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Ong Ye Kung | |
|---|---|
王乙康 | |
 Ong in 2018 | |
| Coordinating Minister for Social Policies | |
| Assumed office 23 May 2025 | |
| Prime Minister | Lawrence Wong |
| Preceded by | Tharman Shanmugaratnam (2023) |
| Minister for Health | |
| Assumed office 15 May 2021 | |
| Prime Minister | Lee Hsien Loong Lawrence Wong |
| Second Minister | Masagos Zulkifli (until 2025) |
| Preceded by | Gan Kim Yong |
| Minister for Transport | |
| In office 27 July 2020 – 14 May 2021 | |
| Prime Minister | Lee Hsien Loong |
| Preceded by | Khaw Boon Wan |
| Succeeded by | S. Iswaran |
| Minister for Education | |
| In office 1 May 2018 – 26 July 2020 | |
| Prime Minister | Lee Hsien Loong |
| Second Minister | Indranee Rajah |
| Preceded by | Ng Chee Meng (Minister of Education) (Schools) |
| Succeeded by | Lawrence Wong |
| Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) | |
| In office 1 October 2015 – 30 April 2018 Acting: 1 October 2015 – 31 October 2016 Serving with Ng Chee Meng (2015–2018) | |
| Prime Minister | Lee Hsien Loong |
| Preceded by | Heng Swee Keat (as Minister for Education) |
| Succeeded by | Office abolished |
| Second Minister for Defence | |
| In office 1 November 2016 – 30 April 2018 | |
| Prime Minister | Lee Hsien Loong |
| Minister | Ng Eng Hen |
| Preceded by | Lui Tuck Yew |
| Succeeded by | Office vacated |
| Member of theSingapore Parliament forSembawang GRC | |
| Assumed office 11 September 2015 | |
| Preceded by | PAP held |
| Majority |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1969-11-15)15 November 1969 (age 56) |
| Political party | People's Action Party |
| Spouse | Diana Kuik Sin Leng |
| Relations | Xie Yao Quan (maternal cousin) |
| Children | 2 |
| Parent(s) | Ong Lian Teng (father) Ng Soo Lung (mother) |
| Alma mater | London School of Economics (BSc) International Institute for Management Development (MBA) |
| Occupation |
|
Ong Ye Kung[a] (born 15 November 1969)[1] is a Singaporean politician and former civil servant who has been serving asMinister for Health since 2021. A member of the governingPeople's Action Party (PAP), he has been theMember of Parliament (MP) representing theSembawang Central division ofSembawang Group Representation Constituency since 2015.[2][3]
Prior to entering politics, Ong worked in theMinistry of Communications,Ministry of Trade and Industry,Singapore Workforce Development Agency,National Trades Union Congress andKeppel Corporation. He was also theprincipal private secretary to Deputy Prime MinisterLee Hsien Loong between 2002 and 2004.
He made his political debut in the2011 general election as part of a five-member PAP team contesting inAljunied GRC but lost to theWorkers' Party where the PAP team obtained 45.28% of the valid votes. He contested again in the2015 general election as part of a five-member PAP team contesting inSembawang GRC and won where the PAP team obtained 72.28% of the valid votes.
Before becoming Minister for Health, he wasMinister for Education between 2015 and 2020, serving alongsideNg Chee Meng between 2015 and 2018, andMinister for Transport between 2020 and 2021. From 2020 to 2021, he is also a co-chair of the Multi-Ministry Taskforce set up by the government to manage Singapore's handling response to theCOVID-19 pandemic.
Ong attendedMaris Stella High School andRaffles Junior College before graduating from theLondon School of Economics in 1991 with aBachelor of Science degree ineconomics.
In 1999, he completed aMaster of Business Administration degree at theInternational Institute for Management Development inLausanne,Switzerland.
Ong started his career working in theMinistry of Communications between 1993 and 1999. He served as Director of Trade in theMinistry of Trade and Industry between 2000 and 2003 and was the Deputy Chief Negotiator for theSingapore–United States Free Trade Agreement signed in May 2003. He wasPrincipal Private Secretary toDeputy Prime MinisterLee Hsien Loong between 2002 and 2004. Ong also served as thechief executive officer of theWorkforce Development Agency between 2005 and 2008. Following that, he joined theNational Trades Union Congress as Assistant Secretary-General.[4]
In the2011 general election, Ong contested inAljunied GRC as part of a five-memberPeople's Action Party (PAP) team.[5] The PAP team lost to theWorkers' Party's (WP) team ofLow Thia Khiang,Pritam Singh,Sylvia Lim,Muhamad Faisal Manap andChen Show Mao.[6] This was the first time in Singapore's history when the PAP lost a GRC in an election.[7] Ong was subsequently regulated into branch chair duties as unelected Kaki Bukit Branch Chair. Ong would later leave his branch chair post in 2014.[8][9]
Following the 2011 general election, Ong continued to work at theNational Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and became Deputy Secretary-General in June 2011.[10] He was also elected into the NTUC's Central Committee later that year.[11] In 2013, he left the NTUC and became Director of Group Strategy atKeppel Corporation.[12]
In the2015 general election, Ong joined as part of the five-member PAP team contesting inSembawang GRC,[13][14] The PAP team won with 72% of the vote and Ong was elected as the Member of Parliament representing the Gambas ward of Sembawang GRC.[13]
On 1 October 2015, Ong was appointedSenior Minister of State for Defence andActing Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills). On 1 November 2016, he was promoted to Second Minister for Defence while concurrently holding the portfolio of Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) alongsideNg Chee Meng, who was Minister for Education (Schools). In 2017, Ong moved a bill in Parliament to confer theSingapore University of Social Sciences autonomous status.[15]
On 1 May 2018, the two Education portfolios were merged into a single one; Ong took over the single portfolio as Minister for Education while simultaneously relinquishing his Second Minister of Defence portfolio.
On 27 July 2020, Ong relinquished his portfolio as Minister for Education and succeededKhaw Boon Wan asMinister for Transport.[16]
In the lead-up to the2020 general election, Ong was widely seen as one of the three leading candidates (alongsideHeng Swee Keat andChan Chun Sing) to succeedLee Hsien Loong asPrime Minister of Singapore.[17] Ong led the PAP team in Sembawang GRC and they won with about 67% of the vote. Ong's former Gambas ward was merged with part of Khaw Boon Wan's former Sembawang ward, forming the new Sembawang Central ward which Ong has since represented.[18]
On 23 April 2021, Ong was appointed co-chair of the multi-ministerial committee formed on 22 January 2020 to manage theCOVID-19 pandemic in Singapore. Following a Cabinet reshuffle on 15 May 2021, Ong relinquished his portfolio as Minister for Transport and succeededGan Kim Yong asMinister for Health.
Ong was considered by many to be one of the most likely candidates to succeedHeng Swee Keat as leader of the fourth-generation (4G) team, however it was ultimately revealed that Finance MinisterLawrence Wong had the most support compared to the other candidates.[19]
On 23 April 2025, Ong stood for re-election in Sembawang GRC, and was successfully nominated. He led the PAP team, which also consisted of incumbent MPsMariam Jaafar andVikram Nair, and new facesGabriel Lam andNg Shi Xuan. His team won in a three-cornered fight with theNational Solidarity Party (NSP) andSingapore Democratic Party (SDP).[20]
On 6 May 2025, 3 days after the general election, Ong, alongside fellow ministersChee Hong Tat andNg Chee Meng (who later requested to be excluded from the Cabinet),[21] was caught in a publicised scandal of the three dining with convicted money laundererSu Haijin.[22][23]
Ong's father, Ong Lian Teng, was aBarisan Sosialis politician who served as the Member of theLegislative Assembly forBukit Panjang between 1963 and 1965 and later MP between 1965 and 1966, when he resigned to protest the "undemocratic acts" of the PAP government. In an interview withThe Straits Times in 2011, Ong Ye Kung said that his father, who died in 2009, had been fully supportive of his son's entry into PAP politics despite his own involvement in opposition politics.[27]
Ong is married to Diana Kuik Sin Leng, the daughter of real estate magnate Kuik Ah Han.[28][29] They have two daughters.[30] In 2012, Straits Times correspondentSusan Long described him as a "free thinker" and a "Confucius-quoting unionist".[31]
Ong's older brother, Howard, is an Australian political candidate and businessman. He contested and lost in theDivision of Tangney under theLiberal Party ticket in the2025 federal election.[32]
Ong's maternal cousin,Xie Yao Quan, is the PAP MP forJurong Central Single Member Constituency (SMC).[33]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Minister for Education 2018–2020 2016–2018(Higher Education and Skills) Acting: 2015–2016 Served alongside:Ng Chee Meng(Schools) | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Transport 2020–2021 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Health 2021–present | Incumbent |
| Vacant Title last held by Tharman Shanmugaratnam2023 | Coordinating Minister for Social Policies 2025–present | Incumbent |
| Parliament of Singapore | ||
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament for Sembawang GRC 2015–present Served alongside: (2015-2020):Lim Wee Kiak,Vikram Nair,Khaw Boon Wan,Amrin Amin (2020-2025): Lim Wee Kiak, Vikram Nair,Poh Li San,Mariam Jaafar (2025-present):Gabriel Lam,Ng Shi Xuan, Vikram Nair, Mariam Jaafar | Incumbent |
 Current members of theCabinet of Singapore | |
|---|---|
| Prime Minister | |
| Deputy Prime Minister(s) | |
| Senior Minister(s) | |
| Cabinet Minister(s) | |
Effective from 23 May 2025 | |
