The Singapore Presidency is a ceremonial head of state position that is symbolic, with a limited executive power over the government of Singapore including control of the national reserves. Since 1993, the Singapore president has been elected directly by a popular vote while the Prime Minister is the head of government in Singapore.
Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Singapore’s veteran economic policymaker is planning to run in the upcoming presidential elections in Singapore, that will be held by mid-September. Once considered to be a potential candidate for chief of IMF (International Monetary Fund), Shanmugaratnam will resign from the ruling People’s Action Party to stand for election, he stated on Thursday in a letter to Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. This would mean stepping down from his present roles as Senior Minister and Coordinating minister for social policies on 7th July 2023.
Shanmugaratnam was a professional economist and a career public servant prior to being first elected as a Member of Parliamentary in November 2001. This marks the conclusion of his services after over two decades in various roles in the Singapore cabinet as well as several international organisations. Shanmugaratnam is 66 years old this year, and present chairman of the Monetary, Authority of Singapore, the country’s financial regulatory authority and the Country’s de facto central bank. He is also on the board of an international council of economic and financial leaders from the private and public sectors and academia – the Group of Thirty.
Shanmugaratnam is a member of the United Nations’ High-level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism, and also co-chairs the Global Commission on the Economics of Water. He was, among his past global appointments, the first Asian chair of the International Monetary and Financial committee, the IMF’s key policy forum. From 2011 to 2019, Shanmugaratnam was Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and previously served as Education Minister and Finance Minister.
