Spend more on hawker centres to widen their appeal

About 20 hawker centres will be built by 2027, and the Hawker Centre 3.0 Committee made good recommendations for upgrading them. Centralised dishwashing was one of the ideas (“‘Tasting portion’ among ideas to get more into hawker trade”; Feb 4).

We could also install centralised kitchens and storage rooms in big hawker centres. This would enhance the neatness of the setting.

Understandably, we should keep food prices affordable. Equally, we must ensure that younger generations patronise hawker centres in future. They are now under-represented in the customer base, except in hawker centres near schools.

It may be necessary to spend a bit more to make hawker centres more “cool” and comfortable to attract them.

With an ageing population, older folks would form the main crowd in hawker centres in housing estates.

We could install a special corner or room for them, equipped with facilities they need — perhaps also one for the ladies, as they like to cluster and chit-chat among themselves.

We should retain our hawker centres’ heritage as far as possible, but if we fail to respond to future customers’ changing tastes and needs, our hawker centres would not thrive.

We should be unafraid to try new concepts, such as high-end coffee stalls in hawker centres in business districts or near shopping centres to complement the traditional ones.

Citizens may be more adventurous and willing to pay for this in future. We could accept hawkers from across the world who want to operate here. If they succeed, we would have the most cosmopolitan hawker centres in the world.

Hawker centres also enrich our culture and strengthen our togetherness, bonding and national identity. Over the decades, they have performed these tasks as effectively as our community centres have. They are now an establishment belonging to common citizens.

To enable them to perform these tasks even better in future, let us spend more effort and money on our hawker centres 3.0. The Government should bear the investment.