Iswaran to co-chair Committee on the Future Economy in view of Heng Swee Keat's illness: PMO

MINISTER for Industry S Iswaran will now be co-chairman of the Committee on the Future Economy (CFE), as its chairman Heng Swee Keat remains ill.

In a statement released on Monday evening, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said that Mr Iswaran, who was deputy chairman, will now be the committee's co-chair.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Chan Chun Sing will be appointed as the deputy chairman in place of Mr Iswaran.

The appointments are with immediate effect, said the PMO.

The 30-member CFE is a high-level committee tasked with charting Singapore's next phase of economic transition. The committee is slated to conclude its work at the end of this year.

Mr Heng, who is also Finance Minister, collapsed at a Cabinet meeting last Thursday afternoon from a stroke, and was sent to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

He then underwent initial neurosurgery to relieve pressure in his brain caused by the bleeding.

Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam took over duties of finance minister, the PMO said that same night.

On Friday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that Mr Heng, 54, will remain in the intensive care unit for some time.