Dr Beh Swan Gin appointed as EDB’s managing director

 

THE Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and the Economic Development Board (EDB) said that Dr Beh Swan Gin will become the managing director of the EDB on Aug 1.

Dr Beh (on top), currently the EDB’s assistant managing director, will succeed Mr Ko Kheng Hwa, as managing director of EDB. His responsibilities at the moment is corporate development and planning and policy groups. Before he joined EDB, he was executive director in A*STAR and director of the energy planning division at the MTI.

EDB chairman Lim Siong Guan said: "Dr Beh will definitely continue EDB’s fine tradition of always pushing and exploring new frontiers, designing solutions for investors and delivering on our promises to our clients."

Mr Ko will be joining the private sector after 29 years in the public sector. He was appointed EDB’s first managing director since January 2001, the ministry and the EDB said today.

Under Mr Ko attracted more quality investments. Last year, manufacturing fixed asset investment commitments surpassed the $10 billion mark. Surplus is to hit $16 billion. Service investment commitments reached a new high of $3 billion. The 2007 investment created 28,000 jobs.

Mr Ko helmed EDB’s entry into China and India and expanded EDB’s operations in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.

Mr Ko is a president’s scholar and a graduate of Cambridge University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The changing of the guard

 

By Sphred

 

• Dr Beh will succeed Mr Ko Kheng Hwa as managing director of EDB.
• A medical doctor by training, Dr Beh is an Administrative Service officer who is currently EDB’s assistant managing director responsible for corporate development, as well as planning and policy groups.
• Dr Beh has also played a leading role in developing Singapore’s biomedical sciences cluster.

 

• Mr Ko was awarded the President’s Scholarship and the Colombo Plan Scholarship by the Singapore government for university studies in UK.
• He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Engineering at the University of Cambridge (UK) and Master’s degree in Management at the Sloan School at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.
• He also attended the Advanced Management Programme at the Harvard Business School. He is married and has a son and daughter.

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Focus group acts to aid cyclone victims

By Gabriel Chen

July 9, Reporting from Yangon

In May, cyclone Nargis hit the coast of Myanmar and devastated large parts of the low-lying Irrawaddy delta.

SWIFT actions by the Ministry of Health of Myanmar with the support of the United Nations, ASEAN, the Red Cross, and Non Governmental Organizations prevented the mass outbreak of disease that was feared after Cyclone Nargis.

That was a lesson gleaned during a recent discussion last  month conducted by the Tripartite Core Group (TCG) comprising:

• ASEAN
• Government of the Union of Myanmar
• United Nations

Little do you know, but these organizations have been meeting regularly to monitor, coordinate and facilitate the flow of international relief aid into the cyclone-hit areas.

But the TCG, which welcomes Singapore’s donation of Ground Handling Equipment,  does not just want to rely on discussions as a change mechanism; rather, they hope a more hands-on approach will help them be more effective in helping the local community recover from the devastating repercussions of the cyclone.

From 9 to 30 June, the TCG has authorized entry visas and extension of stay permits to 294 officials and individuals coming to Myanmar for extending assistance to victims of the cyclone.

And with the additional capacity that has been deployed to the Delta facilitated by the TCG, as well as the support provided for the transit of relief items into Myanmar and down into the Delta, assistance efforts have reached over 1.3 million people.

“The equipment will enable the ground handling of larger planes and speed up the unloading and delivery of international relief supplies from the donor community at Yangon International Airport”, said Singapore’s Ambassador to Myanmar, Mr. Robert H K Chua.

gabrielc@sph.com.sg

Where is Myanmar (formerly called Burma)?

Aid to Myanmar trickles on

The Tripartite Core Group (TCG) of ASEAN, Government of the Union of Myanmar, and the United Nations has been meeting regularly to monitor, coordinate and facilitate the flow of international relief aid into the cyclone-hit areas.

On 25 June 2008 in Yangon, more than 300 people from international aid agencies, government officials, Red Cross Movement, INGO and NGO members of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, and volunteers took part in the first stage of the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA), which is designed to assess aid in all sectors through unimpeded access to more than 300 villages throughout the Delta.

Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, Chairman of the Task Force and Secretary-General of ASEAN said at the meeting that the exercise will be the basis for further cooperation and collaboration and  issues related to transparency, accessibility and the issue of reaching the affected people – are addressed through this community-based assessment.

With the support of the United Nations, ASEAN, the Red Cross, and international/national NGOs, the Ministry of Health of Myanmar  says it has prevented mass outbreak of disease that was feared after the cyclone.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) however reported that access to the public health system, which was already inadequate, was severely affected, and the capacity of the surveillance system to detect and respond to epidemics has been further weakened after the cyclone.

Deputy Foreign Minister and TCG Chairman U Kyaw Thu told media that the Government is currently focusing on quickly providing low-cost housing and temporary school buildings for the cyclone-affected communities. Business community, religious institutions and private donors have been extending generous support to this effort.   

Skepticism over the reach of aid efforts to refugees from the cyclone however, remain. The Irrawady reported in June that the Burmese authorities have forced many as 30,000 refugees to return to their home villages which have been hardest hit by the cyclone one month after the disaster, according to local official numbers. Of the estimated 40,000 refugees that lived in Laputta previously, only about 10,000 remain.

Unicef nevertheless shows some optimism in a recent statement to The New York Times, saying that recovery and relief efforts are progressing well in the regions of Myanmar despite logistical obstacles. “The government has allocated a lot of money to relief and recovery,” said Zafrin Chowdhury, a spokeswoman for Unicef, who also praised individual volunteers for their work. Though most places in the Irrawaddy Delta, where the most severe destruction occurred, are accessible only by boat, assistance has reached many of the people in remote areas, she said.

According to WHO, the areas devastated by the cyclone and flooding produce 65% of the country’s rice, 80% of the aquaculture, 50% of poultry and 40% of pig production (FAO). Damage to these industries may have a longer term effect not only on domestic supply but also on importing countries which purchase rice from Myanmar such as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Cyclone Relief Makes Further Inroads

THE flow of rice, clean water and other relief items have reached over 1.3 million people in cyclone-hit Myanmar, according to a group comprising members of the Myanmar government, Asean and the United Nations.

The swell in assistance came with the grant of entry visas and residential permits for nearly 300 officials and individuals entering Myanmar over three weeks in June, said a statement issued by the Tripartite Core Group on June 2.

Countries like Singapore have also donated ground handling equipment, further boosting aid distribution efforts.

Families receiving aid.

Relief activity in Myanmar appears to have picked up after Cyclone Nargis hit the country in May and killed at least 84,537 people. Another 19,359 were hurt, while 53,836 are still missing.

In initial weeks, aid agencies had complained of delays in getting into the junta-led country and restrictions on their movements. There were fears of epidemics if food and medical help came too late.

But according the release, the group  “learnt that swift action taken by the Ministry of Health of Myanmar with the support of the United Nations, ASEAN, the Red Cross, and international and national NGOs has prevented mass outbreak of disease that was feared after the cyclone”.

Without the worry of disease control, the focus now was on providing low-cost housing and temporary school buildings for the refugees, the statement quoted  Myanmar Deputy Foreign Minister and group Chairman U Kyaw Thu as saying.

According to some experts, the efforts of the Tripartite Core Group in managing the disaster response had borne fruit.

Mr Heru Prasetyo, who is involved in tsunami reconstruction in Aceh and Nias in Indonesia, said: “Judging the progress at the eights week so far, the TCG efforts in managing response and preparing the recovery has placed Myanmar Nargis in much more advanced stage compared to Aceh Tsunami then.”

“No doubt, the journey to recovery will be uphill and arduous”, he added.

The Tripartite Core Group was established at an ASEAN-U.N international pledging conference held in Yangon in late May.

It has been meeting to monitor and coordinate the flow of international aid to Myanmar after the cyclone. The group worked for ten days from June 11 to 20 to make the joint assessment on the impact of the devastating storm.

The full report is expected to be released later this month.