Speech by Minister Lawrence Wong at the Landscape Industry Association of Singapore Awards of Excellence Gala Dinner

Oct 17, 2019

I am very happy to join you this evening for the Landscape Industry Association of Singapore (LIAS) Awards of Excellence Gala dinner.  

This year’s Awards received a record number of submissions. The standard of competition was very high. In fact, I understand that each time LIAS has an Awards ceremony, there are more submissions, but also higher standards for every project. I think that speaks to the quality of work that our landscape practitioners do in Singapore. Once again, let us give a round of applause to our Award winners. Congratulations, everyone.

We embarked on our journey as a Garden City more than 50 years ago, and now we have transformed Singapore together into a City in a Garden. It is quite remarkable that in our little island, we have more than two million urban trees, and more than 4,000 hectares of gardens and parks. We have green spaces linked by a comprehensive park connector network which is over 300 km in length, and it is growing. Overall, together we have achieved quite a lot.

Singaporeans sometimes take all this lush greenery for granted. All of you who are practitioners working in this field know that it takes tremendous effort and hard work – not just to plant, but importantly, to maintain, and maintain well. The fact that we have a City in a Garden today is related to the important role that all of you in the landscape industry have played. I want to put on record our thanks and appreciation for all your contributions. Thank you very much.

We have achieved much, but we are not done greening Singapore even today. In fact, we have much more to do in the coming years. We are embarking on major plans to remake and rebuild our city over the coming decades, or even the next century. We have new areas for development; large new areas and greenfield sites like the Greater Southern Waterfront, which will take many decades to complete.

We have more parks, park connectors, and trees integrated into our urban spaces. Increasingly it is not just about planting on the roadside or along the streets, but it is also about vertical greenery, rooftop gardens, and even rooftop farms. Altogether, our plans are to make our city greener, more liveable, and more sustainable.  

This work cannot be done by the Government alone. We work in partnership with the industry, especially with partners like LIAS.

This partnership is more effective when we have a strong and thriving landscape sector. It is our shared interest to see the landscape sector in Singapore doing well. That is why I am glad to see that many of our landscape firms are indeed growing their capabilities and developing expertise in different areas. 

You are incorporating nature into our green spaces, implementing new and more sustainable landscaping and maintenance methods for all your projects. Because of our reputation and what we have achieved together, the Singapore brand today is admired and trusted, and our landscape services are in demand.

That is why some of you have also taken your landscape consultancy services overseas, and are now flying the Singapore flag abroad. We welcome that, and want to encourage more of that. 

The quality of work that you do can be seen in the award recipients. I must say, it is truly very impressive. Nature Landscapes did Heartbeat@Bedok. Well done! It is a seven-storey lifestyle hub with multiple facilities. I have been there many times for different activities, and it is truly incredible what we have done to green the whole space. 

Today, visitors to Heartbeat@Bedok are treated to a lush, forest-like design integrated with the building structure. This is just one example. We could go on; there are so many to cite. But all the award recipients have done so well to integrate greenery, to do good implementation, and importantly, good maintenance. Once again, congratulations to all our award recipients. 

The Government will continue to support our landscape sector. Earlier this year, we launched the Landscape Sector Transformation Plan (LSTP). The intent is to expand our existing initiatives to help productive and progressive landscape companies grow and expand. LIAS has been a key partner in developing and implementing this plan. Tonight, let me share just three broad areas which we are working on together.  

First, we must continue to step up our efforts to harness new technologies in landscaping. Technology is disrupting every sector of the economy, and the landscape sector will not be spared. We really need to push forward. 

I am glad that LIAS has been collaborating with NParks to promote mechanisation and digitalisation efforts, for example introducing spider lifts and fleet management tracking systems. There could be many more applications of technologies in the many different areas of work that you do. 

Many landscape firms have already started making use of different new technological applications, and have benefited from increased productivity. For example, as I understand, with the use of spider lifts, productivity has increased tremendously.  

Previously, trimming a tree used to take four workers: you would need one tree climber, two linemen, and one safety officer. Now with the spider lift, it now takes half the time and two workers: a lift operator and a safety officer. It is a major boost to productivity; particularly important given our difficulties in finding workers, as all of you can attest to.

Second, we must work together to develop the skills and capabilities of the landscape industry. In 2018, LIAS members worked with us to develop the Skills Framework for the Landscape sector. Landscape professionals can now use this Skills Framework to identify the skills required to progress in the sector.

It is good that we now have a Skills Framework for the entire landscape sector, but having a plan is just the start, because a plan is only as good as its implementation. I would appeal to all the employers and owners here to make full use of this Skills Framework, and invest in this skills training and upgrading. That is how we can collectively raise capabilities in the landscape sector. 

NParks will also help in this effort. I understand that many members from LIAS participated in NParks’ recent study trip to Australia and the UK. We are happy to organise more of such study trips to learn from the best practices around the world, and to continue to raise our capabilities. I hope that together, between the Government, LIAS and the industry at large, all of us can make our effort to invest in skills upgrading and training, and progressively raise capabilities for the sector. 

Finally, we have to strengthen the Singaporean core of landscape practitioners. This is also very critical. We have done several things over the last few years. For example, we launched the Landscape Progressive Wage Model (PWM) in 2015. Results thus far have been encouraging. We have had over 3,000 landscape workers undergoing training and upskilling. They now enjoy higher salaries, better skills, and greater recognition at work. With greater skills, this would also support their career progression over time.

We are doing more for existing workers, but we must also do more to bring in new entrants to the sector. One concern we have today is that only a fraction of the students that enrol in landscape-related courses every year join the sector after graduation.

All of us must work together to do more to attract and retain these young Singaporeans in the landscape sector. For example, on the Government’s side, we are revamping the landscape curriculum for Nitec and Higher Nitec to equip students with the latest skills in the landscape industry.

We are also providing more opportunities for these students, and empowering them to start running and maintaining our parks. We have Student-Run Parks, which give ITE students real-world experience in managing landscapes efficiently and professionally. Bedok Town Park is the first park in Singapore that is fully run by students.

Again, I would like to encourage all our companies here to pay more attention to bringing in new blood into your firms, and to nurture young Singaporeans in your respective organisations. This is crucial because we need the next generation of landscape practitioners to be with us, who can then help take us to the next frontier of greening Singapore.

In conclusion, Singapore today did not happen by chance. The green Garden City we have took foresight and hard work to develop into what it is today.

All of you as landscape practitioners have played a part in this process, and I am sure you will continue to do so. We want to strengthen our partnership with LIAS and our key stakeholders to ensure that Singapore remains a green, liveable, and sustainable city for many more generations to come.

On that note, thank you very much, and please enjoy the rest of the evening.