SINGAPORE: An additional presidential hopeful appears to have emerged: former GIC Chief Investment Officer Peter Ng Kok Song, who is also known as a keen proponent of meditation.
Wake Up Singapore reported in a July 15 (Saturday) article that the 75-year-old Mr Ng Kok Song may just mount a presidential bid.
“Sources informed Wake Up Singapore that the former Chief Investment Officer of GIC and ‘Meditation Champion’, Ng Kok Seng, 75, may throw his hat into the ring for the upcoming Presidential Elections in Singapore,” reads a Facebook post-Wake Up Singapore from Saturday morning.
Who is Peter Ng Kok Song?
Mr Ng Kok Song was with the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) for 42 years, having served as Group Chief Investment Officer from 2007 until his retirement in 2013.
He is a 2012 awardee of the Meritorious Service Medal from the Singapore Government.
Previous to working at GIC, he was with the Monetary Authority of Singapore from 1972 to 1986 and began his career at the Ministry of Finance in 1970.
Along with Dr Richard Hu, the first private sector member of the GIC Board, Mr Ng Kok Song was praised by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in a 2013 Facebook post upon the retirement of the two men.
“Many others like Richard and Kok Song work quietly out of the public eye, making Singapore a better place for us all with their talents and energies. They deserve our support and gratitude,” wrote PM Lee.
A 2022 Bloomberg profile of the former GIC investment officer notes that the assets of one of his firms, Avanda Investment Management, had doubled to S$13.4 billion from the time that Mr Ng Kok Song co-founded it in 2015, after his retirement from GIC.
“My vision was Avanda should help Singapore and Asian investors invest globally and help global investors invest in Asia,” Mr Ng is quoted as saying.
The piece added that boosting investments in the region, particularly in China, has long been important for Mr Ng Kok Song, who has advised investors to have half of their exposure to China or Asia.
“We moved almost 20 percent of our exposure in global fixed income to Chinese government bonds. That was unusual but our experience over the last 12 months has borne out our expectations that bond yields in China are likely to be coming down,” he added.
Additionally, Mr Ng is the National Coordinator of The World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM) in Singapore, and is considered to be a “meditation champion.”
Wake Up Singapore notes that it was Mr Ng Kok Song who introduced founding Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew to the practice of meditation.
/TISG
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