He is a former vice-president of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), a component party of the then-ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.
Fong received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.
He went on to receive his MBA and PhD in Operations Research/Industrial Economics from University of Rochester, New York.
He began his career in the civil service as an engineer at the Kuala Lumpur Telecommunications Department.
He later joined the Faculty of Economics and Administration at the University of Malaya, rising to become Dean in 1990.