New GPC for Culture, Community & Youth from Nov 1

From 1 November, there'll be a new Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for Culture, Community and Youth. 

It will be helmed by Tampines GRC MP Baey Yam Keng who's currently the deputy chair of the GPC for Information, Communications and the Arts.

First-term MP David Ong will be Mr Baey's deputy. 

Two other GPCs will also be renamed - as Social and Family Development, and Communications and Information. 

This comes on the back of the Cabinet changes announced earlier by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to set up the new Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY); and restructure MCYS to the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF); and MICA to the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI). 

Chua Chu Kang MP Zaqy Mohamad will helm the GPC for Communications and Information, with Mr Baey as his deputy. 

While MPs Seah Kian Peng and Denise Phua will remain as chairman and deputy respectively of the GPC for Social and Family Development. 

The GPC concept is an initiative by the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) first mooted by Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong in 1987 when he was the Deputy Prime Minister. 

The GPCs serve as a feedback mechanism for government policies and programmes. 

They also provide a platform for PAP backbenchers to engage a diverse range of stakeholders, offer fresh perspectives on policy matters, and champion issues they feel strongly about. 

The PAP says the GPCs play an important role in helping to improve and shape government policies.