Grace Fu

Grace Fu Hai Yien DCMG[2] (Chinese: 傅海燕; pinyin: Fù Hǎiyàn; born 1964)[1] is a Singaporean accountant and 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.

The Honourable
Grace Fu
DCMG
傅海燕
Fu in 2020
Minister for Sustainability and the Environment
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
Minister in the Prime Minister's Office
In office
1 August 2012 – 30 September 2015
Prime MinisterLee Hsien Loong
Preceded byLim Hwee Hua
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
Senior Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts
In office
21 May 2011 – 30 July 2012
MinisterYaacob Ibrahim
Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources
In office
21 May 2011 – 30 July 2012
MinisterVivian Balakrishnan
Succeeded byAmy Khor
Senior Minister of State for Education
In office
1 April 2008 – 20 May 2011
MinisterNg Eng Hen
Succeeded byLawrence Wong
Senior Minister of State for National Development
In office
1 April 2008 – 20 May 2011
MinisterMah Bow Tan
Succeeded byDesmond Lee
Member of Parliament
for Yuhua SMC
Assumed office
21 May 2011
Preceded byConstituency established
Majority8,217 (41.08%)
Member of Parliament
for Jurong GRC
(Yuhua)
In office
27 April 2006 – 18 April 2011
Preceded byYu-Foo Yee Shoon
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Personal details
Born (1964-03-29) 29 March 1964[1]
State of 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.

An accountant by profession, Fu had worked at Overseas Union Bank, Haw Par Group and PSA Corporation before entering politics. She made her political debut in the 2006 general election as part of the five-member PAP team contesting in Jurong GRC and won. She has contested in Yuhua SMC since the 2011 general election.

Early life and education

Fu was born on 29 March 1964 in Singapore. She was educated at Nanyang Girls' High School and Hwa Chong Junior College before graduating from the National University of Singapore in 1985 with a Bachelor of Accountancy with honours degree in 1985. She subsequently completed a Master of Business Administration degree at the NUS Business School in 1991.

Career

Fu started her career at the 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 Assistant Director (Finance). She took on additional responsibility 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 CEO of Singapore Terminals. In 2004, she became CEO 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 made her political debut in the 2006 general election as part of the five-member PAP team contesting in Jurong GRC and won. Fu was subsequently elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Yuhua division of Jurong GRC in June 2006. She was one of 24 new PAP candidates introduced ahead of the general election.

On 1 August 2006, Fu was appointed Minister of State for National Development.

On 1 April 2008, Fu was promoted to Senior Minister of State for National Development, and appointed Senior Minister of State for Education concurrently.

At the 2011 general election, Fu contested in the newly created Yuhua SMC and won with 66.9% of the vote. Following the election, Fu was appointed Senior Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts, and Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources concurrently.

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 netizens 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 made full minister, becoming the second woman in Singapore's history, after Lim Hwee Hua, to become a full minister in the Cabinet. She served as 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 2014, as the Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, Fu was in charge of the Municipal Services Office.[13]

In 2015, Fu was appointed Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, becoming the first female minister in Singapore to head a ministry.

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

Fu served as Leader of the House from 2015 to 2020, before being appointed Minister for Sustainability and the Environment in 2020.

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

Personal life

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

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

References
  1. "PARL | MP". Archived from the original on 24 April 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
  2. "2011 Honorary Awards" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 July 2019. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  3. "PMO | Ms Grace FU Hai Yien". 7 September 2020. Archived from the original on 19 September 2021. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  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. Migration (17 August 2014). "National Day Rally 2014: New Municipal Services Office to serve residents seamlessly | The Straits Times". www.straitstimes.com. Archived from the original on 22 April 2023. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  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.
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