Lim Kim San

Lim Kim San (30 November 1916 - 20 July 2006) was known to have led a public housing program to tackle the acute housing shortage problem in Singapore in the early 1960s.

Due to rapidly increasing population at that time, more than 400,000 people were living in over-crowded conditions which were often unsafe, un-sanitized and without any amenities. Lim Kim San was appointed the Housing and Development Board (HDB) that carried out massive construction of high-rise, low-cost apartments for the city.

In the first 5 years, HDB achieved its goal of completing 51,000 units of low-cost housing by 1965. The largest project completed was Queenstown, a satellite town of more than 17,500 apartments housing close to 150,000 people. In this and other neighborhoods, the theme was to create a mostly self-sufficient neighbourhood or town to reduce the need to have to go out of the neighbourhood for routine needs. To suit this, amenities were provided including community centers, markets and shopping centers, health clinics, children’s playgrounds, sports facilities, and schools.

In June 1962, Mr Lim was awarded the State's highest honor, the Darjah Utama Temasek (Order of Temasek). In September 1963, he stood for election to the Singapore Legislative Assembly from the Cairnhill constituency, winning by a large majority. In October that same year, he was appointed as Minister for National Development. After Singapore's independence in 1965, he served as Minister for Finance for 2 years, then became the Minister for the Interior and Defence for 3 years. Subsequent to that between 1971 and 1978, he was the chairman of the Public Utilities Board (PUB). He then chaired the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) from 1979 to 1994.

He will be remembered as one of the founding fathers of modern Singapore.