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Time to reimagine and rebuild S’pore, PM Lee exhorts youth

SINGAPORE – Calling on youths to “reimagine and rebuild” the country, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Thursday (Apr 5) that Singapore is where it is today, thanks to “good design thinking” which turned adversities into opportunities, even strengths — and this will be critical in order to transform the Republic again for the next five decades.

Calling on youths to “reimagine and rebuild” the country, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that Singapore is where it is today, thanks to “good design thinking” which turned adversities into opportunities, even strengths — and this will be critical in order to transform the Republic again for the next five decades.

Calling on youths to “reimagine and rebuild” the country, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that Singapore is where it is today, thanks to “good design thinking” which turned adversities into opportunities, even strengths — and this will be critical in order to transform the Republic again for the next five decades.

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SINGAPORE – Calling on youths to “reimagine and rebuild” the country, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Thursday (Apr 5) that Singapore is where it is today, thanks to “good design thinking” which turned adversities into opportunities, even strengths — and this will be critical in order to transform the Republic again for the next five decades.

Design is a “core element” of nation-building because “nothing we have today is natural, or happened by itself”, said Mr Lee, who was speaking at a ministerial forum organised by the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD).

“Not our economic growth, not our international standing, not our multiracial harmony, not even our nationhood. Nothing was by chance,” he stressed.

He added: “How can we reimagine and rebuild further? But we can and the answer is by freeing up new parcels of land, and enabling already developed parts of Singapore to be redeveloped, modernised and improved.”

Mr Lee noted that “every inch of our land is developed or planned for” and there does not seem to be any more empty space for development. But “with imagination and determination, we can do it”, he said to more than 800 students and faculty members from SUTD and other autonomous universities.

Citing the future relocation of Paya Lebar Airbase to Changi as an example, he said this would free up some 800ha of land – which is bigger than Ang Mo Kio – and remove the height constraints in the eastern part of Singapore for redevelopment. The redevelopment and rebuilding process could take another 50 years or more, but it offers enormous possibilities, said Mr Lee. Another example is the moving of the ports at Tanjong Pagar and Pasir Panjang to Tuas, which will free up prime land to be redeveloped.

“Therefore, we should think boldly, and think long term. Develop a visionary plan that takes Singapore from SG50 to SG100 and beyond,” Mr Lee said.

He stressed that in recreating the city, Singapore is “not starting with a blank slate”. By adding the ideas and contributions of a new generation to the “most important parts from the past”, Singapore can “become a multi-layered city, a metropolis with a rich history, and yet is vibrant and alive, always changing, always fresh” — just like the other great cities in the world such as London, Paris, Shanghai, New York and Tokyo, he said.

Apart from physical infrastructure, several policies in Singapore will benefit from design thinking – ranging from healthcare, education, the Central Provident Fund, and National Service to the political system, he added.

Mr Lee reiterated that the Singapore Armed Forces were built from scratch, while founding leaders created the Economic Development Board to attract foreign investments from multi-national companies to create jobs and economic growth.

In 1960, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) was set up to build hundreds of thousands of flats that would put a roof over people’s heads. Before that, the British Housing Committee Report in 1947 had called Singapore “one of the world’s worst slums – a disgrace to a civilised community”, Mr Lee noted.

The HDB did not just build flats but homes, townships and communities as well, he said. It also considered other factors, such as the configuration and size of each flat, the local amenities in the area, the common spaces or the policies that allow Singaporeans to use their savings and own a flat.

Singapore’s water story also reflected the founding leaders’ ingenuity and design thinking, he said. The “problem definition” then was very clear: Singapore had limited domestic sources of water and relied heavily on water from its neighbour Johor. This made the country “vulnerable to blackmail”, Mr Lee said.

The Government then came up with many ideas and “implemented multiple solutions simultaneously” — from enlarging reservoirs and catchment areas, creating new reservoirs, pricing water to reflect its scarcity, to developing new technology to reclaim and reuse water from waste water treatment plants. Singapore now has four national taps — imported water from Johor, water from the reservoirs and local catchment areas, desalinated water and NEWater.

The founding leaders had to understand the issues, define the problem, and come up with creative ideas and solutions. They also had to prototype the idea, test the innovations and constantly review the thinking and solutions. “That is the essence of design thinking,” added Mr Lee.

Turning to how the majority of SUTD graduates have found employment within six months and that their starting salaries are going up every year, he said this is strong validation of the curriculum and teaching approach of the university, which was founded in 2009. “Soon, you will be graduating. And it will be your turn to paint the canvas, to sketch out the next blueprint and masterplan, to create a new roadmap and skyline for Singapore,” said Mr Lee.

He reiterated that there are “many design issues we have to think about as we reimagine and rebuild Singapore”.

“Good design does not happen in a vacuum. We need to amalgamate experiences and views across many disciplines,” said Mr Lee. It does not only involve the hardware aspects of engineering and architecture but the software as well, such as an understanding of human beings, their emotions and psychology — how individuals behave and how society works, he noted.

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