20 Facts About Vivian Balakrishnan

Vivian Balakrishnan is a Singaporean politician, diplomat and former ophthalmologist who has been serving as Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2015.

Vivian Balakrishnan previously served as Second Minister for Trade and Industry between 2005 and 2006, Minister for Community, Youth and Sports between 2005 and 2011, Second Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts between 2006 and 2008, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources between 2011 and 2015, and Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation Initiative between 2014 and 2017.

Vivian Balakrishnan was appointed as Minister of State for National Development in 2002, and Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry in 2004.

Vivian Balakrishnan was born on 25 January 1961 in Singapore to an Indian Tamil father and a Chinese mother with ancestry from Fuqing, Fujian.

Vivian Balakrishnan was educated at Anglo-Chinese School and National Junior College before he was conferred the President's Scholarship in 1980 to study medicine at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore.

Vivian Balakrishnan served two terms as the president of the NUS Student Union, and later the chairman of the union council.

Vivian Balakrishnan chose a postgraduate specialisation in ophthalmology and became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1991.

Vivian Balakrishnan had worked at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London between 1993 and 1995 as a specialist senior registrar, where he subspecialised in paediatric ophthalmology.

When Vivian Balakrishnan returned to Singapore, he became a consultant ophthalmologist at the Singapore National Eye Centre and National University Hospital, and an associate professor of ophthalmology at the National University of Singapore in 1998.

Vivian Balakrishnan was the commanding officer of the 2nd Combat Support Hospital of the Singapore Armed Forces between 1999 and 2002.

Vivian Balakrishnan was appointed Minister of State for National Development, and Chairman of the Remaking Singapore Committee in 2002.

Vivian Balakrishnan was later appointed Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry in 2004.

In 2004, Vivian Balakrishnan was appointed acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports.

Vivian Balakrishnan was made a full member of the Cabinet in 2005.

Vivian Balakrishnan suggested that they were trying to suppress a certain YouTube video featuring a member of their team and that it raised questions about their agenda and motivation.

Vivian Balakrishnan acknowledged that they had got the initial estimates wrong as it was the first time that an event of that scale was organised in Singapore.

Vivian Balakrishnan declared that his team had spent less than the finalised budget amount and did not waste money.

On 21 May 2011, Vivian Balakrishnan was appointed Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, taking over from Yaacob Ibrahim.

In September 2021, during a debate in Parliament about the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, a hot mic picked up Vivian Balakrishnan referring to NCMP Leong Mun Wai of the Progress Singapore Party as "illiterate" and questioning how Leong got into Raffles Institution in a conversation with fellow PAP MPs on the front bench.

Vivian Balakrishnan is married to Joy Balakrishnan, and they have a daughter and three sons.