The powerful wife of Singapore's new PM
The powerful wife of Singapore's new PM
Jason Szep, Reuters/Singapore
Singapore's new prime minister Lee Hsien Loong has a very powerful, market-savvy wife -- a publicity-shy, U.S.-educated engineer who Fortune Magazine ranks among the 25 most powerful people in Asian business.
Ho Ching, or just "Madame" as she is known, controls a multi- billion-dollar global investment portfolio as the executive director of Temasek Holdings, the state's industrial holding company which in turn controls Singapore's biggest companies.
Known for a trademark bobbed coiffure, a simple dress sense of mandarin-collared Chinese blouses and trousers and a no-nonsense business style, the 51-year-old Stanford-educated Ho is credited with reforming Temasek into an aggressive offshore investment agency.
Few Asian leaders have wives so powerful. Fortune ranked Ho as Asia's 18th most powerful business person this year, the only Singaporean on the list.
Her appointment at the helm of Temasek in 2002, while her husband was finance minister, drew charges of potential conflicts of interest that Ho and the government have forcefully dismissed.
"The issue of conflict does not arise because there are no vested interests. Our goal is to do what makes sense for Singapore," she said in a rare interview with the Straits Times newspaper after her appointment.
"As finance minister, he does not make decisions unilaterally, and he is part of a team," she said. "I don't always agree with him and he doesn't always agree with me. We have a healthy debate on issues."
Lee will continue to head the finance ministry after he is sworn in as prime minister on Thursday to replace 63-year-old Goh Chok Tong in the wealthy island's second transition of power since independence from Malaysia in 1965.
Goh said a year ago that Lee may find it "awkward" as prime minister to defend his wife's top position at Temasek. Lee has said he sees no reason why his wife should quit when he becomes prime minister, because she would not directly report to him. Though the finance ministry is Temasek's shareholder, Ho -- who joined Temasek from her previous job as chief of state defence conglomerate Singapore Technologies -- reports to Temasek chairman S. Dhanabalan instead of directly to her husband.
"If I fail, I will lose a pile of money and the reputation of my better-half will be affected. If I had been frightened, I would not have done the job," she once told the Straits Times.
REUTERS
GetRTR 3.00 -- AUG 12, 2004 16:38:38