Alphonsus Chia Chung Mun

Chief Executive Officer, Singapore Cooperation Enterprise (SCE)

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has secured Singapore's interest in Rwanda's future. Singapore Cooperation Enterprise's Chief Executive Officer, Alphonsus Chia, was in Kigali in February to talk up investment opportunities. This is all part of President Kagame's plan to transform Rwanda into an East African information technology hub and bring it into the ranks of the middle-income countries by 2020. Chia's February visit followed the announcement of development plans for Kigali, now home to a million people.

SCE and its partner Surbana Urban Planning Group were contracted in early 2008 to draft the blueprint. Their plan includes new business districts in Muhima, Kimicanga and Nyarungenge. Slums occupy much of the land to be developed and new residential areas in Gasabo and Nyarungenge will be built for the resettled. The project will be funded by a 40 billion Rwandan franc (US$70.4 million) bond to be launched by Kenya's Dyer & Blair Investment Bank in April.

SCE was created in 2006 by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Industry to export the skills of Singapore's public sector enterprises. Chia, then deputy CEO of International Enterprises Singapore, the government's export promoter, took up the reins as CEO. The Chairman is Peter Ho Hak Ean, Permanent Secretary at the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Chia studied business administration at the National University of Singapore, graduating in 1984 and returning to earn his master's in business administration in 1998. He worked in France and Belgium and for Singapore Airlines and Reed Exhibitions before joining the Trade and Industry Ministry in 2004.