Mr Mah Bow Tan was an elected Member of Parliament for Singapore’s Tampines Group Representation Constituency from 1988-2015. He served in the Government holding various portfolios since 1988: Minister of State (Trade and Industry), Minister of State (Communications and Information), Minister for Communications, Minister for the Environment and Minister for National Development, where he served from 1999 until 2011, when he retired from Government.

As Minister for National Development since 1999, Mr Mah guided Singapore's physical development through sustainable land use planning and urban development. Mr Mah spearheaded the conceptualisation and implementation of Singapore’s downtown development, Marina Bay. He set up and co-chaired the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Sustainable Development (IMCSD), which published the blueprint for Singapore’s sustainable development to cultivate Singapore as an efficient, clean and green city state.

‍

Mr Mah also led the Sino Singapore Tianjin Eco-City project, a Government-to-Government project by China and Singapore established in 2008 to develop a city which is sustainable, scaleable and replicable. 

Mr Mah is currently Distinguished Advisor to the Centre for Liveable Cities Singapore (www.clc.gov.sg) and Chairman of GlobalCities Consult Pte Ltd, a consulting entity.  He is also an Adjunct Professor at Nanyang Technological University’s Centre for Public Administration (www.ntu.edu.sg/ncpa) and National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (www.lkyspp.nus.edu.sg) . 

‍

Mr Mah was awarded both the President’s and Colombo Plan Scholarships to study at the University of New South Wales, Australia. He graduated with a First Class Honours in Industrial Engineering(1971) and a Master of Engineering degree in Operations Research (1973). He was conferred an Honorary Doctor of Science degree by the University of New South Wales in 2006.

‍