Mr Lee Yi Shyan
Senior Minister of State
Ministry of Trade and Industry
Ministry of National Development
Singapore
Mr Lee Yi Shyan was born in 1962. In 1986, he graduated from the National University of Singapore in Chemical Engineering. In 1997, he completed an executive management programme at the Harvard Business School and a management programme at Tsinghua University in 2001.
Mr Lee began his career at the Economic Development Board, where he held senior positions in human resources, services development, China operations and industry development for the chemical sector. He was based in Washington DC and Chicago from 1993 to 1997, as well as Suzhou in China from 1997 to 1998. Mr Lee was appointed Deputy Chief Executive of the Singapore Productivity and Standards Board in 2000. In 2001, Mr Lee was appointed Chief Executive Officer of International Enterprise (IE) Singapore.
After the May 2006 elections, Mr Lee became a Member of Parliament for East Coast Group Representation Constituency (GRC) and served as Minister of State for Trade & Industry. In the May 2011 General Elections, Mr Lee was re-elected as one of the Members of Parliament for the East Coast GRC. He was re-appointed as Minister of State for Trade & Industry, concurrently holding the post of Minister of State for National Development.
As Minister of State for Trade & Industry, Mr Lee actively promotes economic exchanges and international trade and investments with China, Middle East and Russia. He was the Co-Vice Chairman of the Singapore-Jiangsu Cooperation Council, and Co-Chairman of the Singapore-Shandong Business Council. Mr Lee is also the Co-Chairman of the Abu Dhabi-Singapore Joint Forum and the Saudi-Singapore Economic Cities Business Forum and a member of the Qatar-Singapore High Level Joint Committee. For the National Development portfolio, Mr Lee oversees urban planning, city development and town council issues. He also spearheads Singapore’s collaboration with China in the Tianjin Eco-City project. Mr Lee also chairs the Construction Productivity Steering Committee.
Mr Lee was honoured with the Distinguished Alumni Award by the Centre for Creative Leadership (USA) in 2009, and the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award by the Faculty of Engineering, National University of Singapore, in 2013. He is an avid badminton player and the President of the Singapore Badminton Association. He also plays golf, swims and skis. Mr Lee is married with two children.