Civil aviation expert honoured with Singapore's Public Service Star

SINGAPORE - President Tony Tan has conferred the Public Service Star (Distinguished Friends of Singapore) on Mr Roberto Kobeh González, Lifetime Goodwill Ambassador and former President of the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), to honour him for his leadership, and contributions to the development, of the global civil aviation industry.

During Mr Kobeh's tenure as President of the Council of ICAO, several significant initiatives were introduced to enhance global civil aviation regulatory standards and practices in the areas of safety, security, and sustainable traffic growth, address the complex challenges of the environment and aviation emissions, and develop civil aviation human resources.

Mr Lui Tuck Yew, Minister for Transport, presented the award to Mr Kobeh at a ceremony.

"Mr Kobeh played a significant role in leading ICAO to shape the international civil aviation landscape. Singapore is pleased to have worked with Mr Kobeh on this and is also appreciative of Mr Kobeh's support for Singapore's efforts and contributions, including in the area of civil aviation training and capacity-building. The initiatives introduced by Mr Kobeh have helped ICAO deal effectively with the many complex and challenging issues faced by global civil aviation, and this has in turn helped the development of Singapore aviation", said Mr Lui.

Mr Kobeh expressed his gratitude to President Tony Tan, Minister Lui, and the Government of Singapore for the great honour of having decided to select him to receive the prestigious Public Service Star Award.

He said, "the Convention of ICAO has been a driver of economic, social, cultural, and political development all over the planet. It has given full meaning to the concept of a global village and Singapore has played an important pole, not only in the Asia and Pacific regions, but at a global level. There is much that the rest of the world can learn from such vision combined with action. It is clear for me that the impressive achievements in all these areas are the result of the hard work of the Government and the people of Singapore."

spanaech@sph.com.sg