Finance Minister Richard Hu was Singapore’s Longest-Serving Finance Minister

Former Cabinet Minister and former Finance Minister Richard Hu Tsu Tau passed away on 8 September 2023. 

He was 96 years of age. 

His passing was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who posted on Facebook offering his condolences to the family of Dr Hu. 

Exceptional Contributions to Our Nation with a Heart for the People

In the post, Mr Wong acknowledged Dr Hu’s contributions as “our longest serving Finance Minister.”

“He stewarded our finances well and provided a steady hand to steer our economy through the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis,” Mr Wong wrote. 

As Mr Wong mentioned in his post, while serving as the fifth Finance Minister for Singapore, he was also a director on the boards of both the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Government Investment Corporation (GIC) as he “provided exceptional service to the two organisations, always fulfilling his duties with professionalism and grace.”

Mr Wong, who is currently also holding the position of Finance Minister, said that Dr Hu was the Finance Minister when he first joined the Ministry of Finance in 1999. 

He recalled when he was working on a Budget, and Dr Hu asked them to “get information on the prices of some key essential items at the wet market, so as to get a better feel of the cost of living pressures that people were experiencing then.”