Josephine Teo

Josephine Teo Li Min
Teo (standing, in green shirt) with members of a Young NTUC youth chapter
Member of the Singapore Parliament for Bishan-Toa Payoh Constituency
Incumbent
Assumed office 27 April 2006
Preceded by	Davinder Singh
Majority	15,180 (13.9%)
Personal details
Born	July 8, 1968 (1968-07-08) Singapore
Nationality	Singaporean
Political party	People's Action Party
Children	3
Alma mater	National University of Singapore London School of Economics
Committees	Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for Education and GPC for Defence & Foreign Affairs
Religion	Christianity
Website	http://www.joteo.sg/

Josephine Teo Li Min (simplified Chinese: 杨莉明; traditional Chinese: 楊莉明; pinyin: Yáng Lìmíng, born July 8, 1968) is a Singaporean Member of Parliament for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC. She is currently the Chair of the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for Education and a member of the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for Defence & Foreign Affairs. On May 18 2011, she was appointed Minister of State for Finance and Transport.

A Hakka (her maiden surname is Yong), she first became an MP in 2006 after Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC was not contested in the 2006 general election. She was one of the five PAP candidates for the GRC, and her team was awarded a walkover.

On 1 June 2009, Teo was appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer of Business China. Business China was established to nurture an inclusive bilingual and bi-cultural group of Singaporeans through the use of Chinese language and to develop a cultural and economic bridge between China and the world. She relinquished the position on 20 May 2011.

Politics

In Teo's maiden speech in Parliament, she called on the Government to "rethink the way we teach our children our history, and that we preserve the evidence of our past through art and architecture so that, as a people, we will never forget."^{[citation needed]}

She believed that if Singapore focuses her attention on the non-negotiables, namely national security, economic survival and education, is careful to avoid deepening the potential divides in the society - the “young” versus the “old”, “local” versus “foreign”, “haves” versus “have-nots”, and avoid the three attitudes that can lead to Singapore's downfall, Singapore will, indeed, be able to build a more inclusive society.^{[citation needed]}

Quotations

• "There are only two lasting bequests we can give to our children. One is money and the other is wings. While we are busy fitting our children out with new and better wings through 21st century competencies and a more rounded education, we must not forget to help them develop their moral compass and their national identity. In times of uncertainty and crises, rootedness and resilience are what will carry us through. In pursuing holistic education in the 21st century, the roles of teachers will shift. From their primary role as a dispenser of information, teachers are more likely to become conductors of learning symphonies, helping students turn information into knowledge, knowledge into wisdom, and wisdom into contributions for a better world." Speech at 2010 Budget Debate

• "There is the expectations gap, which means that the workers can do the job but they find that the terms and conditions of those jobs may not be acceptable to them. For example, the pay could be too low and after deducting their expenses, they may find that it's not possible for them to take those jobs.", "Union leaders say retrenched workers need to manage job expectations", Cheryl Lim, Channel NewsAsia, 2/2/2009

• 'Part of the reason is that they often tend to seek jobs that pay close to what they used to earn', explaining why degree-holders are without jobs and taking longer to find one. "Graduates dealt harder jobs blow", Kor Kian Beng, ChannelNewsAsia, 16/12/2009.

Education

Teo was educated at Dunman High School and subsequently studied at Raffles Junior College.

In 1990, Teo graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the National University of Singapore. She was awarded several prizes, including the Rachel Meyer Book Prize for being the best woman student in the final examinations.

In 1991, she was awarded a postgraduate scholarship under the EDB-Glaxo Scholarship Programme. She received a Master of Science (Economics) degree from the London School of Economics the following year.

Career

Teo is concurrently the Assistant Secretary-General of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), and the Alignment Director (Organisation Development) and Centric Director (Staff) of NTUC-ARU. She was voted as the Assistant Secretary-General of NTUC in the National Delegates Conference in 2007.

Prior to joining NTUC full time, Teo worked in the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).

From August 2002, Teo and her team of human-resource professionals at A*STAR were responsible for developing systems, policies and processes for the effective management of nearly 3,000 international talent resources.

Prior to A*STAR, Teo served in the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) for a full decade. She started her career in enterprise development and was later posted to Suzhou, China as part of EDB’s pioneering team there.

While on secondment to the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park Development Pte Ltd (CSSD), she was responsible for Marketing Resources. She worked closely with the Chinese and Singapore government agencies to improve local investment conditions. She also authored a compendium of investment guides, which won the company’s Business Impact Award.

• Inevitably, Singapore had to gave up control of Suzhou Industrial Park as it faced accumulated losses of US$90 million from 1994 to 2000.

Upon her return to Singapore, Josephine joined EDB’s human-resource management team. She was involved in major exercises to review and enhance salary, and benefits systems and practices. In her last appointment at the EDB, she was responsible for Performance, Career and Learning Management.

Blog

In 2010, Teo started a blog, Passion4Education, to generate ideas and comments on Singapore's education system could be improved and kept current.

Personal life

Teo is married with three children. She is married to a civil servant, Teo Eng Cheong.

Young NTUC

Josephine Teo was the Advisor of Young NTUC, the official youth wing of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), between 2007 and 2011. During her time at Young NTUC she supervised many programmes initiated to reach out to youths in an effort to ensure the Labour Movement remains relevant to the younger generation.

External links

• Singapore Parliament CVs of MPs