Debate on President’s Address: Foo Mee Har on how family offices can contribute to Singapore’s development

Singapore continues to be an attractive destination for wealthy individuals from all over the world and the increasing number of family offices being set up here can contribute to the country’s development. However, to preserve Singapore’s social compact, these offices must be integrated with the country’s social norms and be given the right support and access to networks so that they can ramp up their contributions in terms of investment and impact. MP Foo Mee Har made these points in Parliament on Tuesday (Apr 18). She said family offices create jobs, directly and indirectly - especially in driving demand for professional services such as wealth and asset management, fund administration, trusts, legal, tax and consulting. One current gap, she said, is the lack of a systematic on-boarding process to integrate newly arrived wealthy individuals into Singapore’s enterprise and investment ecosystem so they can become active members of the venture community. They must also be made more aware of research and technological innovations from start-up communities and research institutes so that they can help commercialise and scale promising new ideas. Another priority of family offices is to give back to society, said Ms Foo. She said more must be done to drive awareness and momentum for them to support both local and regional causes. She also suggested that the Government encourage sharing by family offices which are already major philanthropists, to provide aspirational examples for others.