MFA Press Statement: Presentation of Credentials Ceremony, 25 January 2018

The following foreign Heads of Mission presented their credentials to President Halimah Yacob in separate ceremonies at the Istana today:

(a) The Ambassador of the Republic of the Philippines

His Excellency Joseph Del Mar Yap

(b) The Ambassador of the Republic of Belarus

His Excellency Valery Kolesnik

Their bio summaries are appended.

. . . . .

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

SINGAPORE

25 JANUARY 2018

==================

JOSEPH DEL MAR YAP

Prior to his appointment as Ambassador to Singapore, His Excellency Joseph Del Mar Yap served as the Special Envoy of the Philippine President to the Republic of Singapore from December 2016 to June 2017. He was the President and CEO of various companies under Filinvest Development Corporation, one of the largest conglomerates in the Philippines that has interests in banking, property development, real estate, power generation, agriculture and hospitality. Ambassador Yap holds a Bachelor of Science (with Honours) in Management Engineering from the Ateneo de Manila University. He also obtained a Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the HarvardBusiness School. Ambassador Yap is from the Province of Cebu, Philippines. He is married to Lourdes Josephine Gotianun Yap and they have three children.

VALERY KOLESNIK

Prior to his appointment as Ambassador to Singapore, Mr Valery Kolesnik served as Head of Department of Foreign Trade Policy at the Belarus Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Kolesnik also previously served as Belarus’ Ambassador to Turkey, with concurrent accreditation to Iraq.Mr Kolesnik has a wide experience in international security and multilateral arms control issues. He represented Belarus in the Belarus-Japan Committee on the Non-proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Mr Kolesnik graduated from the Military Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Federation in 1994, and the Academy of Public Administration of Belarus in 2016.