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Steering
full steam ahead
New Director-General raring to take
Singapore Customs further
Mr Fong Yong Kian took over from Mr Teo Eng Cheong as Director-General
of Singapore Customs on 1 January 2008.
Since joining the Administrative Service in 1989, Mr Fong has
held postings in various ministries including the then Ministry
of Communications, Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Home
Affairs.
In his last position as Director of the Managing for Excellence
Office at the Ministry of Finance, the 42-year-old had a hand
in many Public Service-wide improvement initiatives.
He drove the implementation of Vital.org as the common Government
Shared Services Centre.
He also helped to steer the Singapore Government eGov programme
and introduced many improvements that enabled Singapore to clinch
pole position in the e-services ranking by Accenture in 2007.
Ever passionate about his work, he said that when he learnt
about his posting to Singapore Customs, his first thought was
how to take the agency, which already had many impressive achievements,
to “even greater heights”. He quipped that his personal
vision is for Singapore Customs to be “an organisation
that constantly renews itself, in terms of anticipating the
future and expanding into new strategic areas of work to enhance
its contribution to the nation”.
Now, after three months in the job, Mr Fong attributes Singapore
Customs’ achievements to its dedicated staff: “What
I appreciate most about working in Singapore Customs is the
staff – people who are passionate about their jobs, who
have the guts and gumption to persevere even when the odds are
against them.”
He affirms that Singapore Customs will continue to “nurture
its staff, foster passion in their work, encourage staff to
acquire new capabilities and learn new things, and help them
achieve work-life balance”.
Speaking of the challenges ahead, he said Singapore Customs
will strive to reduce cigarette smuggling in Singapore and enhance
the service offering on TradeXchange® so that
it will truly serve as the single window for the trading community.
Singapore Customs will also continually seek to strike the right
balance between its key roles – facilitating trade, ensuring
security and protecting Government revenue.
He said: “Singapore Customs need to constantly look at
whether its facilitation approach is balanced by a robust risk
control framework. It also needs to review whether its policies
and rules have kept up with the times, whether its processes
and services can be re-engineered for greater effectiveness.”
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Singapore Customs. All Rights Reserved. |
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