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SINGAPORE : Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has made changes to his Cabinet, which sees new Ministers appointed for Law, Education, Manpower and six promotions.
Most of the changes will take effect from 1st April.
From May, one of the top lawyers in Singapore, K Shanmugam of Allen and Gledhill, will be the new Law Minister.
He has also been appointed the Second Home Affairs Minister.
Mr Shanmugam, a Member of Parliament for Sembawang GRC, will be replacing Professor S Jayakumar, who has been the Law Minister for about 20 years.
Professor Jayakumar will continue as Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security.
He will continue to oversee foreign policy matters which cut across different ministries.
Professor Jayakumar will also remain in charge of foreign policy issues which involve legal negotiation or international adjudication.
He will also continue to chair the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Climate Change.
Dr Ng Eng Hen will now head the Education Ministry.
He will take over from Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who will continue as Finance Minister.
The Education Ministry will be familiar grounds for Dr Ng as he had been there previously between 2002 and 2004.
Dr Ng will continue as Second Defence Minister.
Expanding his contact with workers will be Mr Gan Kim Yong as he will be Acting Manpower Minister.
He will also be promoted to Senior Minister of State, and will be moving out of the Education Ministry.
Dr Vivian Balakrishnan will remain as the Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister.
But he will give up his appointment as Second Minister for Information, Communications and The Arts.
Four other Ministers of State have been promoted.
Mrs Lim Hwee Hua is promoted to Senior Minister of State, keeping her appointments in the Finance and Transport Ministries.
Mr S Iswaran will be Senior Minister of State, continuing in the Trade and Industry Ministry.
Ms Grace Fu also moves up to Senior Minister of State, receiving a new appointment in the Education Ministry, while serving her present appointment in the National Development Ministry.
Another one promoted to Senior Minister of State will be Mr Lui Tuck Yew, who will be newly appointed to the Information, Communications and The Arts Ministry, or MICA, while continuing with his present appointment in the Education Ministry.
Dr Balaji Sadasivan will move from MICA, but continue as Senior Minister of State in the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
And moving from his Health portfolio, Mr Heng Chee How will be appointed Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office.
He will assist Mr Lim Boon Heng, the Minister in charge of ageing issues, on re-employment of older workers and active ageing programmes.
Also seeing changes are Parliamentary Secretaries.
Among them, Mr Teo Ser Luck will be promoted to Senior Parliamentary Secretary as well as an appointment in the Transport Ministry, on top of his current appointment in Community Development, Youth and Sports.
Mr Hawazi Daipi will be appointed as Senior Parliamentary Secretary in the Health Ministry, concurrently with his present appointment in the Manpower Ministry.
Mr Masagos Zulkifli will be appointed as Senior Parliamentary Secretary in the Home Affairs Ministry, continuing with his appointment in the Education Ministry.
The last Cabinet reshuffle was in May 2006, after Mr Lee won his first General Elections as Prime Minister. - CNA/ch
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