Sino Chairman Robert Ng, Children Named Under Singapore Foreign Influence Law

Singapore is set to declare one of its wealthiest property tycoons and three of his children as “politically significant persons” under a law designed to prevent foreign meddling in the country’s politics.

In a statement on Monday, the island nation’s Ministry of Home Affairs announced that it intends to designate Sino Group chairman Robert Ng and his children Daryl Ng, Nikki Ng and David Ng, all citizens of Singapore, as “politically significant persons” under its Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act of 2021.

All four members of one of Singapore’s richest families had declared to Singapore’s Registry of Foreign and Political Disclosures that, “they were members of a Foreign Legislature (FL) or Foreign Political Organisation (FPO),” according to the statement.

While the statement did not indicate which foreign political groups the Ng family members have participated in, the Sino Group website lists Robert, Daryl and Nikki as members of mainland China legislative bodies. The document specified that, “the intended designations of the four individuals are not because they have engaged in any egregious activity.”

Mainland Legislature Involvement

With Sino Group owning Fullerton Hotels and Resorts and having developed projects including Hong Kong’s Centrium office tower, Robert Ng has a personal fortune estimated by Bloomberg at $3.2 billion and operates the company from Hong Kong.

He is the son of the late property magnate Ng Teng Fong who founded Singapore-based Far East Organization, a real estate developer and investment firm now led by Robert’s nephew Jonathan Ng.

The Ministry of Home Affairs announcement specified that all four family members were served notice that the government intends to designate them as politically significant persons, with the foreign interference act including being “a member of the executive committee or similar governing body of a political party, whether or not he or she is also a responsible officer of that political party (called in this Act a senior political party official),” among the qualifications for the tag.

The website of Hong Kong-listed Sino Group lists Robert Ng as a member of the 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (“CPPCC”), with the latest session of the mainland political body having concluded in 2023. Ng was also deputy director of the Committee for Economic Affairs of the 13th and 14th National Committee of the CPPCC.

Participation in mainland China political bodies has become common practice among Hong Kong’s business elite, with both Li Ka-shing and his son Victor also having served as members of the CPPCC, along with Sun Hung Kai Properties chairman Raymond Kwok and New World chairman Henry Cheng.

Robert Ng’s oldest son, Daryl, who serves as Sino Group’s vice chairman, was a member of the 12th and 13th Beijing Municipal Committees of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (“CPPCC”), a member of the Standing Committee of the 14th Beijing Municipal Committee of the CPPCC and a member of the 10th and 11th Committees of the All-China Youth Federation, according to his bio on the Sino Group website.

Robert Ng’s daughter Nikki, who serves as a non-executive director at Sino Group, was a member of the 12th, 13th and 14th Shanghai Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, according to her bio on the company website.

David Ng is the younger son of Robert and serves as group associate director at Sino Group. His association with political groups was not immediately clear.

Political Firewall

Singapore’s parliament passed the foreign interference law in 2021 in an effort to prevent outside influence of local politics. The Ministry of Home Affairs has said that the law does not seek to stop Singapore citizens or entities from stating their views, but to prevent locals from being used as proxies acting in domestic politics on behalf of foreign entities.

In February of last year Philip Chan Man Ping, a naturalised Singaporean from Hong Kong, became the first person to be designated as a politically significant person under the foreign interference law after he was alleged to have organised political campaigns favouring mainland Chinese interests.

Last month a company linked to troubled mainland copper trader Wang Wenyin, where Chan had served as a director, sold the top three floors in Singapore’s 20 Collyer Quay, an office building near Raffles Place, to developer GuocoLand for S$91.8 million ($69 million), according to an account by Bloomberg.