9 March 2007

LKY School of Public Policy receives $100 million from business leader

NEW NAME FOR HISTORIC BUILDING: The Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy will name this historic building at the Bukit Timah Campus in honour of Dr Li Ka-shing.

The Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKY SPP) at NUS has received a $100 million gift from Hong Kong entrepreneur and business leader Li Ka-shing. The gift from the Li Ka Shing Foundation and Dr Li Ka-shing's group of companies, Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd and Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, will attract a dollar-for-dollar matching grant from the Singapore Government.

Professor Kishore Mahbubani, Dean of LKY SPP said: "We deeply appreciate this generous contribution by Dr Li. One key goal of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy is to train the next generation of policymakers and leaders who will help to raise standards of governance and improve the lives of ordinary people in the region."

He added: "By allowing the School to offer more scholarships, Dr Li's gift will help us fulfill one of our key missions of attracting promising young policymakers from Asia to study public policy.  The region needs to develop strong public sector institutions to keep pace with its economic growth. Over the longer-term this will benefit not only Asia but the whole world. In this context, Dr Li's gift is an important contribution not just to our School but also to Asia and the world."

NUS President Professor Shih Choon Fong said: "We are deeply grateful to Dr Li Ka-shing for his generosity and confidence in NUS' Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Higher education in Singapore has benefited greatly from the support and munificence of visionary philanthropists. Dr Li's transformational gift will enable the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy to strive for new heights of excellence, and help NUS extend its reach and impact as a global university of distinction."

The gift will be used to create an endowment fund to support academic activities, including the endowment of chair professorships and the setting up of more than 40 scholarships annually. These scholarships will continue in perpetuity and over time create a distinguished alumni of policymakers in the region. The scholarships offered by the school will benefit international students as well as local students in Singapore, Professor Mahbubani added.

To honour and recognise Dr Li's support and generosity, LKY SPP will name one of its three buildings at the historic Bukit Timah Campus after him.  The building houses the School's executive education programmes and the largest concentration of its faculty and researchers.

Dr Li said: "Globalisation posts new complexities for governments worldwide.  Policy makers everywhere need to develop policies that embrace the importance of diversity and integrate it within a structure of unity. This is certainly an important task and a formidable challenge. By bringing together policy makers from different countries to think about these issues together, I hope the scholarships might sow seeds of perpetual prosperity and peace.

Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said: "Dr Li Ka-shing and I are old friends. By his generous donation of $100 million to the LKY SPP, I am happy that his name will be on one of the three blocks of buildings on the campus of the School that is named after me."