1993 in Singapore explained

The following lists events that happened during 1993 in Singapore.

Incumbents

• President

Wee Kim Wee (until 1 September), Ong Teng Cheong (starting 1 September)

• Prime Minister

Goh Chok Tong

Events

January

• 1 January – Edusave is launched to provide all Singaporeans with quality education. The scheme also institutes awards for academic and non-academic achievements.^[1]

February

• 11 February – Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Secretariat is set up in Singapore.
• 20 February –
  • NTUC Comfort announced that it will corporatise to help in its expansion plans.^[2] The plan went through, which resulted in the formation of Comfort Transportation Pte Ltd later in June.^[3]
  • The Senoko Incineration Plant is officially opened, making it the third incineration plant in Singapore.^[4]
• 21 February – The World of Aquarium closes due to bad business, less than two years after it reopened.^[5] The building reopens as the Fort Canning Aquarium after a few months.^[6]

March

• 6 March – St Luke's Hospital starts construction in Bukit Batok, sparking opposition from residents which is eventually solved.^[7]

April

• 1 April – Medifund is set up to provide for medical treatment when Medisave and Medishield are not able to completely cover medical costs.^[8]
• 29 April – The first meeting between Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and Straits Exchange Foundation.^[9]

May

• May – Shaw House (Lido) is opened to the public.^[10]

June

• 8 June – Gardenia's new bakery is officially opened.^[11]
• 12–20 June – Singapore hosts the 17th Southeast Asian Games. It clinched fourth place with a total of 164 medals.^[12]

August

• 1 August – The National Heritage Board is formed to manage museums and encourage a vibrant cultural and heritage scene.^[13]
• 5 August – An MRT collision takes place at Clementi station during the morning rush hour, resulting in 156 injuries.^{[14] [15]}
• 28 August – Ong Teng Cheong wins the first-ever presidential election by 952,513 votes, with Chua Kim Yeow getting 670,358 votes.^{[16] [17]}

September

• 1 September – Ong Teng Cheong is sworn in as the first elected president.^{[16] [17]}
• 21 September – Ngee Ann City is officially opened.^[18]

October

• 3 October – The Great Singapore Workout is launched as part of the National Healthy Lifestyle Campaign, encouraging people to live healthily.^[19]
• 30 October – The Institute of Mental Health (then called Woodbridge Hospital) is officially opened in Hougang.^[20]

November

• 1 November
  • Asia Business News (ABN) officially formal full opened took place by President of Singapore Ong Teng Cheong at 6:00am SGT based at its headquarters in Singapore and business bureaus in Jakarta metropolitan area (including Central Jakarta, West Jakarta, North Jakarta, Tangerang and Tangerang Regency), North Sumatra (expect Karo Regency), Batam/Batam Islands (relayed from Singapore and via all Riau and surrounding areas) and Palembang metropolitan area, ABN was owned by Dow Jones & Company. Anchors/presenters included Coco Quisumbing, Martin Soong, Sydnie Kohara, Karen Koh and Lynette Lithgow. Correspondents Keiko Bang, Lisa Barron, Stuart Pallister, Jim Sciutto and Chris Slaughter were part of the original ABN team which included around 170 Singapore based-staff. The programme line-up included Breakfast Briefing, Asian Wall Street Journal on Air, Trading Day, Asia Market Digest, Storyboard, Far Eastern Economic Review on Air, Money Talk, dot.com and Corporate Raiders.
  • SingTel is listed on the then Stock Exchange of Singapore (present day Singapore Exchange) after an IPO in October.^[21]
• 9 November – The Special Tactics and Rescue Unit of the Singapore Police Force is commissioned.^[22]
• 10 November – The Fire Safety Act is passed to ensure safety of buildings in the event of fires.^[23]
• 27 November – Junction 8 is opened to the public.

December

• 5 December – The Jurong section of the Pan Island Expressway opened to traffic.
• 17 December – The Ang Mo Kio Community Hospital (present-day Ang Mo Kio - Thye Hua Kwan Hospital) is officially opened. The hospital works with General Practitioners, which will mainly serve the elderly living in the area.^[24]

December

• New Year's Eve (31 December)
  • The very final and last Malay programme to air on SBC 5 was the Indonesian film Ketika Senyumanmu Hadir.
  • News in Malay also aired its very final and last edition for this channel beforehand before moving to SBC 12 due to Malay programmes was officially moved from SBC 5 to SBC 12 which officially renamed as "Berita 12" was formally premiered on SBC 12 on the same night now extended from 20 to 30 minutes and new aired, new schedule, new clock and new time became daily from 7:30pm to 8:00pm Singapore Time while News in English aired its very final and last edition before becoming a full-fledged Singlish channel on tonight and the next day farewell from News in English to officially launched new split into two new English television news bulletin programmes includes:^[25]
    • "News 5 at Seven" officially formal opening took place as Singapore's very first main flagship evening television news bulletin programme officially opened on New Year's Day 1994 new aired, new schedule, new clock and new time became daily from 7:00pm to 7:30pm Singapore Time.
    • "News 5 Tonight" officially formal opening took place as Singapore's very first main flagship late-night television news bulletin on Channel 5 new aired, new schedule, new clock and new time became daily from 10:30pm to 11:00pm Singapore Time.
  • Panasonic Countdown New Year (Countdown 94): Hi! 5 is an annual multi-tiered event held every New Year's Eve celebrations in Singapore are centered in Raffles Hotel and Changi Airport its main events are pyrotechnic displays was officially launched by Prime Minister of Singapore Goh Chok Tong including after countdown new year marked farewell from SBC 5 marked very final and last time farewell the end to midnight firework new year marked officially introduced, and launched new name or new look as Channel 5 with officially introduced and launching new logo and slogan "Where It All Happens!" marked officially introduced and launched new name, logo and slogan for a new look for Channel 5 officially formal full grand opening at stroke of midnight Singapore Time after countdown new year and happy new year and became the very first channel in Singapore to become a all full-fledged Singaporean Standard English (or Singapore English), and Singaporean Colloquial English (or Singlish) free-to-air terrestrial channel both of which are terrestrial telecast nationally free-to-air on Channel 5 on New Year's Eve 1993 11:15pm to New Year's Day 1994 at 12:30am Singapore Time lasting 75-minutes and sponsored by Panasonic, Grand Seiko (Seiko) and Lexus (Toyota).

Date unknown

• The National Cancer Centre Singapore starts operations.
• Chinatown Point and Wheelock Place are opened.
• 261 O-Level papers are lost in transit.^[26]

Births

• 8 January – Amanda Lim, national swimmer.
• 22 January – Zhang Zetong, Mediacorp actor
• 12 February – Khaw Xinlin, influencer and actress
• 27 March – Benjamin Tan, Mediacorp actor
• 14 June – JianHao Tan, Singaporean Youtuber
• 16 June – Richie Koh, Mediacorp actor and Best Actor winner in Star Awards 2023
• 24 September – Narelle Kheng, The Sam Willows member.
• 11 October – Tasha Low, ex-Skarf member turned Singaporean actress
• 4 November - Noah Yap, actor.
• 10 November – Raeesah Khan, former politician.
• 17 November – Ayden Sng, Mediacorp actor
• 11 December – Boon Hui Lu, singer.

Deaths

• 11 January – John Le Cain, first Asian as Singapore Police Force commissioner (b. 1912).^[27]
• 15 March – Georgette Chen, painter (b. 1906).^[28]
• 3 June – Yeoh Ghim Seng, Speaker of Parliament (b. 1918).^[29]
• 5 August – Tay Eng Soon, Senior Minister of State (Education) (b. 1940).^[30]
• 1 December – John Chia Keng Hock, former footballer (b. 1913).^[31]

Notes and References

1. News: Edusave . 8 August 2019 . NLB.
2. News: NTUC Comfort to corporatise to help expansion (page 1) . 14 August 2019 . The Straits Times (retrieved from NLB) . 21 February 1993.
3. Web site: Milestones . ComfortDelGro Taxi . 14 August 2019.
4. Web site: Official opening of Senoko Incineration Plant . NAS . 1 July 2019 . 20 February 1993.
5. Web site: Bad business forces aquarium to close . The Straits Times (retrieved from NLB) . 20 October 2019 . 9 February 1993.
6. Web site: Van Kleef Aquarium . NLB . 20 October 2019 . 14 May 1991.
7. Encyclopedia: The Straits Times . Bukit Batok to have Hospital for the Elderly . 7 March 1993 .
8. News: Medisave . 8 August 2019 . NLB.
9. Web site: Backgrounder: Milestones in cross-Straits relations over 30 years. 4 July 2014. 14 July 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140714173713/http://www.gwytb.gov.cn/en/Headline/201103/t20110316_1787640.htm. dead.
10. Web site: Shaw House (Lido). NLB. 16 July 2019.
11. Web site: Official Opening of Gardenia's new bakery . NAS . 14 August 2019 . 8 June 1993.
12. Web site: Singapore hosts the 17th SEA Games. 2014. 26 May 2020. HistorySG. NLB.
13. Web site: National Heritage Board. Tan Lay Yuen. 20 July 2017. 27 May 2020. NLB. https://web.archive.org/web/20191101205328/http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_94_2005-01-27.html. 1 November 2019. live.
14. News: Matthew Pereira . Branden Pereira . MRT Trains collide at Clementi: 132 hurt . The Straits Times . 6 August 1993 . 1 & 25.
15. Web site: First MRT accident. Tan Lay Yuen. 2016. NLB. 27 May 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200131095725/https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_814_2004-12-31.html. 31 January 2020. live.
16. Web site: Elected presidency. Veronica Chee, Rajendran Munoo & Gladys Low. 15 September 2017. 27 May 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200420194410/https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_899_2004-12-24.html. 20 April 2020. live.
17. Web site: Ong Teng Cheong is the first elected president of Singapore. HistorySG. 2011. 27 May 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20191118192700/http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/history/events/a99d1364-fdfd-4a05-9f04-be0746d762d5. 18 November 2019. live.
18. Web site: Ngee Ann City. 16 July 2019 . 21 September 1993.
19. News: The Great Singapore Workout is launched . 8 August 2019 . NLB.
20. Web site: Opening of the new Woodbridge Hospital. 16 July 2019 . 30 October 1993.
21. Web site: Singapore Telecom goes public. NLB. 30 June 2019.
22. Web site: Commissioning of the Special Tactics and Rescue (STAR) Unit at the Police Training Camp . NAS . 9 September 2019 . 9 November 1993.
23. Web site: Fire Safety Act . AGC . 1 September 2019.
24. Web site: Opening of Ang Mo Kio Community Hospital . 16 July 2019 . 17 December 1993.
25. News: 1 January 1994 . CHANNEL 5 OFFICIALLY NEW LOOK. The Straits Times . 8 August 2023.
26. News: A-Level Chemistry exam papers stolen, 238 students from 4 JCs affected . 26 August 2019 . CNA . 23 February 2018 . 26 August 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190826112112/https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/a-level-chemistry-exam-papers-stolen-238-students-from-4-jcs-9984934 . dead .
27. Web site: John Le Cain . NLB . 29 October 2019. 4 July 2016.
28. Web site: Georgette Chen. NLB. 28 May 2020. 24 January 2018.
29. Web site: Wang . Hui Ling . Former Speaker Dr Yeoh dies of lung cancer at 74 . The Straits Times (retrieved from NLB) . 21 August 2022 . 4 June 1993.
30. Web site: Tay Eng Soon . NLB . 27 July 2019. 22 March 2016.
31. Web site: John Chia Keng Hock . NLB . 29 October 2019. 2011.