Speech by Minister Lawrence Wong at the Opening Ceremony of GreenUrbanScape Asia 2015
Nov 5, 2015
I’m very happy to join you for the 2nd GreenUrbanScape Asia, or GUSA. To all our friends from abroad, welcome to Singapore!
This is the 2nd edition of GUSA and already, the event has grown in depth and scale. We are expecting thousands of delegates, speakers and exhibitors over the next few days.
The GUSA is fast becoming a leading platform for regional urban greenery experts to share insights, technologies and innovative ideas. There are many interesting topics that can be discussed over the coming days on how we can continue to innovate in our greening solutions. There are a lot of expertise to share and a lot of topics we can talk about. This is a testament to the thriving green movement in Asia.
Singapore’s Greening Journey
In Singapore, we started our greening journey more than 50 years ago. In 1963, our founding Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew planted a Mempat Tree at Farrer Circus, kickstarting a national greening movement. In fact, he continued to plant trees in Singapore consistently until he passed away earlier this year.
In those early years, Mr Lee envisioned a Singapore that was not only prosperous, peaceful and safe, but also a beautiful, green oasis. As he put it, “Singapore can become a green shady city filled with fruits and flowers, a city worthy of an industrious people, whose quest, progress is matched by their appreciation of beauty, of nature. The harshness of tarmac, concrete can be softened by the natural trees, flowers, and birds”. That was the vision that Mr Lee had for Singapore and it is a vision we tried very hard to realise in the last 50 years of our greening journey.
Today, greenery is core to our national identity. Over the years, we have made deliberate and conscious efforts to keep pace with urbanisation and nurture a City in a Garden. We have introduced new varieties of flowering trees and plants, developed more parks, and conserved our natural heritage.
In land-scarce Singapore, we recognise that greenery can easily be displaced by urban development. It is easy for our green cover to diminish over time. So, to prevent this, we have innovated and greened skywards. The public sector has taken the lead on this, with the support of private developers and landscape professionals.
For example, NParks’ Skyrise Greenery Incentive Scheme has benefitted over 150 buildings since its launch six years ago. Together with support from URA and HDB’s rooftop greening efforts, there is pervasive greenery in our living environment – from commercial buildings, public housing estates, MRT stations, covered linkways, schools, to community facilities.
Today, we have reached a new milestone, with rooftop greenery covering over 72 hectares of Singapore. This is equivalent to 101 football fields!
Rewarding Greening Excellence
To celebrate this achievement, I will be giving out two awards to recognise developments that embody innovative greening solutions.
The first is the Skyrise Greenery Awards to reward and promote vertical greening efforts in the built environment. We’ve received many more entries this year, and it shows that there are more building professionals embracing innovative greening solutions.
One of the 12 winning developments is of particular significance to me. It is the National Gallery, which involves the restoration of two old monuments In Singapore – the former Supreme Court and the City Hall building- that have been converted into an art gallery which is opening this month. The National Gallery is special to me as it was a project under my charge during my time at MCCY. The building has not only been beautifully restored but also incorporates many green elements, including a roof garden that provides a spectacular view of the city skyline and the Civic District.
The second award is the Landscape Excellence Assessment Framework or LEAF Awards. LEAF is the first certification scheme in Singapore to recognise developments for greenery excellence. This year, 11 developments, ranging from hotels to industrial parks, will be certified. We will be honouring four of them as “Outstanding Projects” for showcasing high-quality landscape and innovative biodiversity features. Next year, NParks will be expanding the LEAF scheme to schools to encourage schools to green their learning environments too!
Pushing the Boundaries of Greenery Innovation
We have achieved much in the last 50 years, but we aim to do more to realise our vision of making Singapore a City in a Garden. By 2030, we aim to achieve 200 hectares of rooftop greenery. This means a tripling of our current rooftop greenery level.
This is a bold and aspirational target. I believe we can achieve it, but the Government cannot do it alone. Our landscape industry partners have a big role to play.
Professionals and Skilled Personnel
This is why we are stepping up our efforts to support and professionalise the landscape industry. NParks, together with the Institute of Technical Education, and the Landscape Industry Association Singapore, has implemented a scholarship scheme to prepare ITE students for careers in the landscape industry. We also have a Landscape Apprenticeship Programme, where Singaporeans can apply to be apprentices in established landscape companies to gain practical job skills.
We are doing what we can to strengthen the industry because we need the industry to grow in order to achieve the targets of tripling our rooftop greenery. We must also reward our landscape workforce well to motivate professional development and growth. The Progressive Wage Model for the Landscape Sector will take effect from June next year. This will provide our landscape workers with assurances of better wages and career progression if they pick up the required skills.
Resources for the Landscape Industry
Not only do we need to develop the landscape workforce, we must also provide them with the best resources.
This is why we’re working hard to secure a reliable supply of high value ornamental trees and plants for our landscape professionals. To ensure quality of plant material, NParks has accredited 19 nurseries under its Nursery Accreditation Scheme. We hope to accredit more in the years to come, so that we can always be assured of high quality ornamental plants to beautify our city.
We are also strongly encouraging landscape companies to adopt mechanisation to maximise operational efficiency and provide landscape professionals with the best tools of the trade. There are many initiatives which companies can make use of, so I would strongly encourage our industry partners to tap on available grants as we persist in our greening endeavour.
Lastly, I am happy to launch a book titled Greening the Vertical Garden City by NParks and URA. It provides guidelines on planning, design, construction and management processes. I hope this will be a useful resource to those who wish to incorporate skyrise greenery elements into their development projects. NParks will also be releasing two other books, covering the best practices in weed management and maintainable landscape design.
Conclusion
The lush environment we enjoy today is a result of the careful planning of our founding fathers. The future, however, depends on all of us. Maintain and enhancing our green cover is work that must begin today so that in 50 years’ time, we can enjoy an even greener and verdant Singapore. In fact, at the end of this year, we will be launching the Future of Us exhibition, our final SG50 event. It is an event to launch the next chapter of the Singapore story. As part of this exhibition, we will be having a series of conversations on how we can build our future together and launch the next chapter of the Singapore story. And one of the conversations we are having, which will be led by MND and NParks, is on the future of greening. We hope that many Singaporeans will join us in contributing their ideas and feedback in these conversations so that we can enhance our green movement and truly enhance our vision of making Singapore a City in a Garden. Ultimately, what happens in the next 50 years depends on all of us and we must be willing to roll up our sleeves and work hard to keep Singapore green. I hope that many more people will come forward to continue Mr Lee’s legacy and do their part for our City in a Garden.
I wish everyone here a rewarding experience at GreenUrbanScape Asia. Thank you.