Yes. Under Section 171 of the Singapore Companies Act 1967 every Singapore Registered Private Limited company shall have one or more Singapore company secretaries each of whom shall be a natural person and his or her principal place of residence must be in Singapore.

The company secretary must be appointed within six months of incorporation.  If at some point the company secretary chooses to leave the company, this position should not be vacant for more than six months at any one time. The sole director of a company and the company secretary cannot be the same person.

Yes, the Singapore company secretary is considered an officer of the company and his or her name must be registered with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) records. A company secretary mandates the similar fiduciary duties to the company directors and must always act in the best interests of the company and avoid or disclose any possible conflicts that may arise.

In general, the Company Secretary maintains and updates the Company’s statutory registers; preparation of agenda and minutes of meetings of directors and shareholders; keep the company and its directors aware of the deadlines such as Annual General Meetings (AGM) and Annual Returns (AR) filing; attend to the appropriate electronic filings with the ACRA for change of company particulars, officers, company shares, such as the transfer of shares, issue of shares and maintaining of the shareholders’ register as well as other compliance matters with regards to The Companies Act 1967.