By SINGAPORE — Mr Li Hongyi, son of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and former Temasek Holdings CEO, Mdm Ho Ching, will be part of the 100,000 individuals who will receive special state awards for helping Singapore fight COVID-19.
It was announced on Thursday (29 Dec) that Singapore is giving out special state awards to individuals and teams in public, private and people sectors, in particular the public healthcare sector, in recognition of their public spirit and contribution who worked hard in the battle of the pandemic over two years,
The National Awards (COVID-19) will be given to those who have made outstanding contributions to the national fight against COVID-19.
The awards under this category include:
- The Meritorious Service Medal (COVID-19),
- The Public Service Star (COVID-19),
- The Public Administration Medal (COVID-19),
- The Medal of Valour (COVID-19), The Commendation Medal (COVID-19),
- The Public Service Medal (COVID-19) and
- The President’s Certificate of Commendation (COVID-19).
A new national award termed the COVID-19 Resilience Medal (CRM) will also be awarded to those who participated directly in the national fight against COVID-19.
This award will recognise and pay tribute to the many thousands whose contributions and sacrifices saw Singapore through the pandemic.
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) announced a total of about 9,500 individuals to receive the National Awards (COVID-19). These include about 4,000 individuals from the public healthcare sector, 4,500 from the public sector, and about 900 from the private and people sectors.
The apex of the National Awards (COVID-19) is the Meritorious Service Medal (COVID-19) (MSM) which will be awarded to three recipients from different sectors.
They are:
- A/Prof Mak Seck Wai, Kenneth – Director of Medical Services, Ministry of Health,
- Mr Pang Kin Keong – Chairman, Homefront Crisis Executive Group (HCEG) and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs and
- Mr Tan Chong Meng – Lead for Community Care Facilities Taskforce, Temasek, and Group CEO, PSA International.
In addition to the individual awards, over 480 teams will receive the President’s Certificate of Commendation. These awards exemplify the extensive teamwork involved in the fight against COVID-19.
A full list of the National Awards (COVID-19) recipients is available at www.pmo.gov.sg/National-Awards.
The CRM and COVID-19 Resilience Certificate (CRC) are new national awards to recognise the substantive contributions of those who participated directly in the fight against COVID-19.
It is stated by PMO that about 99,000 individuals and 800 teams will receive the CRM and CRC.
Open Government Product headed by Li Hongyi
Open Government Products (OGP) is an experimental tech development unit under the Government Technology Agency (GovTech), which is housed under PMO.
Mr Li has spent slightly over eight years working at GovTech and close to three years leading his team at OGP as its Director.
OGP is touted to have come up with products like the government form building tool FormSG and parking payment app Parking.sg — an app which might have been sparked off from what a group of polytechnic students were doing.
During the pandemic, OGP built an appointment system in two weeks so everyone could start getting vaccinated against COVID-19.
It also created at least five COVID-19-related products, like a stay-home notice reporting tool, a case management system and an informational website on all things COVID-19. Some of them are still in use today.
It would appear that Mr Li is being awarded the Public Administration Medal (Silver) (COVID-19) for these projects as he has been covered extensively by local media over them.