Singapore tycoon Robert Ng and his three children designated as 'politically significant persons'
SINGAPORE: Sino Group chairman Robert Ng and three of his children - Mr Daryl Ng, Ms Nikki Ng and Mr David Ng - have been designated as "politically significant persons" under a law to counter foreign interference.
It comes about two weeks after they were served a notice of the authorities' intention to do so and did not submit any representations against their intended designation, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said in a press release on Tuesday (Apr 22).
Based on their declared memberships in foreign legislatures or foreign political organisations, MHA said the registrar assessed that they should be designated as "politically significant persons" under Section 48(1) of the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act, or FICA.
Enacted in 2021, the law contains "countermeasures to prevent, detect and disrupt foreign interference in (Singapore's) domestic politics".
"The designations of the four individuals are not because they have engaged in any egregious activity," MHA said.
Mr Daryl Ng, Ms Nikki Ng and Mr David Ng are the deputy chairman, a non-executive director and group associate director at Sino Group, respectively.
Checks by CNA showed that the four members of the Ng family hold positions in the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top political advisory body.
Unlike the National People's Congress, the CPPCC has no lawmaking powers, but its suggestions can influence policymaking.
As a designated politically significant person, they are required to make annual disclosures to the Registrar on their political donations of S$10,000 (US$7,400) or more that they receive and accept. They also have to declare their foreign affiliations and migration benefits.
Mr Robert Ng and his children declared their involvement shortly before Mar 1, 2024, which was the deadline for Singapore citizens to declare their memberships with foreign legislatures or foreign political organisations.
Singaporeans who were already members before Feb 1, 2024, had to do so by Mar 1 that year.
As of Mar 31, seven Singaporeans have declared their memberships in foreign legislatures or foreign political organisations.
Mr Ng and his children were served notices on Apr 7, said MHA.
MHA further clarified on Apr 9 that the other three individuals were not issued notices as the Registrar of Foreign and Political Disclosures had assessed that they did not meet the designation thresholds.
This is the second time MHA has designated individuals under FICA provisions.
The first person to be served this notice was Singaporean businessman Philip Chan Man Ping, who later received the designation on Feb 26, 2024.
At the time of his designation, Mr Chan - who immigrated from Hong Kong and eventually became a Singapore citizen - was known to be associated with the CPPCC. He was also involved in grassroots and fundraising efforts in Singapore for over a decade. foreign interference FICA China
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Times
3 hours ago
- Business Times
UK economic team looks beyond Europe
THIS week marks the 50th anniversary of the United Kingdom's June 1975 referendum of its membership of the European Common Market, the precursor of the European Union (EU). Yet, some five decades later, the trade policy of the UK is increasingly looking beyond Europe, post-Brexit. In the last few weeks alone, the UK government has agreed a new trade deal with India, plus also a tariff agreement with the United States. UK ministers, including Chancellor Rachel Reeves, have said that this further deal could be finalised swiftly in the form of a new trade agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) comprising Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait. While the GCC economy is, collectively, not nearly as large as that of the United States or even India, the deal would be a significant prize with the Middle Eastern bloc's total GDP of around US$2 trillion in 2022. According to the World Bank, if the GCC continues to grow at a business-as-usual rate, combined GDP would grow to about US$6 trillion by 2050. A second reason why the UK government would celebrate a deal is that the GCC has signed relatively few such agreements to date, including a pact with South Korea. A further big prize for London of a GCC deal could be further, open access to investment from Gulf sovereign wealth funds which tend to be cross-sector investors who often take a long-term multi-decade economic perspective. Total UK-GCC bilateral trade is currently worth around £60 billion (S$104.5 billion). This makes the GCC bloc as a whole equivalent to the UK's fourth largest non-EU export market behind the US, China and Switzerland. A UK deal with the GCC is forecast to add as much as £1.6 billion to this existing bilateral trade in the short term. The UK government hopes that the value will rise by an additional £8.6 billion a year by 2035. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Wider developments It is possible that wider developments could reinforce this dynamic of closer UK-GCC economic cooperation. This includes potential steps toward implementation of a proposed India-Middle East-Europe Corridor to foster connectivity and integration with Asia via a proposed route from India and into Europe. The corridor – which would comprise vast road, railroad and shipping networks – was given new impetus in September 2023 at the G20 summit in New Delhi. A memorandum of understanding was signed to try to develop the project by the governments of India, United States, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and several key European nations. The potentially imminent new UK-GCC deal underlines, yet again, the emphasis London is putting on consolidating ties with key non-European Union nations, post-Brexit. One of the key ideas of some leavers in the 2016 EU referendum was rediscovering the UK's heritage as a formerly strongly-focused global trading nation. This includes former parts of the British Empire and now-Commonwealth, such as India and Singapore; plus other key emerging markets like the GCC states; and key industrialised countries such as Australia, Canada and the US. However, ambitious as much of this agenda is, some of it is a long way from being fully realised. Perhaps the best example is the apparently remote possibility of any UK trade deal with either of the two world's biggest economies: China and the US. For instance, while there has been much fanfare over a potential new UK-US trade deal, any such agreement looks unlikely. This even under the pro-Brexit Trump administration in the period to early-2029. Multiple challenges Equally, while London and Beijing have both been impacted by the disruptive diplomacy of the Trump administration, there are multiple political and economic challenges that appear likely to prevent any deal in the short to medium term. Certainly, a UK-China accord is not one of the deals closest to the finish line compared to potential others like South Korea, Switzerland, Canada, and Mexico, a number of which may potentially be concluded during the current UK parliament ending probably in 2028 or 2029. There are also human rights concerns about some of the agreements, including the GCC and India ones. The UK Trade Union Council has recently slammed such economic agreements with 'countries that abuse human rights and workers' rights, and violate international law'. It also welcomes the recent UK's decision to suspend trade talks with Israel because of the accelerated military offensive in Gaza and the country's decision to limit the amount of aid allowed into the Palestinian territory. A wider critique of the UK's post-Brexit trade deal strategy came last month in a report from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. It argues that the UK government's hyper focus on traditional broad-based trade agreements is misaligned with the country's service-based economy. The think tank, which is chaired by former UK prime minister Blair, asserts that time-consuming, goods-focused trade agreements offer diminishing returns on investment and are poorly matched to the UK's core strengths in services and digital trade. So, rather than doubling down on such slow-moving, broad trade pacts, it advocates instead a movement towards more targeted services-orientated, market access deals that can be negotiated faster and deliver bigger economic impact. The Blair Institute report highlights that, between 2020 and 2024, London inked only three new trade agreements, which are expected to boost exports by a comparatively small £9.5 billion in the long run. In contrast, over the same period, successive UK administrations resolved some 640 market access barriers, whose strategic bilateral market gains increasingly have the potential to deliver higher value, faster. One example cited as good practice is the UK's digital economic agreement with Singapore. This was negotiated relatively quickly in 2022, and leverages UK strengths as a tech and services leader. With the GCC agreement almost finalised, the Blair Institute recommendations are unlikely to significantly influence the end game of that negotiation. However, there could be scope for bringing the insights into wider negotiations with countries including South Korea, Switzerland, South Korea, Canada, and Mexico. This may require the UK Department for Business and Trade to reallocate resources and focus efforts on areas with the greatest potential return with a clearer strategic framework for driving new deals. Taken overall, Brexit is therefore offering new opportunities for the UK to reinvent its world role, especially in the context of trade relations. However, despite the flurry of recent deals, it will probably not be clear for some time exactly how successful this ambitious agenda proves to be, not least given the services orientation of the UK economy. The writer is an associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics
Business Times
3 hours ago
- Business Times
Asean increasingly pulled in opposite directions
ALL eyes are on US trade talks, but for the Asean countries, visibility on progress remains poor. This partly reflects the US administration's priority to strike deals with other larger economies including India, Japan, and China. For Asean, only preliminary talks have taken place and formal discussions are yet to happen. In the case of Thailand, it is yet to get a schedule for its first-round talks with high-level officials. Big ask from the US There are other fundamental factors at play. Where some preliminary talks have already occurred, it is unclear what the US wants exactly and officials have been trying to figure out the specific demands. Once they have a sense, a framework to pursue formal negotiations will be put together along with possible proposals. The US has made it unequivocally clear to its trading partners to clamp down on transshipments from China aiming to circumvent US tariffs. This demand is most relevant for Asean countries, but compliance will also likely be challenging. A few of them, especially Vietnam and Thailand, have benefited from these trade diversion effects since the first round of the US-China trade war and these will be difficult to reverse in the short run. Even in Singapore, where we did not see much re-routing in Trump 1.0, a surge in re-exports boosted its trade surplus to a record high in April. The concern is that this demand seems to be a hard constraint from the US. In Thailand's case, ahead of talks with the US, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra reportedly ordered a tightening of the issuance of certificates of origin. But by her own admission, it will take time to resolve, likely longer than the 90-day reprieve period for tariffs which expires in early July. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 8.30 am Asean Business Business insights centering on South-east Asia's fast-growing economies. Sign Up Sign Up The US administration is likely bent on using negotiations with other countries to keep the pressure on China by preventing a re-routing of exports to the US via these third countries. China's calculated charm offensive At the same time, China is making its move to strengthen ties with the region, indicated by no less than President Xi Jinping's visit to Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia in April. Greater cooperation is the big buzzword from official statements. Key proposals from China include building an economic community and deepening supply chains with the region via the creation of industrial parks, special economic zones and technological corridors. Under China's Belt and Road Initiative, it also proposes fast-tracking the construction of infrastructure projects, particularly railways and an 'Air Silk Road' to improve regional connectivity. While the timeline for implementation of these initiatives remains unclear, the consistent theme across Asean to enhance trade and investment relations with China suggests these have likely been shaped by the desire for a common response to rising US protectionism. Follow-up action from China has also been swift, sending an even clearer signal to Asean leaders that its larger northern neighbour is serious in its intent. Before the Asean Summit in Kuala Lumpur last week, negotiations had already been completed to implement version 3.0 of the Asean-China Free Trade Area, an initiative that President Xi was encouraging as recently as his visit. This upgrade covers new sectors such as the green and digital economy and puts greater emphasis on developing regional supply chains. The inaugural Asean-China-GCC Summit also took place last week, attended by Premier Li Qiang. Malaysia can claim the unique distinction of hosting President Xi and Premier Li back-to-back within a month. In contrast, progress among Asean countries on trade talks with the US have been slow. A pivot adds to the uncertainty In addition to the complex nature of these trade negotiations with the US and the difficulties that Asean countries face in removing non-tariff barriers and reducing transshipments, being caught in the crossfire between the US and China will likely present more challenges for the region. The difficulty in coming up with a deal with the US could encourage a pivot by these countries to trade more with China and try to substitute exports to the US. China's share in Asean's total trade is already nearly twice that of the US, so this is not inconceivable, especially with China's initiatives that could bring benefits such as more investment inflows and assistance in infrastructure roll-out. On the flip side, signs of greater economic cooperation with China could prompt the Trump administration to keep US tariffs high against the Asean countries. The upshot is that uncertainty will likely remain elevated and tariffs may go back up after July, posing more downside risks for the region's growth outlook. The writer is chief Asean economist at Nomura
Business Times
3 hours ago
- Business Times
Musk bids farewell to Washington – or has he?
HE IS planning to land on Mars and establish a colony of humans there which sounds very fantastic. But that goal of Elon Musk's might prove to actually be more realistic than his recent and brief expedition to Washington as part of an effort to change the way it operates. The billionaire head of Tesla and SpaceX, who called himself President Donald Trump's 'first buddy', is exiting the White House following a press conference he held with the president in the Oval Office on Friday (May 30). 'He's my friend and he's done a fantastic job,' President Trump said. 'He didn't need this and we find that the government's a little nasty on occasion.' He said that the world's richest man 'delivered a colossal change in the old ways of doing business in Washington'. In February, Musk appeared on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) with a chainsaw, remarking 'how easy' it was to 'save billions of dollars sometimes in, in an hour'. 'Yeah, like, it's wild,' he added. Indeed, over four months, Musk overturned huge government agencies by unleashing the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge). Musk and his Doge team dismantled agencies such as the US Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, leaving thousands of federal employees out of work. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up As a special government employee, Musk's term was limited to 130 days and ran out at the end of May. 'As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,' Musk wrote on his social media platform X. Tens of thousands of federal workers took the offer made by Doge to quit and get months of paid leave or face the possibility of getting fired. But Musk's pledge to reduce the federal government budget by billions of dollars as part of an aggressive libertarian crusade ran into major obstacles, including the reality of non-discretionary spending programmes such as Social Security and Medicare. Doge said that it has saved the government US$175 billion from a combination of various moves including asset sales, lease and grant cancellations, and workforce reductions. But the consensus in Washington is that that number is inflated and, in any case, far short of the US$1 trillion, or even US$2 trillion, cost-cutting target that he had touted. Moreover, according to the Partnership for Public Service, Doge's attacks on government personnel could cost the government up to US$135 billion this fiscal year. In a way, Musk discovered that operating in the political sphere of Washington is very different from doing business in the free market, and he did end up spending too much time on politics. That caused him reputational damage, with the end result that his private companies have suffered. 'I think I probably did spend a bit too much time on politics,' Musk said in an interview last week with Ars Technica, adding: 'It was just relative time allocation that probably was a little too high on the government side, and I've reduced that significantly in recent weeks.' Bottom line – a disillusioned billionaire announced that he was leaving government behind, telling The Washington Post that 'it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in DC'. Moreover, Musk seemed to be distancing himself from President Trump and the Republicans after criticising the recent budget proposal approved by the House of Representatives, saying that it would add to the national debt. 'I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the Doge team is doing,' he told CBS News. Much of Doge's work will now shift to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) which will seek to bolster tens of billions of dollars in savings in the current budget process. OMB director Russell Vought has worked together with Musk since 2024 in slashing the federal workforce and reducing spending. Moreover, dozens of employees and associates of Musk have been appointed to roles in the federal government, which would make it likely that the billionaire and his companies will continue to have impact on the policymaking process. Musk is expected to spend more time on the five companies he runs, including Tesla. The electric car's company's shares have suffered as sales plummeted in response to Musk's controversial role in the Trump administration. President Trump insisted during Friday's press conference that Musk was 'really not leaving' and that he would be 'back and forth, and return to the White House from time to time'. To which Musk responded, 'certainly if there's anything the president wants me to do, I'm at the president's service'. But freed from the constraints of being a government employee, expect Musk to express criticism of the Trump administration, as he did shortly before his press conference with the president, over its plans to cancel clean energy tax credits.
