Speech by Minister Lawrence Wong at the Growth Net Summit in New Delhi

Jun 19, 2018

I’m very happy to join you this evening at this year’s Growth Net Summit to talk about smart cities. And since we are on the subject of smart cities, I will be showing some slides and pictures because there is nothing like seeing to believe.

A smart city is now the latest buzzword in urban development and countries everywhere are embarking on smart city efforts.

All of you know that India has embarked on a mission to build 100 smart cities, and Singapore is collaborating with India to build one of them – Amaravati - which is to be the new capital city of Andhra Pradesh.

We are also cooperating on other technological fronts including in e-payments. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Singapore recently and he launched RuPay, as well as other electronic payment apps in Singapore. He had used RuPay to buy a painting in Singapore, so it works. Indian visitors in Singapore can use your RuPay cards for payments in Singapore and very soon Singaporeans here in India will be able to use our equivalent cash or debit cards for payment. This is one example of how technology will bring conveniences to daily lives for people, and also bring our two countries together.

When he was in Singapore, Prime Minister Modi generously described Singapore as a city that never fails to inspire. He said that Singapore has shown that size is not a barrier to the scale or the strength of the nation’s voice in the world. We are very honoured by his comments, and in some ways his remarks proved to be quite prescient because a few days later, Singapore hosted the America-North Korea summit. And I think we showed the world that we are a credible and trusted partner, that we have the capabilities of organising a complex operation at short notice. And that even as a small island state, we can do our part to contribute to the process for peace and stability in the Korean peninsula.

We are proud of what we have achieved in Singapore, but we also recognise that much more still needs to be done. There are high expectations of us and we have high standards to deliver. We often think of cities as buildings, hardware, and infrastructure. But cities can also be thought of as living organisms. And in nature, it is about the survival of the fittest. Likewise, cities must evolve and adapt to survive in an ever changing world. There is no such thing as status quo. We are either improving or we are declining and going backwards. We are very mindful of this in Singapore because we have only one city. And that is our country. So for Singapore, this is an existential issue.

When we became independent in 1965, our founding Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew, made a promise that we would transform from a mudflat swamp to a metropolis, and this is what we have achieved over the years. Now, we are continuing the journey to build an even better city, a smart nation for the future. So today, let me share with you some of our experiences in this journey to be a Smart Nation.

First, we are harnessing technology to enhance urban planning in Singapore. The basic tools that are needed for urban and master planning are straightforward – you need your base maps, geographical data, land use surveys. These all used to be paper based, so you have reams of paper, the planners will bring them together; they will look at the maps and start doing their planning work. All of that can now be digitised, and can be made widely available to planners and architects. It allows for more detailed planning, more rigorous assessments, and even visualisation of what plans would look like even before the building process begins. So we have put all this information into a centralised platform. It is used by government agencies from planning and policy making, for operations and management, and it has proven to be very useful.

Better planning must translate to better design to new housing estates and urban centres, and this is indeed what we are doing in Singapore too. If you look at the map of Singapore, the core area - our downtown Central Business District - is in the southern-most part of Singapore. But we have plans to develop new urban centres all around our island on the east, west and northern parts of Singapore. Each one anchored by economic activities, so that we can spread out the distribution of jobs all over the island. It doesn’t have to be concentrated only in the business district. And people can live closer to where they work. So this is the plan that we are embarking on over the coming decade.

In one of the new areas, we are building a new digital district, where there will be more integrated mixed-used developments, or commercial, residential and high tech companies. And this will be a vibrant place where people can live, work and play; you are putting in affordable and quality homes, as well as good amenities and facilities close to home, and as an example of new developments that are taking place even in Singapore today because we are constantly improving and developing new areas.

Another very useful benefit of using technology for planning, is the ability to do more comprehensive underground planning. And given the limited land in Singapore, we are just 700 hundred square kilometres, I think you will appreciate that this is something very important for us. So we say in Singapore that underground is our next frontier. It is not quite going to outer space, we can get there one day, but for now we are exploring the space beneath us. And technology allows us to do very detailed planning of the geological space underground. This is a map of the underground space in our downtown centre in marina bay, where with technology, we have been able to map it out, and we have put in place a common services tunnel, housing utilities lines, and even a district cooling plant, that provides cooling for buildings around the area. And by placing all of this infrastructure underground, we are able to free up prime surface land for developmental uses. Besides enhancing the planning process, going underground also helps in the construction process. Contractors who are doing projects all know they have to be very careful before they start digging. In Singapore, they have to be very careful because before they start digging, they want to avoid damaging any underground pipes or any underground utilities lines during construction. Lots of things can happen, and it can be a very frustrating and time consuming process, because they have got to go around to all the different utility companies, get maps of where all these lines are buried, and sometimes these maps are not so accurate, so there is still a risk that accidents can happen. So with more detailed underground information, we are consolidating the data, providing more detailed underground data, putting it all into a centralised platform which can be easily accessed by the public, and this will facilitate planning as well as construction works. That’s my first point on how technology is enabling us to be a smarter nation by enhancing our planning process.

Second, we are pushing for more sustainable developments as well, and this is critical when improving resource efficiencies and tackling the long term challenge of climate change and global warming. For a high rise city like Singapore, buildings are a major source of energy consumption, and we have plans to make our buildings greener. One way is the use of environment simulation tools. Something like this will help when we model environmental factors like wind and sunlight, and how these interact with the buildings and urban landscape. By doing so, we can make full use of passive design strategies, for example we can, by understanding wind flows, orientate the building in such a way to allow for the most wind ventilation, and keep the building cool by itself, without having to use too much air condition. And it’s a very simple way of how technology can help in the building process, and help in greener buildings.

Our goal is not just to green our buildings, but also to achieve certain standards for different building typologies. So for a low rise building, we think it is possible to be positive energy. Meaning to say, the building can generate more power through solar power for example than it consumes, and it can even export energy into the grid. For a medium rise building, it should be zero energy. For high rise building, it can be a net energy consumer, but it should be a low energy building. It is a stretch target but this is what we are trying to achieve across the island.

Another area of sustainable development is in our power system and our utilities system. In Singapore, there are not many options for renewable energy. Solar is the most promising, so you are starting to see a lot of this across our buildings, where we put solar panels on our rooftops. It is becoming so efficient that the cost of solar power today is cheaper than the power we get from our power grid from our gas fired power plants. So it makes sense to deploy more solar panels in Singapore - cheaper and greener.

We are also exploring synergies across different utilities, be it waste, water or energy. In the past, we would plan and build these utility plants separately. Now, we are realising the benefits of integration and synergising across the different utility types. So for example, we are co-locating a water reclamation plant with a waste management facility. Why? Because the treated water from the water plant can be piped to the waste management facility for cooling purposes. The waste management facility can generate electricity from the incineration of trash, which can be used by the water treatment plant.

So when you plan and put these together and do it holistically, you can have both facilities being fully energy self-sufficient and you can even export energy back to the power grid. It is far more efficient and it is really enabled through better planning.

These are ideas that we have been exploring on the supply side. But on the demand side, as far as consumers are concerned, technology is also transforming the way we use energy.

We are empowering consumers by having smart meters and smart appliances in homes. This allow consumers to choose their own power retailer; they can monitor consumption patterns and they can make more informed energy decisions within their own homes. Again, these are game changing tools that technology is enabling both on the supply side as well as the demand side.

Thirdly, we are transforming our transportation system. We are stepping up investments in public transport, with a more comprehensive rail system to serve Singaporeans. We are already very well served today but we are making it even better. Our aim is for the vast majority of Singaporeans to live within 400m of a metro station. And we will get there.

We are harnessing technology to help commuters plan their journeys. We have gathered transportation data and will share them with third party application developers. Commuters today can rely on a range of apps which they can use, and track on their phones, and they can plan their journeys beforehand, be it on buses or trains. 

Besides more comprehensive public transport, we are also looking for other ways to enhance connectivity. For example, we now have many more options to travel through car-riding and car-sharing apps like Uber, and here in India, I think you have your own home-grown version called Ola, which I understand is quite popular too.

We are also experimenting with Autonomous Vehicles. We have started trials for driverless vehicles. We will be launching autonomous shuttle services; we are piloting them in several new housing estates in the coming years.

Finally, we are using IT to improve city management and maintenance. We are developing an islandwide network of smart street lamps – street lamps with sensors – so that they can collect different kinds of data which can be used to monitor and maintain city infrastructure and services.

Besides relying on sensors, we are also empowering our citizens to give us feedback and to play a role in shaping the city. We have developed the Government-wide mobile app for municipal services, where you can easily report and give feedback on municipal issues. The app can be downloaded on your phone and anywhere you go, you can take a picture, and you can file a report with any Government agency. If you do not know which government agency you should refer to, it is okay because we will do it for you and we track the status of the case so that we make sure that the Government agencies responds to you in good time. So this puts some pressure on the civil servants but I think it is a good thing because we get them to respond promptly and make sure that the cases are closed in an effective way.

Another application that we have done recently is street parking. In Singapore, we rely on coupons to park along the streets for public street parking. We have been doing this for decades and it’s such an old technology – you have to tear coupons and put on your car dashboard. We have done away with that because you can now use your mobile phones and pay for parking remotely. Again, instant convenience for many motorists.

I have shared some of Singapore’s experiences with Smart City developments. What we are doing is not unique. There are smart cities projects being carried out all over Asia – here in India, including in Southeast Asia.

Singapore is Chair of ASEAN this year. One of the initiatives that we have started is to form an ASEAN Smart Cities Network. 26 cities from 10 ASEAN countries have been nominated for this network. We have started the process by meeting the city leaders and everyone is very excited to get projects going and we look forward to forming a strong and vibrant smart cities network in Southeast Asia.

In our discussion with the city leaders, we recognise that context matters. Cities are not alike, and there’s no one-size fits all solution. There are differences in economic development, there are unique characteristics in every city, and all these mean that infrastructure and technology solutions have to be customised to each city’s need.

But while every city is different, there are also common challenges and issues that we all face. So it is important that we continue to collaborate and exchange notes as we embark on this smart city journey. And from our experiences so far, I’d like to share three lessons on developing a Smart City:

First, it is important to translate Smart City masterplans to concrete and tangible projects that make a positive difference to the lives of our people. If we fail to do so, then public scepticism about Smart Cities will grow. As the moderator mentioned just now, there is already scepticism but if people fail to see tangible benefits of a smart city, the scepticism will grow even more. And there is a risk that this is already happening. A US consultancy did a survey this year and they found that 15% of participants in the survey believe that smart cities are a passing fad without long term substance. Now 15% may not sound very high but a year ago when the same survey was done, the figure was only 6%. It has more than doubled in just one year. This is a worldwide survey; it is not specific to any particular country but it shows us the urgency that we have to apply in getting smart city projects right. Now part of the problem is that smart cities projects are not easy to execute and they take time to deliver. Very often when you start on a smart city endeavour, you get the consultant in, they will develop a high level technical masterplan and that is important to galvanise all the different stakeholders, be it government agencies or industry partners, to bring everybody together on the same page. But that technical masterplan is not something that the ordinary citizen can easily relate to. It’s quite abstract, it is quite fuzzy and they will probably not read through every single page of that masterplan. So what is important is that we need to identify a few transformative projects that can be implemented quickly and that can demonstrate tangible benefits to people. That’s the way to get support for smart cities everywhere in the world. 

Second, smart city projects often straddle multiple government departments, so there needs to be coordinated and integrated implementation. And that is why in Singapore we decided to have a Smart Nation Office under the Prime Minister’s Office to drive our smart city initiatives. It makes it clear to all our stakeholders that the smart city project is a top level emphasis and priority of the Government and there are resources allocated to this project. It also helps us to attract and recruit talented people to join us in this endeavour and we need more competent scientists, we need more engineers, we need more IT specialists – people who understand technology and who have the drive to come up with bold and new ideas and make change happen. So that is something that is important and we are seeing results from this effort of putting together a Smart Nation Office and having it under the Prime Minister’s Office.

Third, there needs to be close collaboration with the private sector, be it in the design, financing or implementation of the projects. Not everything can be done by the Government alone and in fact, it is not desirable for everything to be done by the government. To spur greater private sector innovation, access to data is key. That is why the government is making machine-readable data more readily available. We have set up Data.gov.sg and this open data has contributed to over 100 applications developed in the private and public sectors, reaping wide benefits for their users.

Keep the end in mind

Finally, I think we have talked a lot about smart cities and technologies, but I think we should all remember that smartness is just a means to an end. After all, cities are about the people. Whatever we do has to be centred on making lives better for everyone. Technology is an important enabler but it is not a silver bullet. Ultimately in designing a great city, you still need to get the basic fundamentals right. A poorly-designed city, no matter how technologically advanced, will still end up being stressful and alienating to live in. Life will still be miserable.

But well-designed neighbourhoods with greenery and public spaces – that can enhance human connections, improve our well-being tremendously.

And so we are very mindful of this in Singapore. That is why in Singapore we are developing more park connectors for all to enjoy. We are soon to reach 360 km of park connectors by 2020. Again, it might not sound very much to an Indian audience but remember we only have 700 square kilometres of land in Singapore. So 360 km of park connectors is quite something.

And despite our urbanisation and built up environment, if you were to take a satellite picture of Singapore from the sky, it is very green because of our efforts to make Singapore a garden city and we intend to keep it this way; to continue being one of the greenest cities in the world.

We are also taking steps to protect our biodiversity. We have identified core areas of biodiversity which we will protect and develop and enhance. In fact, in recent years, we have seen an increase in animals which were once considered critically endangered. The smooth coated otters, for example, once disappeared from Singapore but now they have made a comeback and so the biodiversity is thriving. It is a small illustration of how even in a smart and modern city, nature can thrive alongside humans. And I think that’s something we all have to keep in mind, because it is essential to our well-being that we maintain this harmonious balance with nature.

In conclusion, I would say that we are all living in exciting times. Technology is offering us new and more powerful tools to design and build better cities. So let us make the most of these tools, continue to share best practices and learn from one another’s experiences. Then we can build many more Smart Cities that can provide a better life for our people, and be an inspiration for a better world. Thank you very much.