Mr Lim Boon Heng will hand over the Chairmanship of SPRING Singapore today, to Mr Cedric Foo, who has been Deputy Chairman of the Board since 1 January 2002.

Mr Lim Boon Heng, who is also the Minister in the Prime Minister's Office and Secretary-General of the National Trades Union Congress, has been at the helm of SPRING Singapore for over 11 years. He first served as Chairman of the National Productivity Board (NPB) from October 1991 to 1996. He continued to chair the Productivity and Standards Board (PSB) from 1996 - 2002 after NPB’s merger with the Singapore Institute of Standards and Industrial Research, and then SPRING Singapore from April last year after PSB's reconstitution.

During his term of office, Mr Lim steered the national Productivity Movement and garnered strong support from the unions, employers and the government to raise productivity and upgrade the skills of the workforce. Over the years, the Movement has contributed significantly to Singapore’s economic success and helped workers to upgrade and enjoy a higher standard of living.

Under Mr Lim's leadership, the Board launched many new programmes and initiatives to upgrade workers' skills and promote lifelong learning, and to raise the productivity of organisations and industry to world-class standards. These initiatives include the Singapore Quality Award (SQA) and Singapore Quality Class (SQC) programme, the People Developer standard and People Excellence programme, the National Skills Recognition System (NSRS), the Innovation Class and the Standardardisation for Productivity programme.

Between 1999 and 2000, the Board formulated several major plans to prepare Singapore for the challenges of the knowledge-based economy. These include Productivity Action (ProAct) 21, SME 21, Retail 21 and Singapore Standardisation Strategy (SSS) 21. ProAct 21 was aimed at building up the capabilities of the workforce and organisations to sustain productivity in the new economy. SME 21 sought to create vibrant local enterprises. Retail 21 provided the roadmap for transforming the retail sector to world-class standards. SSS 21 set the long-term direction for standardisation to improve productivity and facilitate trade access to international markets.

Mr Lim led the corporatisation of the revenue-generating activities of the Board in 2001, in line with the policy of divesting these from the statutory functions of government agencies. Training, consultancy, testing, technology and management certification services were corporatised.

Internationally, Mr Lim raised Singapore's profile considerably through active participation in the Asian Productivity Organisation (APO). He was Chairman of the APO Governing Body from June 2001 to June 2002.

The Ministry would like to express our deep appreciation to Mr Lim Boon Heng for his commitment and outstanding contributions to help raise productivity and competitiveness of our workers and firms.

Mr Cedric Foo, who is also the Minister of State for Defence, brings to Spring Singapore a wealth of experience. He was formerly a Senior Vice President in Singapore Airlines from 2000 to 2002. Before that, he was with the Neptune Orient Lines, holding various appointments from 1985 to 2000.