Budget 2017 Speech by SMS Desmond Lee: Building A Better Home, Better Future

Mar 7, 2017

Mister Chairman,

Achieving our Vision of a Biophilic City

Cities with the size and density of Singapore tend to be jungles of concrete, glass and steel. People have to travel out of the city to connect with nature.

As a city-state, we have taken quite a different approach, from day one. Our nature reserves, and the nature parks that buffer them, are green gems in the heart of the city.

Biodiversity hotspots are connected through urban areas by nature parks, nature ways, and lush streetscape greenery. Nature envelops our urban city completely, as greenery courses through the veins of our cityscape, and now, up our skyline. Being in such close proximity to nature, there is so much that Wild Singapore can offer us.

As Ms Ria Tan, one nature advocate, often says, and I quote, “Singapore is probably the only place in the world where one can visit a rainforest, a mangrove and a coral reef, all within half an hour from the city”.

Proximity to nature, however, means increased human-wildlife interactions and the potential for conflict.

Today, Singapore is recognised by experts and academics as a Biophilic City, where nature and greenery are integral to our design and planning.

As Minister Lawrence Wong said earlier, we have the opportunity to take things to the next level, where people learn to co-exist more harmoniously with our natural heritage and wildlife.

This can only be achieved through extensive outreach and education, and by different stakeholders working together as stewards of our natural heritage, and adopting a scientific approach to managing urban ecologies.

MND will work closely with our nature groups and animal welfare groups, as well as our Friends of the Park communities, and find opportunities in the course of the year to share more of our thoughts with fellow Singaporeans.

Let me now address Members’ cuts on greenery and the environment.

Many stakeholders have played a part in greening our city. So I join Mr Darryl David in affirming the efforts of our landscape architecture industry.

NParks collaborates with the Singapore Institute of Landscape Architects, or SILA, to establish industry best practices. It supports SILA’s accreditation programme through workshops and seminars in horticulture and landscaping, for continuous professional development.

NParks also partners SILA and the Landscape Industry Association of Singapore, LIAS, to organise international trade shows and conferences, and promote knowledge sharing and showcase industry development.

Ms Low Yen Ling asked about the Rail Corridor. In May, URA will share the design for the 4 km stretch of the Corridor, from Bukit Timah Railway Station to Hillview Road. This stretch is rich in greenery and heritage. Work will begin in 2018.

To prepare for this, URA will launch a 400m test track along Choa Chu Kang Road later this year, to test possible types of surface material that may be used for the Rail Corridor trail, while retaining its rustic character. We will invite public feedback to help us assess their suitability for the Corridor.

When this 4km stretch is completed, residents can look forward to a trail that people of all ages and abilities can use, and basic amenities such as toilets, drinking fountains and bicycle rentals.

Dr Lim Wee Kiak asked about the Sembawang hot springs. NParks will grow the area sensitively into a park, enhancing greenery while retaining its rustic character. Work will start at the end of this year. NParks will continue to gather more feedback from the community and residents on design. The park will be completed by the end of 2018.

Ms Cheng Li Hui asked about the impact of oil spills, algal blooms and global warming on our marine biodiversity. We have recently just answered a PQ on the issue of algal blooms and oil spills, but in addition to what we’ve answered previously, climate change is indeed raising sea temperatures, contributing to algal blooms and ocean acidification.

To manage the impact, NParks is working with academia and environmental interest groups to enhance the resilience of our marine ecosystems. Studies show that this is the best way to help our ecosystems withstand and recover from the impact of climate change, including algal blooms.

Opportunity for Transformation in the Built Environment sector

Let me now turn to our urban environment.

Our pioneers in the built environment sector have built up our world class infrastructure. But things are never static. We need to look at new ways to construct our future City.

We want our built environment sector to be technologically advanced, coordinated across the entire construction value chain, and be supported by a highly skilled workforce with a strong Singaporean PMET core.

So just imagine – at the design stage, all stakeholders of the value chain coming together and cooperating to work on a detailed, coordinated digital 3D model of the project.

This means bringing in contractors at the design stage so that the model will be close to what will eventually be built. This reduces abortive work and wastage downstream. The digital model will then be sent to a one-stop portal for co-ordinated regulatory approvals, and rule-based automated checking can speed this up.

Er Lee Bee Wah spoke about her concerns about early contractor involvement, which I’ve just mentioned as being one possible way to create a detailed 3D model of a project.

For those who are not familiar, early contractor involvement is a kind of procurement method where contractors are engaged early, in fact, right up front, to provide inputs into the design of a project. For traditional procurement, contractors will bid for a project based on a fixed design and they cannot influence the design upfront.

In contrast, ECI allows the inputs of contractors to be incorporated at design stage. As I said, this reduces abortive work and leads to potential time and cost savings for the project. So contractors do need to commit more resources for ECI as they are expected to develop detailed design solutions.

That said, BCA’s guide on ECI limits the number of tenderers under ECI to a maximum of five. This seeks to strike a balance between giving good tender options to ensure value for money and good design, while increasing the opportunities of winning the bids for tenderers.

In addition, tenderers are compensated for their efforts to come up with concept designs submitted for the ECI tenders, even if they are unsuccessful. So as part of an effort to bring design in a detailed fashion upstream, we have to strike a balance.

The construction process will become more like manufacturing. The approved plans will be sent to suppliers in highly automated Integrated Construction and Prefabrication Hubs, or ICPHs. Once completed, DfMA or Design for Manufacturing & Assembly components will be sent, just-in-time, to be assembled on-site.

Now I just ask Members to watch a very short video which will show you what DfMA is all about, and what we are aspiring to achieve. This transformation, if successful, will create good PMET jobs for Singaporeans.

It is a bold vision. We are excited about it. But getting there is challenging, especially in times of economic uncertainty. In 2016, the built environment sector had around $26 billion of building and civil engineering contracts, $1 billion less than 2015. We expect between $28B to $35B in contracts to be awarded this year. But private sector demand is expected to remain subdued.

Earlier, Er. Lee and Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked how we can help construction firms during this period. The Government will push out a strong pipeline of major infrastructure projects in the next few years. This includes Tengah HDB town, LTA’s Circle Line 6, Changi Airport Terminal 5 and more. We expect public sector demand to make up 70% of overall construction demand this year.

To put things in perspective, in 2012, five years ago, the public sector demand accounted for about 30% of overall construction demand, with private sector taking up 70%. And in 2017 and over the next few years, we might expect this ratio to flip around with the public sector accounting for about 70% of overall demand.

In addition, as announced by the Finance Minister during the Budget, we will bring forward $700mil in public infrastructure projects, to start construction this year and next. These will be smaller projects, like upgrading community clubs, sports facilities and neighbourhood police posts and centres, which our small and medium-sized firms can bid for.

We will also encourage public agencies to parcel out larger projects into smaller ones, where appropriate. This will help diversify risks and enable more local firms to participate.

In the long run, the best thing we can do is to help our local companies remain competitive by strengthening their capabilities and improving their productivity. Our Construction Productivity and Capability Fund, or CPCF, subsidises this process, to help our firms level up. We will monitor if more measures are needed.

This period of uncertainty is a reminder that we need to strengthen our Built Environment sector by becoming more productive and future-ready. This is why we have been partnering the industry at every step of the way, especially when it comes to improving productivity.

Our efforts since the first Construction Productivity Roadmap in 2010 have yielded results. Almost $800 million has been made available to firms through the Construction Productivity and Capability Fund (CPCF). At end 2016, some $450 million of the CPCF has been committed, benefitting more than 9,000 firms. Around 90% of these firms are SMEs.

One local contractor, Teambuild Engineering & Construction, tapped on CPCF funding to develop a new prototype for Concrete Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction (Concrete PPVC) that can be better used for high rise buildings. They are piloting the prototype at a residential project. This new system can potentially improve productivity by up to 40%.

So we will continue to assist firms through various funding schemes. These funds are for them to apply for, seize, in order to innovate.

In tandem, our workers are becoming more skilled. Nearly 40% of construction workers are now at the higher skilled R1 level. It was only 20% in 2014, and just 2% in 2011. To sustain this momentum, BCA will consult the industry to review the minimum R1 requirements at firm level. We encourage firms to tap on government subsidized funding schemes to upgrade their workers.

Our annual site productivity, which measures work done per man-day, has also improved by 2% per year from 2014 to 2016. Compare this to a mere 0.3% per year in 2010. But we aim to achieve 2.5% to 4% annual site productivity improvements from now till 2020.

Push towards DfMA

To achieve our productivity targets, we encourage the industry to adopt prefabrication technologies along the Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) continuum. DfMA has many benefits. Off-site construction requires less labour on-site and shortens project time. There is less noise and dust.

As Er Dr Lee Bee Wah pointed out, DfMA is not just about Pre-fabricated Pre-finished Volumetric Construction (PPVC). There is a broad spectrum to choose from, including, as you can see from the slide, Mass Engineered Timber (MET), advanced pre-cast, structural steel and other DfMA technologies.

We are looking to pilot a Government Land Sales (GLS) site, that will specify construction productivity outcomes without mandating specific technologies. This will give firms the flexibility to propose suitable technologies to meet the productivity outcomes.

To help increase our supply resilience for DfMA technologies, we will provide incentives to help more firms set up DfMA manufacturing facilities locally. We will extend the Land Intensification Allowance (LIA) scheme to cover the construction of Integrated Construction and Prefabrication Hubs (ICPHs). ICPHs are high density and highly-automated factories that manufacture DfMA components. You saw a short video of this earlier.

Currently, we have four sites for ICPHs. We will be launching more in the coming years. The scheme will provide tax relief on the capital investment needed to develop ICPHs. We will share more details of this later.

We know that there is a cost premium with DfMA technologies that our industry needs to ride out. To help lower this premium, the public sector will continue to take the lead to generate demand.

As announced in the Budget, we will implement the $150 mil Public Sector Construction Productivity Fund to offset the premium for adopting DfMA technologies for public projects. This will allow us to roll out more tenders to benefit progressive builders.

For example, some of MOE’s upcoming sports halls will include the use of Mass Engineered Timber (MET). Some of JTC’s industrial premises will use structural steel.

Industry Transformation Map (ITM)

To accelerate the transformation of our Built Environment sector, we will be working closely with the industry on a Construction Industry Transformation Map (ITM). We have consulted extensively and will continue to do so. While still a work-in-progress, some preliminary ideas are to further adopt DfMA technology, do more digital engineering, and encourage firms to internationalize to have access to new markets.

Digital technology in Construction

The Government will take the lead in adopting digital technology in the built environment sector. We need to act swiftly to harness these benefits, or we will be left behind. In fact, recently I met some executives from the built environment firm which have ventured overseas. They said that they benefited from the regulatory requirement to use BIM in Singapore and felt that it would be a competitive advantage. But when they went to these overseas markets, firms from that market were already using digital technologies, BIM, even though the regulators in that country were not BIM-enabled, had no rules mandating it, did not know what to do with the BIM models. In fact, the foreign firms had to dumb down their 3D models into 2D designs to submit as regulatory submissions. And yet, these firms overseas, without compulsion, saw the competitive edge that BIM and digital technologies offered them in their own market and around the world.

That is why our ITM has initiatives to increase the adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Virtual Design and Construction (VDC). So look at this slide – it is a virtual design and construction project, Mapletree Business City 2. In fact, if you have visit the BCA virtual laboratory and put on 3D goggles like what the firms do, you will literally be able to walk through the entire building room to room, and be able to build virtually first and then build on site in reality. This helps prevent abortive work downstream as architects, engineers and contractors can identify and fix problems before construction starts. We are also improving implementation on the ground.

We hear from Er Dr Lee Bee Wah that BIM models are sometimes less useful because they lack the information required for construction planning. So the architects put up one set to meet the regulatory requirements but they do not have enough information in the BIM model and as a result, the contractors have had to redo everything because they have to look at it from the construction angle.

BCA is working with the industry to bridge this gap by developing a Code of Practice (COP). This COP will set out what the architects and engineers need to include in the model to make it more useful in a collaborative fashion. BCA is piloting the COP at a few projects to refine it, and will formally launch the Code of Practice sometime at the end of this year.

To help our firms take up BIM and VDC, we will continue to provide funding support for collaborative BIM projects. We encourage firms to apply for these generous schemes. We need to build up industry capabilities in BIM and VDC. We encourage our firms to send their employees to attend BIM and VDC training at the BCA Academy. We subsidise these courses heavily too.

To complement the submission of building plans via BIM, we will upgrade and re-develop the CORENET e-submission platform to make the process easier to use. New features will include rule-based automated checking software. This will improve service delivery and achieve higher productivity.

I am happy that younger generation professionals in the built environment sector seem to be embracing digital technologies, BIM and VDC. I met Ms Eunice Chen at BCA’s Young Leaders Retreat in November last year. She started off as an architect. She recently upgraded herself by pursuing a Master of Science in Real Estate in NUS. Currently, as a Project Manager in Far East Organization, she is working with a team of consultants using BIM for a commercial project in Woodlands.

Information technology, digital technology like BIM and VDC opens up exciting and better opportunities for our millennials. In fact, I meet from time to time, the young leaders of the built environment sector – young architects, young engineers, young QSes, and they share with me how they look forward to this transformation and how technology can be used to bring our future city to a different level. And for these young millennials, they take to technology like fish and water. So, in a sense, this process will take time and move with the generations.

Internationalisation

In the long run, growing our built environment means looking beyond our shores. As Er. Lee said, there is a limit to what we can build here. But as the region develops, there will be increasing demand for sophisticated infrastructure. Our companies can help meet this demand.

To venture overseas, companies need scale and niche competencies. The government will help the industry achieve these aims as much as we can. Companies that wish to expand abroad may lack sufficient capital and overseas contacts. They may be unfamiliar with overseas markets and regulations. These are serious issues, so we have formed an internationalisation Taskforce with public and private sector representatives, to study ways where we can provide support.

The Taskforce will identify synergies across the Construction, Real Estate, Security, Environmental Services and Landscape sectors to see if our companies can band together and provide integrated services. In fact, during one of our sub-committee meetings, one member of the built environment sector and industry player said that “well, how big a fish can you grow in Singapore?” Certainly, we can be nimble, sophisticated, productive. But while we cannot be big fish competing overseas, we could perhaps go as a school of fish, integrating across different sectors, different members of the value chain going overseas under the Singapore branding and competing effectively. We will update this House on the results when ready.

Taken together, these moves bring us closer to realising our vision of a productive and progressive sector that provides good jobs for Singaporeans.

Rejuvenating our Estates

Sir, Minister Lawrence Wong earlier described how our new HDB developments continue to push the frontier in terms of design, sustainability and liveability. For existing estates, we also need to constantly rejuvenate them so they remain vibrant and liveable.

First, at town level, the Remaking Our Heartland 3 (ROH3) programme adopts a ground-up consultative approach to conceptualise the rejuvenation of existing towns.

Under ROH3, we are now refining the proposals for Woodlands, Pasir Ris and Toa Payoh based on the earlier round of feedback from 400 residents and local stakeholders.

For instance, in Woodlands, there will be a new ‘Community Nexus’ located at the Admiralty MRT station that will serve as a ‘one-stop’ hub of amenities for the residents, comprising new and existing facilities such as Kampung Admiralty, the Admiralty Place Neighbourhood Centre and the Woodlands Galaxy Community Club.

In Pasir Ris, residents can look forward to an enhanced walking and cycling experience, with more facilities and greenery along key connections in the town.

At Toa Payoh, the familiar “Ring Road”, formed by Lorong 1 and Lorong 6 Toa Payoh will be enlivened, with cycling paths to link facilities and transport nodes, and pocket parks to provide rest points and gathering spaces.

We will soon be holding public exhibitions in April and May this year where everyone can view the initial plans and provide another round of feedback.

Second, at the neighbourhood level, the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme (NRP) will continue to facilitate estate rejuvenation, focusing on precinct and block level improvements.

We also enhanced the Revitalisation of Shops (ROS) Scheme last year to help neighbourhood shops in the HDB heartlands rejuvenate. Responses from HDB shop keepers and the Merchants’ Associations have been positive. The number of applications for ROS upgrading works last year was the highest we have seen, since the scheme was introduced in 2007.

Third, at the individual home level, we will finalise the selection of the approximately 70,000 remaining flats eligible for the Home Improvement Programme (HIP). By the end of the programme, more than 300,000 flats built up to 1986 will benefit.

Maintenance – Lifts, Facades and Greenery

So far, we have spoken about the building of our future city, design of new estates, and the rejuvenation of existing towns.

An equally important but less frequently talked about aspect of our work is the active maintenance of our city, our estates and our infrastructure, as they age.

Maintainability should be an important consideration in building design. HDB, for example, takes into account maintenance considerations upfront in the design of BTO and upgrading projects, with a focus on (i) design and detailing, (ii) materials and finishes, and (iii) access for maintainability.

As our infrastructure ages, we will need to spend more on maintenance and replacement. Often, we focus on building and building more, but do not recognise enough the very long tail of maintenance, replacement and repair. We will need to manage this. A good example is the maintenance of lifts. As with all machinery, lifts need to be maintained regularly. They have a limited life span before they need to be replaced. Lift owners, Town Councils and the lift maintenance industry all have a part to play in keeping our lifts reliable and safe.

We have taken active steps on two fronts. First, we recently introduced a set of new grants and measures to provide additional financial support for Town Councils, specifically for lift maintenance. These include the new Lift Maintenance Grant, 50% matching of Town Councils’ contributions to their Lift Replacement Funds (LRF), and the new Lift Enhancement Programme to retrofit some 20,000 older lifts with additional safety features. All in, this additional financial support to Town Councils will come up to more than $100 million a year, or over $1 billion, over the next ten years. Second, we have enhanced BCA’s regulatory regime to strengthen our oversight of lifts. Third, we are also working with the industry to ensure a competent and sustainable lift maintenance workforce. These include building up technical competencies, attracting more locals to the sector, and improving productivity by encouraging the adoption of new technologies.

On a related note, Mr Faisal Manap suggested that better heat insulation for lift shafts that are exposed to direct sunlight be provided. And he highlighted certain shafts in his estates. I do not have exact details, but we will follow up on them. Generally, to mitigate the heat built up in lift shafts, an insulation layer is incorporated in the cladding for all lifts. The lift cars are also designed to be well ventilated with mechanical fans to improve the air quality and to purge trapped heat when the car doors open.

For lift shafts that are exposed to direct sunlight, additional measures such as increasing the capacity of the mechanical fans or programming the lift cars to allow the lift doors to remain open when not in use can be adopted. I do not know the details for Mr Faisal Manap, we will follow up.

Another aspect of maintenance we have been looking at is our building facades all across the city. Presently, BCA requires building owners to ensure that their buildings, including exterior features like windows and air-conditioning units, are properly maintained. BCA can require rectification if maintenance is poor.

For HDB blocks, while maintenance of facades comes under the purview of the Town Councils, HDB has in place several measures to assist them, such as the co-payment scheme since 2004 for the repair of facade finishes, audit inspection checks by HDB officers, and conducting technical training for all Town Councils twice a year since 2010.

Through normal wear and tear, older facades will need added maintenance, and we are looking into enhancing the regulatory framework on facades, for both public and private buildings, to ensure that facades and exterior features are well-maintained, regularly inspected and remain properly secured.

Sir, maintaining our city includes checking and maintaining also our greenery, a point that Mr Dennis Tan points out. This is important for us, as a City-in-a-Garden, with some 7 million trees around the island.

The number of tree failures has dropped around three-fold from 2001 to 2016, with the introduction of NParks’ comprehensive tree management programme. So, the numbers are from about 3,000 cases of tree failures a year in 2001 to over 800 cases in 2016, against the backdrop of 7 million trees in total – 2 million along streetscapes and parks that NParks specifically focuses on. But we are deeply saddened each time such incidents cause injury or loss of life.

Behind the scenes, NParks officers and contractors work hard to ensure that trees are healthy and safe. NParks has a comprehensive tree management programme that includes a regime of inspections and pruning. This is aligned with international standards. Tree inspection is carried out only by certified professionals and records are digitalised to facilitate information retrieval and to ensure that trees under NParks are checked and maintained according to schedule. This system also enables NParks to zoom in on, and pre-emptively replace, storm-vulnerable trees.

For fatal incidents, NParks will assist the Police Investigation Officer (IO) in his/her investigation. Independent arborists may also be engaged by NParks.

Given the more unpredictable weather conditions, NParks has stepped up inspections and taken measures to improve the general health of our trees. These include routine mulching to supplement the application of fertilisers, and pruning techniques to improve tree structure and balance. NParks is also developing modelling techniques to better understand the structural behaviour of trees under heavy rain and wind and also in micro-climatic conditions.

Mr Pritam Singh has suggested that we review tree replacement guidelines in mature HDB estates and he has articulated various examples that his town council had encountered. When trees need to be removed, HDB seeks to ensure that existing levels of greenery are generally maintained. Hence his reference to the tree replacement ratios. These tree replacement guidelines therefore take into consideration the size and amount of shade provided by the affected tree.

HDB works closely with NParks to identify appropriate tree species for residential estates, and takes into account existing site conditions such as available planting space and proximity to residential blocks. NParks and HDB are also mindful that when you plant trees in the estates, you also need to take care of its impact on residents, such as falling leaves, branches, insects, birds and tree roots.

Town Councils can also propose alternative replacement tree species for HDB to consider. In general, the tree species should suit the existing landscaping and site conditions, take into account residents’ considerations and provide sufficient shade and be easy to maintain. At times, tree removal is necessary if the tree poses a risk to public safety, or when trees are affected by new developments, upgrading or construction works.

HDB’s approval is required for all tree removal requests in HDB estates, except when it is assessed that a tree may fall at any moment. In such cases, the Town Council should remove the tree first without HDB’s prior approval, and report the matter to HDB. These guidelines have served HDB well thus far, but we will bear the Member’s concern in mind.

Others

Let me briefly address the remaining cuts.

Er Lee Bee Wah asked for more heavy vehicle parking in Yishun. On a nation-wide basis, the 43,000 heavy vehicle parking lots greatly exceed the 33,000 heavy vehicles registered with LTA. The issue is not at a national level, the issue is at a local level, as the Member is well aware.

In Yishun, there are 1,270 lots of which 866 are public lots. As the public lots are near residential areas, they are heavily subscribed with about 250 applicants in the waitlist. It is not possible to fully meet the demand for overnight parking of heavy vehicles through public heavy vehicle parks that are in or near residential areas, as this is likely to pose nuisance and traffic hazards to residents, especially the elderly and the young.

Instead, we are ramping up the number of heavy vehicle parking lots within private industrial developments, we do so whenever we launch such sites, including those in the northern part of Singapore, such as Yishun. In addition, heavy vehicle owners should provide transport arrangements for their drivers if they cannot help them find a lot near their drivers’ homes, and we are actively looking at measures to achieve this

Mr Louis Ng has suggested various ways to facilitate short-term rentals. His point is do not kill innovation, embrace it, go with the flow. But on our part we also have to balance various interests, those who wish to ride on the new sharing economy, and also those who have a right to enjoy peace and quiet in their home environment.

During the recent amendments to the Planning Act, the Minister for National Development had mentioned plans to allow such short-term rentals subject to appropriate conditions and safeguards. URA will be putting out the details on this soon and will seek further feedback and inputs from stakeholders before finalising the regulations.

Dr Tan Wu Meng spoke about flexibility in the implementation of the Minimum Occupancy Period (MOP) to support young Singaporeans taking on overseas postings. As HDB flats are meant for owner-occupation, flat owners have to fulfil a MOP before they can sublet their whole flat. But HDB recognizes that there are some who may need to go overseas for a period of time for work or other reasons, and who may not have met the MOP. And HDB will exercise flexibility on a case-by-case basis.

Mr Png Eng Huat raised some concerns about the impact of privatisation of HUDC estates in Hougang. I do not have all the details of each of these concerns that he and his residents face, so we will look into those. But I understand that for Hougang Ave 7, and this is what available information that I have, understand the Member has raised this specific issue to HDB. HDB is currently looking into options to construct a footpath for the residents, where feasible. If the Member has further questions or issues to raise, please surface to us.

But at a broader level and in general, when we issue or launch GLS sites located near to residential and HDB estates, URA does include in its tender specifications a requirement for the developer to, where feasible, provide connections to transport nodes, such as bus stops or MRT stations, that are accessible to the public. So imagine if there’s a grass field that becomes a GLS site and there’s a pathway that people normally use to get quickly to markets or to MRT stations, during the GLS site launch, where feasible, we will put back the right of way in some form as a condition.

On Ms Sylvia Lim’s query on how public building names are approved, and to what extent donors can insist on naming rights. I like to share that the Street and Building Names Board (SBNB) oversees the approval of names of buildings, estates and streets in Singapore.

For a select group of public buildings, such as education institutes under the Ministry of Education, military installations under the Ministry of Defence, community sports facilities under Sport Singapore, the relevant government agencies need not seek the Board’s approval for the naming, and they will have their policies on the naming of such institutions.

But in general, in approving building names, the agencies ensure the proposed names are appropriate in the context of what the building is, where it is located, and what it is used for. In addition, the selected name should seek to reflect the character of the place. The societal, historical and cultural context of the surroundings are also important considerations. Some public buildings may be named after organisations or foundations to recognise significant philanthropic or other contributions to Singapore.

Generally, when assessing the suitability of a name, the relevant Government agency will assess the credibility and reputation of the proposed name and check to ensure that it does not undermine associated interests and larger identity of the named public building. Financial contribution do not automatically warrant a naming opportunity and the Government retains the naming rights of public buildings, roads and other key public infrastructure.

Closing

Our community and industry have been invaluable partners in creating and sustaining our Biophilic City. In transforming our built environment sector, the Government will continue to take the lead, and assist our businesses in making the transition. In rejuvenating our estates, we are taking active steps to involve the community, and we will continue to step up our maintenance efforts and regulatory regimes to enhance the living environment for all Singaporeans. With these efforts, we look forward to an even more exciting living environment, as well as a bright future for Singaporeans of all ages and abilities.