What effects – if any – had the watershed election in 2011 had on Singapore politics? How do local political developments affect Singapore’s actions abroad? How best to ensure our bilateral relations with the US are kept on an even keel despite fluid US domestic politics? Is the US-dominated monolithic global order changing, and how should Singapore conduct its foreign policy against the rise of an increasingly confident China, and the (re-) emergence of increasingly fractious territorial disputes in our neighbourhood? 

In an engaging and lively discussion with Oxbridge alumni, Ambassador Chan Heng Chee shared her astute insights into these key questions that Singapore has grappled and continues to grapple with. Alumni gleaned new clarity on the complexities of the interplay between domestic politics and foreign policy, and left with a keener understanding of the critical need to preserve Singapore’s space abroad.



Ambassador Chan is Ambassador-at-Large with the Singapore Foreign Ministry and concurrently, Singapore’s Representative to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights.  She chairs the National Arts Council as well as the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities in the Singapore University of Technology and Design, and is a member of the Presidential Council for Minority Rights. On the international front, she chairs the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Urban Development, and is a trustee of the Asia Society and a member of the Board of the Lowy Institute for International Policy.
 


She served as Singapore’s Ambassador to the United States from 1996 to 2012, and was Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 1989 to 1991.  When she left Washington in 2012 at the end of her appointment, Ambassador Chan received the inaugural Asia Society Outstanding Diplomatic Achievement Award, the inaugural Foreign Policy Outstanding Diplomatic Achievement Award 2012 and the United States Navy Distinguished Public Service Award. Her other awards include the Distinguished Service Order in 2011 and the Meritorious Service Medal in 2005. She was named Singapore’s first “Woman of the Year” in 1991, and was twice awarded the National Book Awards: in 1986 for “A Sensation of Independence: A Political Biography of David Marshall” and in 1978 for “The Dynamics of One Party Dominance: The PAP at the Grassroots”. 

We will take sign-ups only via this website. http://ambchan.peatix.com

Government in Business – Friend or Foe?

Is government involvement in business always good? This has attracted a constant and robust debate. Free market economists have long argued that firms in private hands are superior to those run by a government, hence the privatisation programme in many countries. On the other hand, many state owned enterprises operate no differently from private corporations, with their own boards of directors and with some being subjected to the demands of a stock exchange listing.

Regardless of how they perform, the government has a traditional role of ensuring that national resources are well distributed among the various sectors of the market while maintaining healthy government revenues. Thus, we need a more nuanced approach — to both theory and at a practical level about the ideal relationship between business and government.

Join us for an intimate fireside chat with Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, author of the book “Government in Business- Friend or Foe?” who will share her perspectives to discuss the intriguing issues surrounding the achievement of such a balance for Singapore as well as for other countries.

Mrs Lim Hwee Hua serves as an executive director of Tembusu Partners, a senior adviser to US private equity player Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, an independent non-executive member of the Global Advisory Council of Ernst & Young, an independent director of both Jardine Cycle & Carriage Ltd and Stamford Land Corporation Ltd, and Honorary Chairman of Securities Investors Association of Singapore (SIAS).

She previously served as a Minister in the Prime Minister’s office and concurrently as Second Minister for Finance and for Transport, Deputy Speaker of Parliament and Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee.

Mrs Lim is a Cambridge alumnus and read Mathematics/Engineering at Girton College, Cambridge from 1978-1981. She graduated with an MBA (major in Finance) from the Anderson School of Management, UCLA in 1989.
Date: 21 January 2014
Venue: 2 Goodwood Hill
Time: 7pm – mingling with food and drinks / 7.30pm to commence chat
Charges: $16 per person on a cost recovery basis. Members may bring one non-member guest at a cost of $30 per person.

Click here to sign up!

Kindly contact events@oxbridge.org.sg to verify your membership status, if necessary.

Order for the book may be made at the special promotional price of $25 (inclusive of GST). Please use the form available at http://bit.ly/1jN0BBA. Copies of the book will also be available for sale that evening,

Fees for the event:

Members – $20 (cost recovery for dinner catering and administrative costs)
DUAL Members – $25
Guest of Oxbridge/DUAL Members – $35 (limited to one guest per member)

Since we are close to the end of the year, as a concession Ordinary Members who sign up for membership in conjunction with this event will have their membership renewed for both Calendar Year 2013 and 2014.

Please fill up the relevant form and email events@oxbridge.org.sg to renew your membership.

Sign up on the EventBrite page.