Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced during the cabinet reshuffle on Jul. 25 that Ong Ye Kung would take over retired Khaw Boon Wan as the next Transport Minister.

Ong was previously the Minister for Education after being elected in 2015.

On the same day of the cabinet reshuffle, Ong bade farewell to the Ministry of Education (MOE) via a Facebook post, saying he was leaving with a "heavy heart".

The post generated more than 17k reactions, 1k comments of mostly well wishes and 1.3k shares.

First day on the job

Subsequently on July 28, Ong started his first day of work at the Ministry of Transport (MOT) and went through a "long day of briefings".

He was seen alongside Senior Minister of State for Transport Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for Transport Chee Hong Tat and Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Transport Baey Yam Keng.

The quartet was joined by Khaw during lunch.

Ong also shared a personal tidbit of information, which was that his first job as young civil servant was actually at the MOT, and he spent five years working at the PSA Building.

Reflecting on the time that had passed since then, Ong commented that although the surroundings have been spruced up over the years, the environment was still familiar.

Here's his full post.

Singapore must maintain its hub status

On July 25, PM Lee addressed during a press conference Ong's switch to MOT as well, stating that the transport industry will have more priorities than just engineering work.

The industry would need to evolve to become more sustainable and affordable.

Sea and air transport is currently critical, he said, to preserve Singapore as a global hub, especially in the post-Covid-19 landscape.

Air transport has recently taken a large hit, with SIA reporting a S$1 billion net loss for the first quarter of the financial year 2020/21.

There are upcoming important bilateral projects Singapore has Malaysia and Indonesia as well, such as the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail and RTS Link.

As such, "we need a very good minister at the helm with cabinet experience and political nous," PM Lee said.

Ong then shared his belief that transport was a key priority, and essential for Singapore as a major hub, in an interview with Channel 5 news on Jul 25.

"With Covid-19, who will be the new aviation hubs of this world? And I think Singapore must do whatever we can to maintain our hub status for both maritime and aviation. This has always been our lifeblood, and will continue to be our lifeblood. And it's a piece of work that I think is urgent, critical and will determine the future economic fate of Singapore."

This echoed his comments in his latest post, where he said that air connectivity is "a vital organ of our small island state".

Ong said that finding ways to allow for safe travel will be his "top and immediate priority".