Keppel Corporation on Monday (22 Mar) announced the appointment of Teo Eng Cheong as the chief executive officer of the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City and Investment Development Co (SSTEC), the master developer behind a bilateral project between Singapore and China, and will take over from outgoing chief Tay Lim Heng from 1 June.
The SSTEC is founded in July 2009 which resulted from a collaborative agreement between the Governments of China and Singapore to jointly develop an environmentally friendly city in China, namely Tianjin Eco-City.
Keppel Corp in a statement said that Mr Tay will be appointed as Managing Director of Keppel Urban Solutions on the same day.
It stated that Mr Teo will also hold a concurrent appointment as the advisor on Eco-City matters to the Singapore Ministry of National Development (MND), adding that he has been the director of the corporate office at Keppel Corporation since 1 January this year.
Keppel Corporation’s CEO Loh Chin Hua said he is confident that Mr Teo would provide “effective leadership to SSTEC in the next phase of the Eco-City’s development”.
“Eng Cheong has a wealth of experience from the Singapore Government and private sector, including deep knowledge of the Chinese market,” he noted.
Mr Teo has held various leadership positions in the Singapore Government, including CEO of International Enterprise Singapore, and CEO of the Competition Commission of Singapore, among others.
Before joining Keppel, Mr Teo was the chief executive officer (international) of Surbana Jurong Group since 2016, until he decided to step down from his position in September last year to “pursue other interests”.
For those who are unaware, Mr Teo is married to Minister for Manpower Josephine Teo. Both were embroiled in a controversy last year when it was alleged that building contracts related to the COVID-19 outbreak had been improperly awarded to Surbana Jurong.
Mrs Teo refuted the allegations, branding them “untrue, scurrilous and completely baseless” and directed her lawyers to issue formal letters of demand over the accusations, requiring them to be withdrawn.
“I understand that I am legally entitled to substantial damages for these serious and baseless allegations. However, I do not intend to pursue the matter further, or to claim damages, if the allegations are publicly withdrawn, and apologies given,” she said in a statement last May.
Subsequently, on the same day, Facebook user Donald Liew issued an apology to Mrs Teo for falsely accusing her and her husband of corruption.
Civil rights activist Jolovan Wham had also released a statement on his Facebook page on 22 May last year apologising for a statement he made in a comment on the social media platform about the Minister on 16 May.
The Ministry of Health (MOH), MND and Surbana Jurong had also denied the allegations.
Netizens think Teo Eng Cheong’s appointment as new CEO of SSTEC is a “conflict of interest”
Penning their thoughts under the comment section of TODAY’s Facebook post, many netizens criticised Keppel Corp’s move to appoint Mr Teo as the new CEO of the SSTEC, calling it a “conflict of interest”.
Some even said that Mr Teo has “good connections” in the industry to gain such a job position.
