MDA to get new chief next month

MDA to get new chief next month

The Media Development Authority (MDA) will have a new chief executive officer come Dec 8.

Its new head is Mr Gabriel Lim, outgoing principal private secretary to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, a position he took up in September 2011.

Ms Koh Lin-Net, the outgoing MDA chief who took office on Nov 1, 2012, will take on "another leadership posting" next year, said the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) in a statement yesterday. No further details were given.

As principal private secretary, Mr Lim, 38, helps Mr Lee coordinate policy changes and manage inter-agency issues and strategic communications, among other things.

Mr Lim was previously director of policy at the Defence Ministry, where he helped strengthen Singapore's defence relations with foreign countries. He has also worked in the Health Ministry, Public Service Division and Civil Service College.

In its statement, MCI thanked Ms Koh, 45, for her contributions and leadership, saying she "had strongly advocated MDA's engagement and consultation with stakeholders in industry, the public and employees".

Under Ms Koh, MDA strengthened safeguards for pay-TV consumers in the last two years. In March, the authority proposed new rules to allow consumers to cancel their pay-TV contracts without paying a penalty, if the service provider changes the price or programmes without consent. The rules are expected to be introduced next year.

Formerly deputy secretary of trade at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ms Koh oversaw the launch of an official assistance scheme to ensure that low-income households can continue to watch free-to-air television channels when the nation pulls the plug on analogue broadcasting by 2020. More than 160,000 poor households will be getting free digital set-top boxes under the scheme.


This article was first published on Nov 04, 2014.
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