The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) has announced Shum Jin-Chyi Kevin will be appointed as the director-general of Singapore aviation regulatory body with effect from 2 August 2015. He will take over from Yap Ong Heng who will be retiring from the Administrative Service.
Mr Shum, 44, is currently deputy secretary (international) in the Ministry of Transport. Prior to this appointment, he held various key positions in the then-Ministry of Community Development and in the Ministry of Finance.
In a statement, the Ministry of Transport said it “would like to put on record its appreciation to Yap Ong Heng for his significant contributions in his six years as the director general of CAAS.”
Outgoing director-general Yap Ong Heng has held the appointment since 1 July 2009 and successfully led the restructuring of CAAS after the corporatisation of Changi Airport in 2009 , including the significant task of rebuilding the corporate branding and organisational culture of CAAS to meet its new vision and mission. Since then, Yap has led CAAS to achieve numerous milestones abroad as well as in Singapore.
On the international front, he led and concluded numerous Air Services Agreement (ASA) negotiations, including the landmark ASEAN-China Air Transport Agreement and further expansion of the bilateral ASA with countries such as Japan, India and Brazil. He also drove CAAS’ efforts to secure the re-election of Singapore into the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organisation for consecutive three-year terms in 2010 and 2013.
Back home, he has played a key role in the Changi East development project and implementation of a three-runway system. He spearheaded the development and operationalisation of CAAS’ third-generation air traffic control system LORADS III (Long Range Radar and Display System III) in October 2013, to ensure that Singapore is able to manage the growing air traffic volumes safely and efficiently into the future.
Under Yap, the CAAS launched a Centre of Excellence for Air Traffic Management (COE for ATM) that included the setting up of the ATM Research Institute in partnership with Nanyang Technological University. CAAS also entered into a partnership with MITRE to establish MAPS (MITRE Asia-Pacific in Singapore). Focusing on ATM research and studies for Singapore and the region, MAPS is MITRE’s first aviation R&D centre outside the US.
And under Yap’s leadership, the CAAS also implemented several new initiatives to grow the local aviation industry, a key one being the setting up of the Aviation Development Fund in April 2010 with a budget of S$100 million (US$72 million) and subsequently topped up in 2015 to S$160 million.
