Chief of Defence Force Perry Lim, who leads the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), is being promoted to the top rank of Lieutenant-General today.

He assumed his current post last August. He joined the SAF in December 1990 and was awarded the President’s and SAF Overseas scholarships.

Lt-Gen Lim graduated from Cambridge University with first-class honours in mechanical engineering. He was awarded the Lee Kuan Yew postgraduate scholarship in 2008 and obtained a master’s in public administration from business school Insead.

Among his appointments were commander of the 1st Battalion, Singapore Guards and the army’s 3rd Division. He was also chief of staff – general staff.

Two other generals moving to the next rank are Chief of Army Melvyn Ong and Chief of Air Force Mervyn Tan. They have been promoted to Major-General.

Maj-Gen Ong joined the SAF in 1994 and was awarded the SAF Overseas Scholarship.

In his military career, he commanded the 7th Singapore Infantry Brigade and headed the SAF’s Joint Plans and Transformation Department.

His air force counterpart joined the SAF in 1990, and went on to head the Air Defence and Operations Command and the Air Plans Department in the Republic of Singapore Air Force.

Six colonels are also being promoted to Brigadier-General and Rear-Admiral (One-Star).

All in, the SAF is promoting 434 officers, 67 military experts and 40 warrant officers from the army, navy and air force today.

They include regulars and operationally ready national servicemen.

Among them is Colonel Koh Ee Wen, Commander Air Defence Group, who was promoted from Senior Lieutenant-Colonel.

The air warfare officer in ground based air defence said that when she joined the SAF nearly 20 years ago in 1997, there were not many high-ranking women.

However, the 38-year-old said: “The air force culture is egalitarian… You (need to) prove that you’re competent and professional. That is how people deal with you.”

At a ceremony held at the Ministry of Defence yesterday evening, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen and Lt-Gen Lim presented certificates to some of those being promoted.

The annual SAF Day will be commemorated today.

This article was first published on Jul 01, 2016.
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A bank is pioneering a scheme that lets its customers top up their Cepas cards for travel using their credit cards and smartphones.

From today, United Overseas Bank (UOB) will offer cashless top-ups via contactless payment options such as Visa payWave and MasterCard PayPass, or customers can just insert their credit cards into one of the 500 ticketing machines at MRT stations islandwide.

Customers can also use the contactless payment option on their UOB debit cards to pay at ticket machines.

Cepas or Contactless E-Purse Application cards include EZ-Link cards and NETS FlashPay cards as well as concession cards.

The new initiative is a collaboration between public transport service agency TransitLink and UOB.

This initiative will apply to Singapore-issued UOB Visa, UOB MasterCard and UOB JCB cards.

It will be widened to include credit and debit card holders of all other local and foreign banks from January next year.

TransitLink chief executive Lee Yuen Hee said: “The whole idea is to extend the cashless lifestyle that the public is used to in the retail space to the transit space.

“This is all part and parcel of our continuous effort to make the transit experience convenient, seamless and an integral part of the commuter’s lifestyle.”

Most commuters top up their Cepas cards using cash, which accounted for 70 per cent of total top-up payments last year.

TransitLink hopes the new option will increase cashless top-up payments at ticket machines by about 10 per cent.

UOB card members will also be able to top up their Cepas cards using their smartphones at ticket machines from today. Android users can do so via UOB Mighty Pay while Apple users have Apple Pay.

Sales executive and daily commuter Praveena Odunghat, 47, said: “With cashless options, I can keep better track of transport expenses by reviewing my account statements at the end of the month.”

This article was first published on July 01, 2016.
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Public transport operator Go-Ahead Singapore announced that it will increase starting basic salary for its bus captains to $1,950 starting from Friday (July 1).

This is up from the $1,865 that was earlier revealed in the firm’s employment package in February this year.

Bus captains who are Singaporeans or permanent residents will receive the wage increase which also applies to existing bus captains as well as new-joiners.

Nigel Wood, Managing Director of Go-Ahead Singapore, said: “We want to enable our bus captains to grow both professionally and personally, and the updated salary will further complement the existing benefits that are already available to our bus captains.”

To date, Go-Ahead Singapore has hired 655 bus captains, and is targeting to recruit and train 700 bus captains.

The firm will operate 25 bus services at Loyang bus depot by the third quarter of 2016.

Singaporeans to enjoy London-style bus services in 2016

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

Tower Transit, Go-Ahead

minlee@sph.com.sg