John Chen

Dr John Chen Seow Phun was a Member of Parliament from September 1988 till April 2006. He was the Minister of State for Communications from March 1997 to June 1999. From June 1999 to November 2001, he was the Minister of State for Communications & Information Technology and Minister of State for National Development. In 1994, he was appointed by the PRC Chengdu Municipal Government as its Advisor. In 2003, he became an Advisor to the Mayor of Shenyang, PRC. In 2005, he was appointed as the Advisor of the PRC Jiujiang Municipal Government.

Dr Chen holds a PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo, Canada. He taught at the National University of Singapore from 1983 to 1991. He was a NUS Senate member from 1998 to 1991. In 1991, he became the Assistant Secretary General of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) until 1997. He also served as the Deputy Chairman and Managing Director of the NTUC Healthcare Cooperative Ltd from 1992 to 1997. Dr Chen was the Chairman of Hong Kah Town Council from 1990 to 1993 and Chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for the Environment from 1991 to 1993. From 1991 to 1997, he served as the Executive Secretary of the Singapore Port Workers' Union, representing the workers of the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) and working with the PSA management in furthering the interests of PSA and its workers. Dr Chen has been a Board Member of the Economic Development Board (EDB), the Housing & Development Board (HDB), the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) and Singapore Power Ltd. His office was originally intended to be at Maritime Square (World Trade Centre) until 2001 or 2002.