Good evening

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen.

Singapore has grown rapidly from an overcrowded city to a throbbing yet orderly modern metropolis in just a few decades.

From the 60s to the 90s, the critical task for Singapore was to secure our economic survival, and make our young nation state an efficient, functioning city. Thus, we resettled people from overcrowded and unhygienic living conditions in the city centre, opened up new towns, put in place basic infrastructure (like roads and drainage systems), improved our public transportation network, and set aside land for industries. These essential cornerstones are now in place.

As we progress to the next plane of economic development, we will have to compete internationally with other global cities. Singapore has to be able to bring international businesses and talent to our shores. Singapore must be a distinctive and attractive place to live, work and play in. In planning for such a city, we will need to be mindful that the ‘intangible’ aspects that make Singapore quaint and unique, are not inadvertently eroded.

More importantly, familiar surroundings and landmarks in our physical environment become markers as we mature as a society. It ‘roots’ us and binds us together, in a place we call home.

The review of the Master Plan will focus on how we can enhance the quality of our living environment and reinforce the character of our landscape. The Master Plan guides the physical development of Singapore and sets out the land uses and development intensities for every part of the island. It is reviewed once every 5 years. The last Master Plan was completed in 1998. This review will culminate with the gazette of the new Master Plan 2003.

URA has prepared 2 plans to guide the Master Plan review.

The first, is an island-wide Parks and Waterbodies Plan. Our Garden City vision has been fulfilled through concerted, almost obsessive greening efforts. Singapore is well-known worldwide for our ever-present greenery today. It is only natural for us to build on this achievement and take this vision a step further - to create a city in a lush tropical garden, by capitalising on our parks and waterbodies. We also want the nature areas in Singapore, ranging from heavily wooded catchment areas to marshy wetlands, to be enjoyed by all.

The URA and NParks have consulted the Nature Society and the Singapore Environment Council in order to generate some ideas to make parks more accessible and to open up previously unexplored areas.

To ensure that there will always be more parks close to homes, we propose to build five new parks, including a 20ha riverine park at Sungei Punggol in Sengkang. New waterfront parks, such as the one proposed at the Lower Seletar Reservoir, could be opened up to bring people closer to our scenic waterbodies. Some popular parks like East Coast Park could also be enlarged.

To involve the private sector, NParks appointed the Singapore Institute of Landscape Architects to propose a Streetscape Greenery Master Plan. This plan aims to enhance street greening through applying different treatments to streets depending on the context of their location. The result will be a variety of streetscapes with distinct characters. For instance, to create the effect of travelling within the forest, mature planting with dense canopy along roads near the Central Water Catchment Area will be preserved.

Through these proposals, we hope to reinforce the concept of Singapore as a ‘tropical city in a garden’. We will also cater to the recreational needs of Singaporeans. Your feedback on the proposals would be very helpful to the planners when they refine the proposals for the final Master Plan.

Even though Singapore is a young nation, our planners have always been mindful of the built heritage in our physical environment. This was the impetus for our conservation efforts in the historic districts like Chinatown, Little India and Kampong Glam from the 1980s. As conservation has gained recognition and success over the years, it is now timely for the planners to work with the public to further develop these efforts towards a Singapore where there is a sense of place, where identity is retained and our built heritage is enhanced. Our planners would like to seed some preliminary ideas in the Identity Plan exhibited to get a discussion started. I would like to stress that this is by no means the final nor the only direction to go. With your feedback and suggestions, the planners hope to arrive at a shared vision through this collaborative effort with the public.

We have approached the making of the Identity Plan differently from the usual way of making plans. Instead of pre-determining how a place should shape up according to our plans, we are now looking at how our plans can enhance what is already on the ground and what people already find charming and appealing. It is much like trying to decide where to build footpaths in a housing estate. We could start out by looking at the layout of the estate and pre-determining where we think people are likely to be walking and then build the footpaths. OR, we could wait and see which paths people take as a natural course, what foot trails they blaze on the grass patches (usually the "botak" patches) and then build a footpath along these already well-trodden paths to make it more convenient and pleasant for them to walk.

But what contributes to Identity? When people talk about identity, they associate it with the particular character of a place or a sense of belonging and attachment to a place. There are many factors which can give a place its character. The built environment – in terms of its building form, shape, colour and architecture - can make a place visibly distinctive and memorable. Can you imagine Joo Chiat Road today without its rows of colourful low-scale Peranakan-style shophouses? It will have a totally different streetscape and character.

The historical significance and community life in the built environment can also imbue meaning and impart identity to places. Consider the Padang where the first National Day parade was held. It was the maternity ward of our difficult birth as an independent nation. The Padang is also lit up with life and becomes the focal point for the community whenever rugby season arrives and when special events come about, like the recent finals of the World Cup, where everyone gathered to watch Brazil and Germany fight it out.

Other areas in Singapore have grown spontaneously into focal points with established residential enclaves for particular groups of people. Think of the East Coast area with its closely-knit Peranakan and Eurasian communities, which have brought their distinctive lifestyle, culture and religious buildings to the area.

The "soft" aspects of a place, like the social activities that take place in the area, also contributes to the area’s identity. Certain places in Singapore have established themselves as unique shopping areas for specific goods and services. For instance, Balestier Road has made a name for itself as a popular food street and a place where we can buy lighting and building materials.

Planning can do its part by recognising the special traits of these places, and looking into how places can evolve at their own pace, without losing their special qualities to redevelopment. This adds diversity and distinctiveness to our built environment.

With all these in mind, URA planners consulted grassroots and advisors. They also scouted many areas across the island to experience the ambience and better understand the "essence" of these places for themselves.

The fruit of their labour is a preliminary Identity Plan with 15 significant areas and activity nodes identified. These are only a handful selected to begin our review. We welcome your further suggestions. The plan recognises what gives these places their identity and suggest ways in which it could be safeguarded and sustained. It also paints various possibilities to enhance their distinctive physical qualities and guide sensitive developments in future.

The plan groups the nodes into different clusters. These are Urban Villages, Old World Charm, Rustic Coast and Southern Ridges and Hillside Villages. Let me introduce you to two of them.

The Southern Ridges and Hillside Villages cluster includes the chain of hills in the southwestern part of Singapore, like Mount Faber, Telok Blangah Hill and Kent Ridge. We could improve the connectivity between the ridges. Imagine walking across and enjoying scenic views from all the ridges through a mid-air bridge and high-level timber walk.

The cluster also consists of small commercial nodes nestling at the foothills, like Gillman Village, as well as several quaint, old bungalows which add a unique ambience to the area. We could explore and further enhance these food and shopping attractions and conserve some old buildings for new leisure uses, like Bed and Breakfast lodgings.

As I mentioned at last month’s Architectural Heritage Awards, we are also looking at a group of nodes consisting areas like Balestier Road, East Coast Road, Jalan Besar and Tanjong Katong which were developed at the city’s fringe between 1900s and 1950s. These areas exude an ‘old world charm’ and each of them still retains its rich architecture, history, unique streetscapes and local flavour today.

While we want to retain the street character as far as possible, we must take into account the development potential of the buildings. To do so, an "old and new" approach is proposed whereby historical buildings could be kept, while new extensions are developed behind. With this approach, we hope that the uses and businesses which contribute to the area’s bustle and flavour could continue to be there for as long as possible.

There could be numerous other ways to enhance the character of the places dear to us. We welcome your feedback and suggestions. Our plans will not be complete without your views.

In refining these preliminary plans, URA will be consulting Singaporeans from all walks of life through various feedback channels to tap on as wide a range of perspectives as possible. Three subject groups will be formed, made up of professionals, grassroots leaders and members from various groups and societies. The subject groups will discuss the draft proposals for various specific topics in greater detail. There will also be meetings with stakeholders to examine pertinent issues further. We will respond to the feedback and suggestions received in a session in January next year.

Thereafter, all the public feedback gathered would be incorporated into a Draft Master Plan that will be exhibited by regions in the first half of 2003. The public would have another opportunity to raise any further feedback they have, before the Master Plan is finalised and gazetted as the new Master Plan 2003.

This is our Singapore, in a very real sense. Everyone has a stake as well as a say in shaping the proposals you see in the plans exhibited here. Share with us your ideas, preferences, alternative opinions and viewpoints. We will re-create a Singapore that is modern and dynamic, and yet boasts of its own distinct identity and a sense of belonging - a Singapore we can proudly call our home.

With this, I am happy to declare the exhibition open and I wish everyone an enjoyable evening viewing the exhibits.

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