Dr. Emilyn Poh
Emilyn’s colourful career began with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) as a Foreign Service Officer, with key postings to the Singapore Consulate-General in Xiamen and the Singapore Consulate-General in Shanghai. It was during this time that she developed an intimate knowledge of China, its culture and its workings. She continues to maintain a close association and network with the government and business sectors in China as well as the Singapore agencies and community in China.
Emilyn is attuned to Government travel policies and has handled many high level VIP incoming and outgoing official visits. Throughout her career, she has received many foreign delegations in Singapore and her official assignments has brought her to places that include Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Seychelles, Mauritius, Mozambique, Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bhutan and China with several Singapore Cabinet Ministers.
On another front, Emilyn was extensively involved under the Singapore Cooperation Programme, formulating capacity building training programmes for government officials of various countries. She worked closely with International Organisations like the Worldbank, IMF, UNDP, UNICEF, WIPO, ADB, Commonwealth Secretariat, Hans Seidel Foundation, as well as Overseas Development Assistant Agencies of various countries such as JICA, AUSAID, CIDA, Norway, etc. helping these organizations develop and design training content for various recipient countries. This is where she developed a good understanding of the local training scene in Singapore and worked closely with many strategic training agencies such as Civil Service College, Singapore Cooperation Enterprise, Civil Aviation Academy, ITE, PSB Academy, LTA Academy, Nanyang Polytechnic, etc. for the implementation of government funded training programmes for developing countries. Given her years of experience with the Singapore Cooperation Programme, she has also developed a wide network with government officials from all over the world who attended as recipient countries’ participants.
During her service in the public sector, she was also extensively involved in various aspect of public governance. This included the management of Singapore government’s service rendered to overseas Singaporeans, administration and operation of overseas Missions, public service delivery, Singapore’s PS21 initiative, employment and management of locally recruited staff, formulation of administrative guidelines, preparation of SOPs and administrative manuals and even the setting up of a Travel Planning and Management Section in MFA.
Due to her strong interest in civil service training and delegation management, she has given up her much envied diplomatic career of 12 years to join the call in the Export of Public Civil Capabilities (X-PSC). Emilyn is now the Director (Project Development) for World.Sg Pte Ltd, a company which is set up to provide training, programme development & consultancy services to government agencies in Singapore to assist them in enhancing all aspects of their capacity in receiving delegations from overseas. She is concurrently also an Associate Trainer with the Singapore Civil Service College, the Singapore Cooperation Enterprise and the Nanyang Technology University of Singapore. She conducts training for both Singapore government officials and international participants. Emilyn graduated from the National University of Singapore with an Honours Degree in Geography.
She is concurrently also an Associate Trainer with several training institutes in Singapore. She conducts training for both Singapore government officials and international participants. Emilyn graduated from the National University of Singapore with an Honours Degree in Geography. She also has a PHD in Sociology.