Good morning to everyone. 

I would like to thank you for taking the time for this discussion on a Sunday morning.  I know that many of you have many family obligations, errands to run, things to do, but you set aside time for us nevertheless. My colleagues and I are appreciative that you are joining us on a Sunday. All of us here participating in this LTPR session come from very diverse backgrounds. I am told that some of you joined us in Phase 1 and that you are continuing this journey with us. But some of you are joining us for the very first time. 

Thank you all for being part of URA’s Long-Term Plan Review, or LTPR, to shape the next chapter of our story in Singapore. A very delightful video was played earlier with young children sharing their dreams about what Singapore will be like, and I would like all of us to put that frame in mind as we engage in the conversation this morning. It is about us, but more importantly, it is about them – our children, for some, our grandchildren and future generations. Thinking about their future, their children’s future.

Challenges of Long-Term Planning

Long-term planning has always been part of Singapore’s DNA. In a way it is a virtue born out of necessity. Why do I say that? 

First, we are both a city and a country, and we need to find space for all the things that a country needs – not just a city, and to do that, we have to put all of the country’s needs within the limits of our small city. Not just our homes, not just shops and offices, but also other essential infrastructure, like airports, seaports, reservoirs, military installations, power stations, incineration plants, and many more. But unlike other larger countries, we don’t have large swathes of land outside our city limits, to put all these facilities that people need, but would rather not live near to, for example, waste management services or industrial zones – we need them, but don’t necessarily like to stay near them or want to. 

We also face various planning constraints – for example, if you live nearer an airport or an air base, there are restrictions on how tall our buildings can be and how intensively we can build. And at the same time, we want to ensure a high-quality living environment for Singaporeans – a city that is not too densely developed, that is human-scale, and yet with plenty of green spaces for everyone to enjoy. But these things also require land allocation too. 

So we have to be very creative, very disciplined, very forward-looking in balancing our different needs – economic needs, social needs, environmental needs, green needs, and more – within our land constraints, while catering for different scenarios that we may project for in the future. That is why long-term planning has to be in our DNA – and I say that it’s borne out of necessity, but it is a future.

We have to plan sustainably, to steward our scarce land resources, not just for today, but also for generations to come. And we need to plan well in advance, over the long term, because developing our city takes time. If you want to plan for a project, plan for a precinct, you want to develop housing, you want to develop mixed-use, you want to provide a zone for recreation or for urban farming, a lot of lead time is needed, a lot of planning, projection and coordination is needed. 

We need time to prepare land for development, especially if you are reclaiming land, or you plan to go underground. And we need time to coordinate and put in place supporting infrastructure – utilities, transport networks, and so on, to support the plans that you may have.

All this is certainly very challenging. But it is also full of exciting possibilities. 

And that is why we’ve embarked on the Long-Term Plan Review. We would like to to hear your suggestions and aspirations for our future Singapore. As I said earlier, we are looking far into the future to try to anticipate a whole range of possibilities, opportunities and risks. And to look for imaginative and ambitious ideas, that can shape our city for the next 50 years and beyond. And over time, we can then translate these very long-term plans, ambitions and dreams into more concrete short- and medium-term plans, so that we can turn some of our ideas into reality, step by step.

This is not a brand-new exercise. We refresh our long-term plans every 10 years, to account for evolving trends and needs. In the past, we used to call these long-term plans Concept Plans – so you would have heard in the past about the Concept Plan Review. Since the first Concept Plan in 1971, many of the strategies proposed back then in the 1970s have borne fruit today. Look around you, our MRT network – which we continue to expand, Changi Airport – which we continue to expand, Jurong Island – which we are continuing to put industry into, the entire Marina Bay area with its iconic skyline – all of these major projects and developments had their early roots in our previous Concept Plans. 

They started as ideas that were seen as bold or even radical at the time, unthinkable, but today they are things that we almost take almost for granted. Those are the kinds of transformative ideas that we are looking for, through the Long-Term Plan Review. That are some of things that we expect to discuss today.

Today, we face a different context in Singapore, and new challenges, compared to the 1970s, compared to the past. We are in the midst of the crisis of a generation. This pandemic has transformed many aspects of how we go about our lives, and will continue to do so. We have to learn from it, and we have to adapt our city accordingly. And be prepared for other unforeseen developments in the future, as our world becomes a lot more uncertain. 

At the same time, we need to be ready for the other major trends coming our way, like climate change which poses an existential threat to Singapore, our ageing population, as well as increasing digitalisation in Singapore and around the world. We have to do all of this, in a Singapore that is a lot more densely built up, more diverse, than in the past.

We will need to address all these and more, through this year’s Long-Term Plan Review, to build a more flexible, resilient, forward-looking, and inclusive Singapore.

Progress of LTPR

Since we launched the Long-Term Plan Review in July this year, a lot of people, many Singaporeans have joined us in our conversations: In fact, we’ve received more than 5,600 responses to an online poll that we have conducted. And almost 400 members of the community have directly participated in various LTPR workshops and dialogues thus far – to deep-dive, to grapple with the issues, to share bold visions and dreams with us. URA has also partnered a number of agencies and organisations to put together discussions, to organise webinars and other events, to share about the key trends and challenges for Singapore’s long-term planning, and of course, to gather ideas for the Long-Term Plan Review.

But we certainly need many more Singaporeans to actively participate. So we are very glad that you are joining us today, and we hope you can encourage your family, your friends, your colleagues to contribute their ideas too, through our Long-Term Plan Review website and other activities. URA will share with you, how you can contribute through those other channels.

In Phase 1 of our engagement, we reached out to Singaporeans to ask them what their hopes, aspirations, and concerns are for the long-term future, and that was really open-ended. 

We received a wide range of responses, which fell into four broad outcomes that Singaporeans aspired toward, and these are the four. First, they aspired for an Inclusive Singapore which meets the diverse needs of our people and strengthens social inclusiveness and cohesion. That resonated very strongly with many Singaporeans who shared their inputs with us. Second, is for an Adaptable and Resilient Singapore. One that can respond nimbly to economic and technological trends and other disruptions that we may encounter. Third, is a Sustainable Singapore where we can grow in an environmentally responsible way, especially in light of the serious challenges posted by climate change. And lastly, a Distinctive and Endearing Singapore. One that is vibrant and well-loved by Singaporeans, and stands out with its own unique identity, among the cities of the world. One that we can call proudly our own, and our home. 

We are now in Phase 2 of our engagements, where we will brainstorm with you the possible strategies that will help us to achieve these four aspirations in the long-term.

Big and Bold Ideas

That is what we’re here to do today, and I’d like to encourage all of us to think of as many big and bold ideas as you can. No idea is too wild to explore at this stage – remember that we are talking about 50 years or more into the future, and in 50 years so much can change. Just think about it, 50 years ago, we didn’t have smartphones or the Internet. Today, we regularly have virtual meetings and conferences like these. 50 years ago, we didn’t have the MRT. Now we have more than 130 stations across some six MRT lines. Many of our trains are running autonomously, and we’re even piloting autonomous buses and vehicles for the future. So the question that we are posing to all of us here today is – What will Singapore and the world look like in 50 years? Don’t hold your imagination back later, or feel the need to be bound by the constraints of what is conventional, acceptable or possible today.

After this, we’ll be divided into four breakout groups, for a deeper discussion on the four themes that I mentioned earlier – Inclusive Singapore, Adaptable and Resilient Singapore, Sustainable Singapore, and Distinctive and Endearing Singapore. 

There are lots of ideas we can discuss in each of these areas.

For example, to build a more Inclusive Singapore, how can we better empower Singaporeans with different needs and abilities, and at different stages of their lives? What kinds of facilities do we need to care for those who may need more support, such as persons with disabilities or special needs, as well as our seniors? At the same time, how can we enhance our common spaces, so that people of different backgrounds can interact and form closer bonds? One way could be through integrated developments – putting different facilities together, optimise our land, while supporting different needs and forging local communities. 

Just a few days ago, we announced that we will gazette the conservation of Golden Mile Complex, which was built in the 1970s. In the 1970s, the idea of high-rise, mixed-use developments, integrating residential, commercial and communal spaces, was ground-breaking and it challenged the convention in the 1970s. But today we benefit from that dream, that boldness, that vision of our pioneer builders, architects and planners, and today we benefit from mixed-used developments. 

Earlier in the week, HDB unveiled plans for our latest integrated development in Yew Tee, which integrates senior housing, healthcare facilities, a community club, stores, and a hawker centre. It is our next “vertical kampung” which incorporating learning points from Kampung Admiralty which was opened a few years ago. So in terms of integrated developments from projects like Golden Mile Complex in the 1970s all the way to Kampung Admiralty and Yew Tee, our integrated developments have evolved over the years – so the question is, what will they look like in 50 years? What else can we integrate – sports facilities, schools, cultural institutions like museums, offices or even industries? Pushing the boundaries and asking us to think further.

Next, how can we build a more Adaptable and Resilient Singapore, that can keep up with fast-moving economic and technological trends? Take the rise of remote working, which was forced onto a lot of us and a lot of businesses due to the pandemic. But now that we’ve discovered the benefits of working from home, will the workplaces of the future ever be the same again? Will companies still have permanent offices, or will they allow their employees to roam and gather at co-working spaces around the island? HDB recently announced that 21 Switch work booths – which are small pods containing a workspace – are now available across six HDB shopping complexes to support telecommuting. 

Now, is that the model for the future, or do we need to think more radically about how our neighbourhoods, or even our homes, should be designed and configured? And there are many other exciting developments that could have infrastructural needs – e-commerce, food delivery and other uses of urban logistics, electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles, drones, and so on.

Third, how can we achieve a more Sustainable Singapore? Transforming Singapore into a City in Nature is one important approach. We’re naturalising more of our parks and gardens, and even our roadside greenery, to weave nature more seamlessly into our city. How can we do this better? Using more renewable energy is another way. We don’t have much land for solar panels, so we’ve been installing them in creative places – on the rooftops of HDB blocks, on the surface of reservoirs. 

Can we explore vertical spaces as well, and  can we do more? Will it be possible for instance, one day, for us to have floating solar or wind farms offshore? And how can we design our city and our living environment, to bring sustainability closer into our daily lives? So that using less water and electricity, or recycling more, become second nature to us? Is it about using more smart technologies and sensors to monitor and regulate our use of utilities? Or can we redesign our estates, how we collect and sort waste, so that recycling becomes a lot more convenient and second nature to us?

Finally, how can we shape an even more Distinctive & Endearing Singapore? How can we keep Singapore modern and exciting, digital and virtual, on the global stage, while retaining and rejuvenating familiar places to preserve our sense of heritage and our identity, and our emotional and spiritual anchor? What are the key aspects of the city that we should do more to enhance? How can we retain the distinctive character of historic districts like Kampong Glam and Little India, which mind you are still being impacted by forces both global and local, each and every day, while refreshing them to keep them lively and vibrant for new generations? How do we breathe new life into our city centre, so that it isn’t just like any other commercial district that goes quiet after office hours?

Now I’ve just given you some examples of the interesting questions and issues that we can consider, and there are actually many more. 

So let’s use this chance to bounce ideas off each other. I know there are many pressing things about today and tomorrow, and next week and next month or next year, and we could spend a lot of time talking about today’s issues – which we must, but there are platforms for that. Let’s make good use of sessions like these to unleash our collective creativity, to bounce ideas off each other, and we are all very diverse in our groups, think about the distant future. The issues of today, we have platforms to deal with, think about the future.

Conclusion

Ultimately, today’s session, and the broader Long-Term Plan Review, is not just an exercise in thought, projection and imagination. It is about doing our duty as Singaporeans, as good stewards of our limited national resources, to plan sustainably for the long-term. And to give our children and our grandchildren a fighting chance for the future. It is about laying the foundations of our future city, that will one day be inherited by our children, and their children. The Long-Term Plan Review is an act of hope, and confidence, that Singapore will endure and flourish.

I look forward, as do my colleagues, to hearing from all of you, feeling your emotions and hearing your ideas, and seeing us connect across this digital platform to plan for future Singapore. Thank you all very much.