Ho Ching) told the staff internally she is not leaving,” said one of the sources.

Ms Ho, the wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, has been executive director at Temasek since May 2002 and chief executive since January 2004. The sources said Ms Ho told staff that, if she had to leave on a “high note”, she could have done so last year when Temasek’s portfolio had more than recovered from the financial crisis.

Temasek’s portfolio rose 43 per cent year-on-year to S$186 billion at the end of March last year, surpassing the S$185 billion just before the financial crisis that drove its value to S$130 billion.

The sources declined to be named because the information was not public.

A Temasek spokesman declined to comment on the

Ms Ho had earlier planned to step down in October 2009 and Temasek had appointed former BHP Billiton CEO Charles Goodyear to replace her.

The American would have been the first foreigner to run Temasek but, in July 2009, the leadership transition process ended with both Temasek’s board and Mr Goodyear citing differences regarding strategic issues that could not be resolved.

— Ms Ho Ching, chief executive and executive director of Temasek Holdings, has informed her staff that she will not be leaving the investment company, two sources told Reuters yesterday, contrary to a recent Financial Times report that she would likely step down in August.Reuters report, just as the company had declined to comment about the June 8 Financial Times report.Agencies

justifiable of the fee increase?

Letter from Leow Zi Xiang

I REFER to the letter “Enhancements to legal course in Singapore” by Mr David Quark, Executive Director, Singapore Institute of Legal Education (June 19).

It cited several components of the Preparatory Course leading to Part B of the Singapore Bar Examinations as being part of “enhancements” to the course, which supposedly justifies the fee increase.

However, I would like to point out that the Electronic Filing System, File Management System, Criminal Procedure Case Management and pro-bono engagements were all already in place previously.

The only “enhancements” are in fact the availability of electives and the tea and talk sessions. It is misleading to characterise all of them as “enhancements” when that is not the case. Also, I am sure the prominent members of the legal professions are glad to give their time ex gratia in relation the tea and talk sessions.

The letter also stated that “[o]rdinarily, course fees for the Preparatory Course are borne by law firms that have given training contracts the students”.

This is also not entirely accurate.

The ordinary procedure, in fact, is for law firms to reimburse students the fee a full year later instead of paying for them up front, as it appears to be suggesting.

More importantly, such reimbursement only takes place if the trainee is retained as full-time employees following expiry of the training contract. I do not have the exact figures but it is clear that there is a substantial number of trainees who are not retained.

Finally, it appears from the SILE website that printed copies of the training materials will no longer be provided this year.

Surely this would result in some cost savings for SILE. Are the newly available electives and the tea and talk sessions really worth an additional $2,000 per student for a 5-month course?

Badminton result disappointing

Letter from Chan Han Kwan

THE Li Ning Singapore Open 2011 final for the men’s singles between Lin Dan and Chen Jin (both from China) ended without a fight as Chen Jin won the badminton title with a walkover.

It is such a great disappointment to the fan and for the sport when the obvious reason for many was that the China team wanted to conserve energy and prevent accidental injuries. The organiser should owe all the ticket holders an explanation and a partial refund for allowing the match to be cancelled in this way.

As this demonstrated, when the final is between players of the same country, there is a tendency of a walkover.

I am better off watching matches live on television at home.

set to contest China elections

BEIJING

More than 100 “independent” candidates — including farmers, factory workers, university professors, students and journalists — have announced their intention to stand for election, rattling senior party officials.

China’s network of district assemblies have traditionally been stuffed with candidates “elected” from a carefully pre-selected list of mostly Communist Party members, although according to the law anyone can stand if they have the support of 10 local voters.

In the past, only a tiny handful of “independent” candidates have managed to get elected. Activists say, however, the rapid rise in popularity of Twitter-like microblogs and Internet chat forums is now making it harder for the party to control the system.

Mr Yao Bo, a well-known newspaper columnist with some 300,000 followers on his microblog, said he would submit “a thousand” supporting signatures for his application.

COMMUNISM  CHINA  seems  mOre    demOcratIc  ? ? ? ?  — Grassroots democracy activists in China are challenging the ruling Communist Party in unprecedented numbers by harnessing Twitter and other online social media tools to campaign in elections.

Windows 8 UI Planned Before iPad's Launch: Microsoft VP

A laptop with its head in the cloud

Sadly, the Chromebook isn’t the most practical concept

NEW YORK

At the heart of the Chromebook concept is that a laptop doesn’t need a hard drive.

Doesn’t need programs on it.

Doesn’t need Windows or Mac OS X. Doesn’t need a desktop, files or folders. Everything you need is online, so all the laptop needs is a Web browser.

It’s a sexy idea. No hard drive? That means no moving parts, long battery life (8.5 hours a charge) and lighter weight (1.5kg). The first one to go on sale yesterday in the America, the Samsung Series 5, has only a 16-gigabyte SSD drive — basically a big memory chip, like on the iPad or iPhone.

No Windows? That means no viruses or spyware. No serial numbers or copy protection.

No payments to Microsoft for upgrades every couple of years.

No two-minute start-up process a Chromebook starts up in under 10 seconds.

You don’t have to worry about backups. You can log into any other Chromebook, and find your whole software world waiting for you.

The Samsung itself is beautiful, with a sparse, uncluttered MacBookish feel. It’s black plastic body is a joy to hold and to behold.

The laptop has two USB jacks, a Web cam, a video output jack, a memory card slot and a headphone/microphone jack — but no Bluetooth, ethernet jack, FireWire port or DVD drive.

It’s really weird to use a computer where everything happens in your browser if you attach a hard drive or flash drive, you even see its contents in a browser window. You can never quit or minimise the browser there’s no desktop behind it, no matter what your instincts say.

But let’s give this shifted paradigm a chance. How well does Google’s newfangled concept hold up in the real world?

Sadly, not very well.

The Chromebook concept assumes you’re online everywhere you go. But when the Chromebook isn’t online, it’s essentially a 1.5kg paperweight.

(Google says an upgrade this summer will permit you to read your email, calendar and Google Docs when you’re offline, and that over time, more apps will be written to be offline-usable.)

Maybe in Silicon Valley, where Google’s engineers live, you can live your entire life online.

But in the real world, you can use this laptop only where you can find, and afford, Wi-Fi hot spots.

I tried valiantly to use the Samsung as my main machine, but by the end of a week, I was about ready to toss it like a frisbee.

I took four flights with it.

At each departure gate, I had to pay US$7 (S$8.70) for Wi-Fi.

Three of the flights had no Wi-Fi on board, so the Chromebook sat uselessly in my bag. On the fourth, Wi-Fi cost US$13. That’s right: US$13 every time you fly, just to look at your own photos and documents. Then US$17 for the hotel’s crummy Wi-Fi.

Another assumption of the Chromebook concept is that Google’s free online software can do almost everything regular software can do — email (Gmail), Web browsing (Chrome), chat (Google Talk), photos (Picasa), word processing, spreadsheets, slide shows (Google Docs).

The software does the job for the basics. But what if you want to run real, brand-name software? Photoshop? Skype?

How will you sync your iPhone if you can’t run iTunes?

THE NEW YORK TIMES

The Chrome marketplace offers 1,000 Chrome programs.

Most are free. But most are also lightweight, phone-type programs:

Weather, sports tickers and so on. They live online, so all you’re actually installing is a bookmark.

Truth is, considering how stripped-down the Samsung is, you have to wonder why it’s as big, heavy and expensive as it is. You can find plenty of fullblown Windows laptops of the same price (from US$430 in the US), weight and size.

Unless you’re an early-adopter masochist with money to burn, you probably shouldn’t buy a Chromebook.— You can say all kinds of nice things about Google’s Chromebook laptop concept. You can say it’s ahead of its time. Or that it’s thinking way, way outside the box. Or that, as failures go, at least this one swung for the fences.World of Warcraft?

say downtrend is temporary

Jonathan Peeris

jonathanpeeris@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE

The benchmark Straits Times Index ended down 34.7 points, or 1.14 per cent, at 3,020.13, after falling to its lowest intra-day level since late March, as worries over weak US data and Greece’s spiralling debt troubles kept investors away.— Shares in Singapore slumped yesterday, in line with losses for the rest of Asia and Europe, with sentiment hurt by mounting debt problems in the euro-zone and more signs of slowing growth in the United States and China.

She could have been listening to music ...

SINGAPORE

A coroner’s inquest into the death of Madam Wang Aiqin, a part-time cleaner, revealed that a police officer who arrived at the accident scene found the device attached to her mobile phone which was still playing Chinese songs.

The China national was killed in the accident at around 8am that day on the railway track along Upper Bukit Timah Road.

Investigating Officer Assistant Superintendent Siow Ji Qing, however, told the court that nobody saw the train hit Mdm Wang.

Both the driver and his assistant only found out about the accident after their train pulled in at the Tanjong Pagar Depot about 40 minutes later.

A passer-by found Mdm Wang lying motionless at the side of the tracks at around 8.10am.

She was pronounced dead at 8.30am.

The court heard that she was on her way to her work place on the day of the accident.

It is believed she decided to take a shortcut and had walked across the train tracks.

State Coroner Imran Abdul Hamid agreed with ASP Siow’s findings which ruled out foul play and suicide.— A 40-year-old woman who was killed after being hit by a Malayan Railway (KTM) train on Sept 7 could have been listening to music through an ear-piece just before the accident.

Shaff iq Alkhatib

Elderly woman dies after being hit by train at Yio Chu Kang

SINGAPORE

The SMRT said the incident occurred at about 11.20pm.

The police received a call at about 11.25pm, and upon arrival, found the body of a woman in her 60s, on the train tracks.

She was pronounced dead by paramedics at about 11.50pm.

The police have classified the case as unnatural death and are investigating.

The SMRT said that south-bound train services resumed at about 12.40am.

Free bus-bridging services were deployed to ferry affected passengers from Yishun to Toa Payoh MRT stations, and the SMRT said this continued until the end of passenger service hours.

Circle Line train service also continued for passengers making a connection from the train and bus bridging services.

The SMRT said passengers were kept informed of the service disruption, as well as of the free bus services, at affected stations.

The north-bound train service was not affected.

Passengers who were unable to complete their commute can claim a full fare refund from the Passenger Service Centre at any of the 68 SMRT stations within the next three working days, said the SMRT.— About 680 passengers were affected by train service disruptions after an elderly woman was hit by a southbound train at Yio Chu Kang MRT Station on Wednesday night.

MONICA KOT WANI