Shaping the future of workspaces in Singapore

Senior Minister of State for National Development and Digital Development and Information, Mr Tan Kiat How, launched the ‘Enabling Sustainable Growth: Shaping the Future of Work’ exhibition this morning at The URA Centre. As part of our long-term approach to land planning, we carefully steward our limited land and space to maximise opportunities for sustainable economic growth to support our Singapore Economy 2030 vision, while catering to other uses to create a quality living environment for Singaporeans.

2. A key initiative under the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) Draft Master Plan 2025 (DMP2025) public engagement, this exhibition presents the progress of our decentralisation strategy to sustain Singapore’s vibrant economy and create high-quality job opportunities and workplaces for Singaporeans, as well as latest efforts to strengthen and expand our economic gateways, rejuvenate and enliven business nodes, and enhance business policies.

Enabling sustainable growth and vibrant workplaces

3. The decentralisation strategy was first mooted in the Concept Plan 1991 to support sustainable economic growth and drive competitiveness in the long term. This is achieved by planning for a hierarchy of polycentres with attractive and diverse spaces across Singapore, and developing them progressively in tandem with evolving needs and economic trends. By strategically locating these polycentres in different areas, we are able to provide more diverse spaces to cater to a variety of needs across our trade, manufacturing, enterprise and services sectors, and improve collaboration and productivity by clustering businesses with other related activities and infrastructure. This ensures that businesses can grow in a sustainable way, and provides flexibility for various sectors to adjust to evolving global trends and demands.

4. 30 years on, Singapore’s Downtown, comprising the Central Business District (CBD) and Marina Bay, is now a world-renowned financial and business hub. Our economic gateways in the north, east and west of Singapore as well as other business nodes across the island have also grown from strength to strength. For instance, our first regional centre at Tampines is now a thriving commercial centre nestled within a bustling residential town, and connected to other parts of Singapore via two rail lines and extensive bus services. There is room for further growth and renewal to allow the regional centre to remain attractive to cater to changes in demand.

5. Decentralisation has provided thousands of businesses a variety of choice locations across the island, leveraging the unique characteristics and strengths of each business node. It also alleviates pressure on transport infrastructure by redistributing the commuting load to and fro the CBD during peak hours and brought more convenience to residents by bringing jobs and amenities closer to homes.

6. For instance, in the 2024 edition of an annual lifestyle survey jointly commissioned by URA and the Ministry of Digital Development and Information, seven in 10 respondents indicated that proximity to home was the most important factor when choosing a workplace location. Other key factors that influenced their choice of workplaces included the walking distance to an MRT station, and whether there were hawker centres, food courts or retail outlets nearby. The survey results reflect that the objectives of the decentralisation strategy have continued to remain relevant and important to the workforce.

7. Nonetheless, amid fierce global competition for investments and fast-changing preferences and practices amongst businesses and the workforce, it is critical for our business nodes to continuously be refreshed and enhanced. This will ensure an improved quality of workspaces that can support our businesses, provide attractive work-live-play-learn environments for employees, and hence sustain Singapore’s economic competitiveness.

Latest efforts to strengthen and expand our economic gateways, rejuvenate and enliven business nodes, and enhance business policies

8. In the 2022 Long-Term Plan Review (LTPR) exhibition, URA proposed strategies under the ‘Work’ theme to meet business needs and prepare for the next chapter of our economic growth. These included plans to inject more mixed uses in our business nodes to support business and communities, design flexible spaces to support innovation and new needs to maintain Singapore’s competitive advantage, and plan for a future-ready economy by setting aside land to support emerging economic sectors.

9. These plans have been translated into the focus area of ‘Enabling Sustainable Growth’ in the DMP2025 review to guide our growth and development over the mid term. This includes strengthening and expanding our gateway nodes to provide more opportunities that will not only accommodate the expansion of existing sectors but also cater to new sectors, such as the expansion of Changi Aviation Park in the Eastern Gateway. There are also plans for the active renewal of business nodes across the island, such as Tampines Regional Centre and Bishan Sub-Regional Centre, to make them more vibrant and inclusive for businesses, workers, and residents by introducing more homes, amenities, mixed-use developments as well as recreational and community spaces such as parks into these nodes. More information on these and other upcoming developments in our economic gateways, business nodes and industrial estates can be found in Annex A [PDF, 183KB].

10. In recent years, URA has also introduced various land use policies and guidelines such as mixed-use sites and Enterprise Districts, to support evolving needs and provide industries greater flexibility to respond more quickly to market changes. More information on these initiatives can be found in Annex B [PDF, 109KB]. We continue to review our policies and guidelines in response to the changing economic landscape and operating context and are consulting businesses to better understand their needs and operating considerations.

11. As part of the ongoing DMP2025 engagement, URA has been reaching out to industry associations, businesses and research entities for insights on how technological trends impact the way we live, work and play and the support needed to capture the opportunities for growth in the industry. These stakeholders highlighted the importance of planning for supporting infrastructure that enables businesses in Singapore to digitalise, be a fast adopter of solutions that overcome our resource constraints, develop and deploy decarbonisation capabilities, enable industries to harness alternative forms of energy, and to turn waste into resources.

12. Their feedback reflects the economic trends in Singapore today, where digital and low-carbon economies are new growth sectors, contributing to our GDP and supporting job growth in these industries. Our business nodes and infrastructure will need to stay relevant and ready to cater to these sectors. The government will continue to seek feedback from businesses and workers, and develop innovative land use solutions to support a vibrant and sustainable economy and meet the needs of businesses and workers.

13. The ‘Enabling Sustainable Growth: Shaping the Future of Work’ exhibition will run till 3 January 2025 at The URA Centre. Admission is free. Members of the public are invited to visit the exhibition to find out more about the upcoming developments at different business nodes. They can read about the upcoming business node developments at go.gov.sg/GrowthNodes, and sign up for guided tours of the exhibition on Tuesdays, Thursdays and selected Saturdays in November and December 2024 at go.gov.sg/shapingfutureofwork-tours.