Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

Ensure Greater Southern Waterfront does not become enclave for the rich, big businesses

The regeneration of the Greater Southern Waterfront will be catalytic.
The planning authorities should, however, ensure that these prime areas do not become enclaves for the rich and for large businesses.

Singapore’s planners should avoid a replication of Sentosa island’s gated community as they draw up plans to rejuvenate the country’s southern coastline, the writer says.

Singapore’s planners should avoid a replication of Sentosa island’s gated community as they draw up plans to rejuvenate the country’s southern coastline, the writer says.

Follow TODAY on WhatsApp
Devadas Krishnadas

The regeneration of the Greater Southern Waterfront will be catalytic.

The planning authorities should, however, ensure that these prime areas do not become enclaves for the rich and for large businesses.

We should avoid an implicit replication of Sentosa's gated-community experience.

Public housing, appropriately safeguarded against the “lottery effect”, and rules such as a longer minimum-occupation period before resale, should be incorporated into the residential planning.

More than that, the plan should be for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to operate in the prime areas.

Rental costs are increasingly preventing aspirational SMEs from being part of the top-tier economic ecosystem. This can be mitigated by catering for subsidised office spaces in prime areas for Singapore SMEs.

This will be an important and necessary leg-up, especially for businesses in the services sector.

We should not just think on a broad economic level. Let us aim for inclusiveness, and invest in our people and businesses.

Have views on this issue or a news topic you care about? Send your letter to voices [at] mediacorp.com.sg with your full name, address and phone number.

Related topics

Greater Southern Waterfront NDR2019 housing SMEs

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.