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Ong Ye Kung | |
|---|---|
| 王乙康 | |
 Ong in 2018 | |
| Minister for Health | |
| Assumed office 15 May 2021 | |
| Prime Minister | Lee Hsien Loong Lawrence Wong |
| Second Minister | Masagos Zulkifli |
| 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 abolished |
| Senior Minister of State for Defence | |
| In office 1 October 2015 – 31 October 2016 | |
| Prime Minister | Lee Hsien Loong |
| Minister | Ng Eng Hen |
| Succeeded by | Heng Chee How |
| Member of Parliament forSembawang GRC (Sembawang Central) | |
| Assumed office 10 July 2020 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Majority | 48,341 (34.58%) |
| Member of Parliament forSembawang GRC (Gambas) | |
| In office 11 September 2015 – 23 June 2020 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| Majority | 59,572 (44.5%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1969-11-15)15 November 1969 (age 55)[1] Singapore |
| Political party | People's Action Party |
| Spouse | Diana Kuik Sin Leng |
| Relations | Xie Yao Quan (maternal cousin)[2] |
| 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] (Chinese:王乙康;pinyin:Wáng Yǐkāng;Pe̍h-ōe-jī:Ông It-khong; 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 GRC since 2015.[3][4]
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.[5]
In the2011 general election, Ong contested inAljunied GRC as part of a five-memberPeople's Action Party (PAP) team.[6] The PAP team lost to theWorkers' Party team consists ofLow Thia Khiang,Pritam Singh,Sylvia Lim,Muhamad Faisal Manap andChen Show Mao.[7] This was the first time in Singapore's history when the PAP lost a GRC in an election.[8]
Following the 2011 general election, Ong continued to work at theNational Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and became Deputy Secretary-General in June 2011.[9] He was also elected into the NTUC's Central Committee later that year.[10] In 2013, he left the NTUC and became Director of Group Strategy atKeppel Corporation.[11]
In the2015 general election, Ong joined as part of the five-member PAP team contesting inSembawang GRC,[12][13] 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.[12]
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.[14]
On 1 May 2018, the two Education portfolios were merged into a single one; Ong took over the single portfolio as Minister for Education, Ong had also relinquished his Second Minister of Defence portfolio at the same time.
On 27 July 2020, Ong relinquished his portfolio as Minister for Education and succeededKhaw Boon Wan asMinister for Transport, as well as the Anchor Minister of Sembawang GRC.
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.[15] 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 is currently helmed by Ong.[16]
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.[17]
Ong has spoken out on the events ofAnti-Indian sentiment at Singapore.[18]
On 23 April 2025, Ong stood for election in Sembawang GRC, and was successfully nominated. He leads the PAP team as the incumbent, with incumbent MPs Marian Jaafar and Vikram Nair, and new faces Gabriel Lam and Ng Shi Xuan. His team will in a three-cornered fight with the National Solidarity Party (NSP) and Singapore Democratic Party (SDP).
Ong's father, Ong Lian Teng, was aBarisan Sosialis politician who served as the Member of theLegislative Assembly forBukit Panjang SMC from 1963 to 1965 and later Member of Parliament from 1965 to 1966, who later resigned to protest the "undemocratic acts" of the PAP government. In an interview withThe Straits Times in 2011, Ong noted that his father, who died in 2009, had been fully supportive of his decision to become involved in politics as a member of the PAP despite his own past involvement in opposition politics in Singapore.[22]
Ong is married to Diana Kuik Sin Leng, the daughter of real estate magnate Kuik Ah Han.[23][24] They have two daughters.[25] In 2012, Straits Times correspondentSusan Long described him as a "free thinker" and a "Confucius-quoting unionist".[26]
Ong's brother,Howard, is an Australian politician and businessman. He is contesting in theDivision of Tangney under theLiberal Party of Australia ticket in the2025 Australian federal election.[27]
Ong's maternal cousin,Xie Yao Quan, is also a PAP Member of Parliament representing theJurong Central division ofJurong GRC.[2]
| 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 |
| Parliament of Singapore | ||
| New constituency | Member of Parliament for Sembawang GRC (Sembawang Central) 2015 – present | Incumbent |
 Current members of theCabinet of Singapore | |
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| Prime Minister | |
| Deputy Prime Minister(s) | |
| Senior Minister(s) | |
| Cabinet Minister(s) | |
Effective from 15 May 2024 | |
| International | |
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| National | |