He will join the private sector and will continue to contribute to the public sector after his retirement as Chairman of the Media Development Authority (MDA), said a statement from the Public Service Division in the Prime Minister's Office on Monday evening.

Mr Chan Yeng Kit, 42, currently Chief Executive Officer, of Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, will relinquish his IDA position and take over as the Permanent Secretary at MICA. He will be appointed Permanent Secretary (designate) on Nov 19 and then as Permanent Secretary on Jan 1.

Dr Tan, a President's and Colombo Plan Scholar, joined the SAF in 1974 as a Systems Engineer after graduating with a Bachelor of Engineering (First Class Honours) degree in Industrial Engineering, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Newcastle, Australia.

Dr Tan joined the Administrative Service in 1977. He served in the Ministry of Defence till 1982, where he held various appointments including Director, Systems and Computer Organisation.

He was awarded the Public Administration Medal (Bronze) in 1979 for his contributions to defence computerisation.

In 1982, Dr Tan moved to the newly established National Computer Board (NCB) to be its first General Manager and served as Chairman of the Board from 1987 to 1994. Dr Tan was concurrently Managing Director (MD), Economic Development Board (EDB) from 1986 to 1994.

Under Dr Tan's leadership, NCB computerised the Civil Service, and implemented the National Information Technology (IT) Plan to train IT professional manpower and exploit IT in various sectors, said the PSD. Through his roles in both EDB and NCB, Dr Tan helped to oversee the development of the IT industry.

Dr Tan was awarded the Public Administration Medal (Silver) in 1982 and the Public Administration Medal (Gold) in 1987 for bringing together the inter-agency efforts to exploit IT for economic growth. As MD EDB, he helped to transform the organisation into a proactive investment marketing agency to develop Singapore into a global city. He was conferred the EDB Society Distinguished Fellow Award this year in recognition of his contributions.

He became Chief Executive of the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) from 1994 to 1997. During his tenure, STB evolved to take on a more professional and pro-active role in the tourism industry, with new initiatives to contribute to the economy. He was named 1996 Travel Personality of the Year by the Travel Trade Gazette Asia and Pacific Asia Travel Association Travel News (PTN) Asia Pacific.

Dr Tan was appointed Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour in 1997. He oversaw the transformation of the Ministry into the Ministry of Manpower to take on the challenges of meeting the manpower requirements in the next phase of Singapore's development. He led a task force which recommended the upgrading of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts, with government funding for creative manpower development.

As Chairman of the National Library Board from 1995 to 2002, Dr Tan helped transform public libraries by making them more appealing to changing lifestyles. He was awarded the Public Administration Medal (Gold)(Bar) in 2002 for making our libraries more accessible and user friendly through the use of technology and better customer service.

As MICA Permanent Secretary since 2002, Dr Tan has played a key role in developing arts and the creative industries, promoting media industry development and developing information officers to better carry out their roles in corporate and strategic communications. He was also responsible for the Whole-of-Government National Marketing initiative and the multi-dimensional Singapore Season in London and China to present Singapore in a holistic manner overseas riding on our arts and cultural platform.

Mr Chan joined the Administrative Service in 1989, after graduating with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Mathematics from the University of Tasmania, Australia, under a Colombo Plan scholarship. He obtained his Master in Public Administration degree from Harvard University, USA, in 1998 under a Fulbright Scholarship. He has just returned from attending the Advanced Management Programme at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr Chan's career has spanned a range of appointments in Government, the labour movement, and the private sector. His first appointment was as an Assistant Director in the Public Service Division of the Ministry of Finance in 1989. In 1991, he was seconded to the National Trades Union Congress, where he served as the Assistant Director of its Research and Planning Department.

In 1993, Mr Chan was seconded to Keppel Corporation to serve as the Executive Committee Secretary to the Singapore consortium developing the Singapore-Suzhou Industrial Park in China. He helped lay the ground work for the project, staffing the negotiations on the commercial terms for the township development, liaising with the Municipal and Provincial Governments, establishing the Singapore-Sino joint-venture company and co-ordinating the initial master-planning and development of the selected sites.

Mr Chan assumed the appointment of Director, Industry Division in the Ministry of Trade & Industry from 1995 to 1997. He served as the Director of Manpower in the Ministry of Defence from 1998 to 2002. From 2001-2002, he was also concurrently Director for Special Projects, responsible for spearheading MINDEF's initiative (dubbed "MINDEF.com") to re-invent itself for a new generation of servicemen in the Digital Age.

Mr Chan was appointed Deputy Secretary (Policy) in the Ministry of Education in 2002. As Deputy Secretary (Policy), he led the policy team supporting the Review of the Secondary School and Junior College Structure and Curriculum. The main recommendations - such as the establishment of integrated programme (or "through-train") schools, privately-funded schools, and a revamp of the 'A'-level curriculum structure - have since been implemented.

He became CEO of the IDA in 2005. He was instrumental in leading a 3P (public-private-people) initiative to formulate the Intelligent Nation 2015 (iN2015) Infocomm Masterplan to enhance Singapore's national competitiveness in the Digital Age, and improve quality of life through infocomm technologies.

Major initiatives under iN2015 include the development of a pervasive wireless broadband infrastructure (Wireless@Sg), a next-generation ultra-high speed broadband network, and a new e-Government action plan (iGov2010). These and other initiatives have helped maintain Singapore's position among the Top 3 in the World Economic Forum's Global IT Report for the last 3 years, and pushed Singapore into the top position in Accenture's 2007 e-government study.

Mr Chan was awarded the SAF National Serviceman of the Year Award in 1999, and conferred the Public Administration Medal (Silver) in 2000.