SMU Leadership

HOW THE PANDEMIC WILL CHANGE UNIVERSITIES

In the last of the ST-SMU Reimagining Universities four-part series, SMU President Professor Lily Kong discussed the changes that the coronavirus pandemic will bring to universities. She predicts that post-pandemic, universities, including SMU, will mount more hybrid courses, with some parts taught online. But she maintains that most courses will be conducted face to face. Prof Kong also shared about SMU’s virtual open house and how going online has worked well for SMU’s admissions, the importance of overseas stints for students and how SMU will find ways of giving them global exposure in some form when they cannot travel. She also explained the role of university rankings and shared her views on such rankings.

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A QUESTIONING OF INEQUITIES: THE LEGACY OF COVID-19

The Straits Times, 2 May 2020

In a commentary, Mr Ho Kwon Ping discussed how the world will change when the Covid-19 pandemic passes. He opined that the pandemic is throwing up digital winners and losers, and intensifying US-China rivalry that will force regions like Asean to rethink their economic strategies. In addition, within Singapore, there will be soul-searching over structures of inequities.

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THE SILENT REVOLUTION IN MY BACKYARD

The Straits Times, 19 January 2011

When Mr Ho went to South America for two weeks recently, he went in search of the legacy of guerilla leader Che Guevara and to assess his answers to economic underdevelopment and inequality. He found no successful revolution there – only idealistic but botched movements and some measure of progress and hope for the future. On reflection, it is in fact in his own backyard, the island of Singapore, that the most significant socio-economic revolution has taken place. The answers to much of the Third World's malaise can be found in Singapore's own ascent from Third to First World. The challenge for Singapore then, is how to not drown in its own success. Singapore's biggest success, he said, has been the creation of a middle class society, but one which must not ever lose its edge, its slight paranoia and its unease at its own success.

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TOWARDS A FIRST RATE ELECTORATE

The Straits Times, 5 May 2011

Ho Kwon Ping, chairman of the board of trustees, writes in this commentary that Singapore may be moving deliberately yet irrevocably towards a First World electorate, and that if all goes well, the winner in this watershed election may well be Singapore's future.

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SOFT POWERS OF A PRESIDENT

The Straits Times, 7 July 2011

Mr Ho Kwon Ping, Chairman of the SMU Board of Trustees, wrote in a commentary that while an elected president may have only custodial powers and ceremonial responsibilities, he may bear the burden of articulating the voice of the nation at its proudest, and rallying its people at the most dire of times.

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PROCESS TOO POLITICALLY CHARGED?

The Straits Times, 26 August 2011

Ho Kwon Ping, chairman of the board of trustees of SMU, writes that the future of Singapore politics is of vital concern to every Singaporean, but the battle for the minds of the electorate properly belongs in the realm of parliamentary elections.

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BANYAN TREE'S HO KWON PING: "HIGH FLYERS"

Bloomberg Television's, 12 September 2011

Ho Kwon Ping, founder and executive chairman of luxury resort operator Banyan Tree Holdings Ltd., talks about his life, career and business philosophy. Ho spoke in Singapore with Haslinda Amin on Bloomberg Television's "High Flyers."

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INNOVATION - THE WAY HO KWON PING SEES IT

The Business Times, 21 October 2011

Mr Ho shares that it is critical even for companies in non- high-tech industries to embark on innovation with a recognition that it is strategic to their own future.

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COMPLETING THE WAGE REVOLUTION

The Straits Times, 17 January 2012

At the Institute of Policy Studies’ annual conference themed, “Singapore Perspectives 2102 – Singapore Inclusive: Bridging Divides” held on 16 January 16 2012, SMU chairman Ho Kwon Ping sees the need to complete the wage revolution that was started in the 1980s in order to close the widening income gap. He discerns that Singapore has a dual-income economy: an internationally competitive and well-paid economy, and a low cost, low-skilled domestic economy. To bring about a more equal and self-reliant society, he urges that wages in the domestic service industries should be raised.

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