The Supreme Administrative Court earlier this month upheld a lower court’s decision to suspend 65 industrial projects in the country’s largest industrial estate in Rayong after local residents and environmental groups complained that the government did not issue proper operating licences for the projects. Eleven projects were given the go ahead.

Mr Abhisit said quick action is necessary. The National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) is concerned if the problem at Map Ta Phut cannot be solved soon then sfor investment in other areas would be would be affected.

The Anand panel of local academics, non-governmental organisations, business groups and communities is working against time to draw up a blueprint for new industrial development and guidelines for environmental and health impact assessments (EIA and HIA) and the establishment of an independent body to hold public hearings as required by Article 67 of the constitution.

“We are concerned about projects which have started to operate or are under construction and want to know how they have been affected [by the Supreme Administrative Court's order],” Mr Abhisit said.

The prime minister said the government hopes to issue regulations implementing Article 67 of the constitution before the end of the year so that investment projects which have been stalled can proceed.

If the Map Ta Phut problem could be solved and environmental impacts minimised, it would be a boon to the Thai industrial sector, Mr Abhisit said.

Everybody must accept the fact that laxity of law enforcement and unsuitable systems were cause of the problem at Map Ta Phut. Solving the problem would be time-consuming.

Thai Chamber of Commerce (TCC) chairman Dusit Nontanakorn said the legal impasse at Map Ta Phut could hinder economic growth in the long term if the government does not resolve it within six months.

Mr Dusit said the private sector was concerned about the Map Ta Phut problem. It could worsen and may lower the country’s gross domestic product over the next five to 10 years.

There would be no investment by the local and foreign private sector as confidence would decrease due to the problems in Map Ta Phut, he said.

“When the Asean Community is formed and if Thailand still has this problem, foreigners will turn to invest in other countries without hesitation,” he said.

“However, the TCC believes the economy will certainly improve next year and the private sector still has confidence in the country’s economic fundamentals if the political situation does not deteriorate.”

Mr Dusit said the TCC was ready to work with the government to stimulate exports and develop a strategy to enhance the economy for the Commerce Ministry to implement with the private sector.

Commerce Minister Porntiva Nakasai said her ministry aimed to boost next year’s export growth by 14 per cent even though the ministry’s forecast was higher than other agencies’ predictions.

Mrs Porntiva said the ministry had fine-tuned the product management system and grouped 10 main products into four product categories. The products include rice, textiles, jewellery, ornaments and decorative items, electrical appliances and automobiles.

SOURCE: bangkok Post

Tuan Sing announced in August that it would buy 70 per cent of the issued share capital of Maylands Investment from Habitat Properties. Maylands’ only major asset is the Mont Timah project.

Habitat Properties would continue to hold 30 per cent of Maylands, Tuan Sing said back then.

In an update yesterday, Tuan Sing said it has completed the 70 per cent acquisition and will now launch Mont Timah. It did not give a launch date or prices.

Analysts say the project is in the upper mid-to-mass market range.

The 99-year leasehold Mont Timah will comprise 32 strata cluster homes and is near Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.

‘The development offers nature lovers a unique opportunity to live within walking distance of the magnificent terrain of the reserve,’ Tuan Sing said in a statement.

Each unit will have its own lift, the company said. The project, designed by Chan Sau Yan & Associates, has been awarded the Green Mark (Gold) Award by the Building and Construction Authority. A temporary occupation permit is expected at end-2011.

SOURCE: Business Times

SINGAPORE: Blocks 101 to 109 in Potong Pasir Avenue 1 will be the first in an opposition ward to undergo lift upgrading, according to People’s Action Party (PAP) adviser to Potong Pasir, Sitoh Yih Pin, in a news release on Friday evening.

In July, the government announced that some blocks in opposition-held Potong Pasir and Hougang will come under the Lift Upgrading Programme (LUP). The plan is to have all eligible blocks go under the programme by 2014.

Mr Sitoh, who was also the PAP’s candidate in Potong Pasir in the last election, added that he will be forming a working committee.

This committee will implement the upgrading, which involves garnering a necessary 75 per cent support from affected residents.

The scope of works for LUP includes an overhaul of existing lifts and works required to give direct lift access on every floor.

SOURCE: Channel News Asia

This will be the new face of Bishan Park after the 35-metre wide canal beside it is transformed into a river that meanders through the park – the first time a canal will be naturalised and integrated into a park in Singapore.

When completed in 2011, it will also be linked to the Kallang River.

To give the 3km man-made waterway the natural feel of a river, soil bio-engineering techniques – the use of plant materials and traditional engineering methods – will be employed for the first time in Singapore. There will be greenery and rocks along the river walls to prevent soil erosion and to beautify its banks. The greenery will also provide a natural habitat for wildlife.

This revamp is being commissioned under the Public Utilities Board’s (PUB) Active, Beautiful, and Clean Waters (ABC Waters) Programme, after a 60m stretch of Bishan Park was converted into a river waterway as a test bed for the project last December. One of the biggest challenges, said PUB’s 3P network director Yap Kheng Guan, was to decide which plants to use, as these need to survive river water currents.

The $76-million project is undertaken in conjunction with the redevelopment of the 20-year-old park by the National Parks Board. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will launch the project tomorrow.

PUB is also working on eight other projects under its ABC Waters Programme. These include the building of a floating island in Sengkang to link residents from one bank of Sungei Punggol to the other via a floating bridge. Another eight projects in areas including Rochor Canal, Geylang River and Sungei Pandan are slated to start next year.

SOURCE: Channel News Asia

Goodbye, pagoda roof. Hello, glass and marble. The Chinese Swimming Club is celebrating turning 100 this year with a new $43-million pavilion and sports complex on the site of its now torn-down, Ming dynasty-style building.

But not everyone is glad it took the plunge.

Architect Mink Tan of Mink Architects says the club’s former sports complex was an iconic building on the east coast.

‘It evoked feelings of old Singapore,’ he says.

Veteran architect Tay Kheng Soon did not mince his words when talking about the two sports complexes.

He says the old clubhouse, a threestorey building, ‘was humble, modest and not so showy’.

‘Now the glass building is even more a show-off,’ he says. ‘They have replaced one ugly building with another,’ he adds, of the two complexes.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority says it has a set of criteria that it uses to assess buildings and structures being considered for conservation. These include a building’s historical and architectural merit, rarity in terms of building types, styles and their contribution to the overall environment.

Generally, buildings need to be at least 30 years old before they qualify for consideration.

‘The two buildings – the old sports complex and the recreation complex – are under 30 years old,’ says its spokesman.

The old sports complex was inspired by a Ming dynasty theme and had blue-tiled roofs and arches, and a tiled wall with nine dragons on it. The tiles were imported from China and each piece was erected individually by a craftsman.

The sports complex was opened in 1979 and torn down in 2002. It had housed a small gymnasium, and tennis, squash and badminton courts.

However, the club’s president, Mr Edwin Lee, 54, says: ‘The tiles were already falling off and the building looked dated.’

In its place is a $16-million, four-storey building that is the club’s new arrival pavilion. It will be officially opened next month.

Just behind it is a $27-million glass and steel sports complex, which houses a 12-lane bowling alley, a gym and eight badminton courts, a billiard room, a bar and a cafe. There are also four swimming pools here. It was completed in 2005.

The two new buildings mark the completion of a $43-million redevelopment project.

Mr Lee tells Life!: ‘We want to project a progressive club with a full range of sports facilities rather than have a club that looked like a clan association or a museum’.

SH Lim Architects won a competition to design the club’s new look. A panel of architects judged the competition.

While the two buildings are modern, there are a few details that still reflect the club’s heritage. For example, the lift landings in the sports complex are cantilevered and resemble diving boards. Part of the facade of the arrival pavilion is clad in coloured marble that has a wavy pattern

* End of Katong landmark

‘which look like Chinese ink brushstrokes’, says Mr Lee, who has been president for nine years.

In the lobby, lattices on the ceiling and bamboo curtains give the area an Oriental touch. The building also houses Tung Lok Classics, a Chinese restaurant, and a spa that is under construction. The restaurant and spa will be open to the public.

Club members, if not some architects, love the new look.

Housewife Christina Leong, 38, a member since she was nine, says she does not miss the old sports complex at all.

‘It was an eyesore and it doesn’t fit with the present time.’

She still goes to the club once a month to its gym and cafe.

Another member is Madam Lily Lim, 61, a general manager of a hardware company. She used to go to the club as a child every Sunday with her family. Her father then was a life member and Madam Lim became a member five years ago.

She says: ‘As a child, the old building was big and exciting,’ she says. ‘But I prefer this new one too as it is grand, posh and sophisticated.’

Ms May Gwee, 38, a freelance public relations consultant, says that ‘the new buildings move with the times’. She adds that the Olympic-sized pool and the kids’ pool are better than before.

Mr Lee hopes that with the new look, the club will be able to attract younger members.

It currently has about 8,500 members. The club membership fee is $10,000 with a monthly $40 subscription fee. The club does not sell memberships. Prospective members can join only when current ones want to give up their membership.

The Chinese Swimming Club began in 1909 and there was an old clubhouse before the blue-tiled roof sports complex was completed in 1979.

It still has another Ming-dynastyinspired building – the recreation complex, located across the road from the arrival pavilion. The future of this building is still uncertain.

The club will put up a proposal at its annual general meeting in April next year.

What is more certain is that the interiors of the two-storey building will be fitted with more activity rooms.

Over the years, it has churned out swimming champions such as Pat Chan, Ang Peng Siong and Mark Chan.

Today, its swimming stars include Lionel Khoo, Koh Hui Yu and Cheryl Lim. Chan, the golden girl of swimming from 1965 to 1973, who used to train at the pool, is more familiar with the old clubhouse than with the former sports complex.

She says that ‘it is a shame to get rid of history but the club has to move on’.

Dr Kevin Tan, president of the Singapore Heritage Society, says that although the Ming-dynasty-inspired sports complex was a ‘landmark for its time, I don’t feel too badly about the loss of it’.

He explains that although the building was distinctive, it had little historical significance.

‘It would be good if a new building could be built around the old sports complex – losing a landmark in Katong is always sad,’ he says.

Club president Mr Lee says that all that matters is that ‘members like it. We cannot please everyone’.

SOURCE: Straits Times

SEMBAWANG may soon be the next neighbourhood to lose a wet market – its only one at that.

Its 14 stallholders at the market in Canberra Road have been told to go by the end of this month.

This is because the master tenant, Sembawang New Market, is ending its lease with the Housing and Development Board, the owner of the market.

The space will probably be taken over by a FairPrice supermarket, pending approval by the HDB. The papers to transfer the tenancy to NTUC FairPrice were submitted a few weeks ago, and are still being evaluated.

Meanwhile, some residents in the neighbourhood are upset at the prospect of losing the wet market; stallholders there are also aggrieved over the short notice they have been given.

The situation there echoes that of the five other heartland wet markets which made the news this week.

The wet markets in Choa Chu Kang, Bukit Batok West, Serangoon and Pasir Panjang – among the minority here which are privately owned – also look set to go.

Supermarket chain Sheng Siong has exercised its option to buy them from property developer Heeton Holdings, with a view to setting up ‘air-conditioned markets’ there.

But those plans are now in question, because Heeton has yet to submit an application to HDB for clearance to sell the markets, although it has gone ahead and sent eviction letters to the stallholders there.

Although it owns the markets, it still needs the HDB’s approval to sell them or to change the use for the space.

Over in Sembawang, if FairPrice gets the green light to run a supermarket on the wet market’s site, it will have to fall in with certain requirements – such as timing its opening hours to suit residents’ shopping needs and including a fresh market section to compensate for the lack of a wet market.

But this is cold comfort to some worried Sembawang residents.

Housewife Josephine Tan, 41, said: ‘There is no other wet market in this area, and there are enough supermarkets already.’

Sembawang has at least three supermarkets, two of which are FairPrice ones.

Not all residents are against FairPrice’s coming to Canberra Road. Property agent Alex Ng, 39, is cheered by the thought of having a bigger variety of products.

Just like the stallholders in the other markets, those in the Sembawang market are upset too. They said they were told of the impending closure only last week.

‘Four weeks only, how to move out?’ asked frozen food seller Mohd In Kutty.

But the spokesman for Sembawang New Market said that the stallholders had been verbally told about the move as early as last year.

Asked about this, the HDB said it shared the stallholders’ concerns and had suggested to Sembawang New Market to extend the deadline to next month.

SOURCE: Straits Times

SINGAPORE’S new $500 million cruise terminal at Marina South will have two berths that can accommodate the world’s biggest cruise ships.

To be ready by 2011, the International Cruise Terminal (ICT) will also have state-of-the-art facilities that will enable passengers to clear immigration, security and luggage claims within half an hour.

Passengers at the existing HarbourFront cruise centre, by contrast, are sent on their way in about 45 minutes.

The ICT’s bigger capacity will also mean it can handle up to 3,000 passengers in an hour, compared to HarbourFront’s 2,500 passengers an hour.

At the ground-breaking ceremony for the new terminal yesterday, Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang, who was the guest of honour, said the ICT will help Singapore realise its ambition of becoming the region’s cruise hub.

Key to this is the ability to allow bigger cruise ships to dock. The HarbourFront terminal is limited by height restrictions – it cannot accommodate liners that are more than 52m in height.

This rules out some of the bigger luxury ships such as Rhapsody Of The Seas and Queen Mary 2, which sail in as part of their round-the-world trips or for regional trips to Hong Kong, China or Vietnam.

Currently, such vessels are forced to dock at the Pasir Panjang Container Terminal, located about 5km away from the HarbourFront terminal.

This is a less than ideal situation, cruise operators said.

There are no proper embarkation and disembarkation facilities at the Pasir Panjang terminal, leading to safety problems as some elderly passengers have to negotiate the ship’s gangway to enter and leave the ships. They also have to be ferried out of the terminal in shuttle buses.

Having well-heeled passengers on such liners get on and off at industrial areas also does not do much for Singapore’s image, the operators said.

More importantly, the lack of facilities in Singapore means cruise operators do not want to deploy their bigger ships here. For example, Rhapsody Of The Seas has not been back since its first season here in 2007.

This means Singapore is losing out on opportunities to tap the fast-growing cruise industry.

According to data from the World Tourism Organisation and the Cruise Lines International Association, global cruise arrivals form the fastest-growing segment of the tourism market.

Ms Margaret Teo, the Singapore Tourism Board’s (STB) assistant chief executive of the development group, said the Asia-Pacific region, which has only 7 per cent of the world’s cruise market, has huge potential to grow.

A record one million cruise passengers are expected to arrive in Singapore by the end of the year, and STB is targeting 1.6 million cruise passengers by 2015.

Cruise operators, who have long complained that the lack of facilities is a big obstacle to the Republic’s growth as a cruise hub, and have been lobbying for a new terminal for years, said they are glad the project is finally under way.

The ICT had been slated to open next year, but was delayed by a year because the design had to be updated.

SOURCE: Straits Times

AN ONGOING collaborative effort between JTC Corporation and the National University of Singapore’s School of Design & Environment has thrown up several conceptual ideas for a new breed of industrial buildings.

JTC funded the project, which began in January this year, to come up with designs for sustainable industrial complexes with high plot ratios as Singapore looks to make full use of any available land, including in the industrial space.

‘We have a multi-pronged approach on how to maximise the limited land resources we have in Singapore,’ said Koh Chwee, JTC’s director for its engineering planning division. One method is to build industrial complexes with high plot ratios that are also sustainable in the long run.

Mr Koh said that right now, industrial land sites in Singapore usually have a maximum gross plot ratio of 2-2.5. He wants to increase the plot ratio to 4-5 in future for specific industrial plots.

‘They (the students from NUS) have come up with a few interesting and potentially applicable ideas,’ he said. ‘But of course . . . we still have a fair bit to go (before the ideas can be implemented).’

One idea, for example, was to build a mega ‘from ship to showroom’ complex around one of Singapore’s harbours – such as the port at Pasir Panjang – where goods could be shipped in and stored in warehousing facilities within the complex, or delivered directly to showrooms within the site where they can be put to other uses.

The complex, as envisioned by NUS’s Department of Architecture, will therefore be a novel one-stop mega container port complex where space is optimised ‘at berth’. Events such as the Singapore Motorshow could then be held at the complex itself once the cars arrive by boat, which will eliminate the need to truck them to other parts of the island in order to exhibit them.

In addition, the complex could also have living quarters such as blocks of HDB flats stacked on top of the roof. This will allow the land that the complex is situated on to be put to maximum use, and residents will also be able to enjoy views of the harbour – typically enjoyed just by visitors to the port.

Mr Koh said that the idea of locating many levels of the value chain of a specific industry within one industrial complex could be of use to the precision engineering sector, or for the food industry. For the latter, for example, it might be possible to have storage and training facilities as well as a test kitchen within a complex, Mr Koh said.

Discussions with the industry will be carried out and concrete plans could be ready in the next 1-2 years, he added.

Another interesting concept was for a ‘recycling industrial park’, which aims to support a whole value chain of recycling businesses that could spawn an entire new industry for the global transaction of materials and products that can be recycled or re-used.

In particular, the masterplan for the park contains a multi-storey carpark with no ramps; rather, cars will be brought up to the floors on which they will be parked by a motorised lift system. This means that the space used for ramps can be saved, and floors can have low ceilings as only cars will have to fit in there.

The collaboration between JTC and NUS’s Department of Architecture will throw up more ideas next year.

SOURCE: Business Times

SINGAPORE: An estimated record 1.19 million square feet of new office space was added in the third quarter of this year, according to the latest Singapore Property Market Report by consultant DTZ.

This increased the overall office stock by two per cent. The new supply in the third quarter was more than last year’s total new supply of 1.14 million square feet.

Newly completed offices included Mapletree Anson, 2HR, 71 Robinson Road and two transitional offices at Scotts Road.

The new supply resulted in an islandwide average office occupancy easing by 1.3 percentage points to 91.5 per cent in the third quarter.

The fall in office rents has also moderated in the quarter. Average monthly gross rents of prime offices in Raffles Place fell by 12.4 per cent to S$8.50 per square foot per month in the third quarter. This was a smaller decline than the 19.2 per cent drop recorded in the second quarter.

Private industrial rents also saw their rate of decline easing. Rent for first-storey private conventional industrial space fell just 2.4 per cent to S$2 per square foot per month in contrast to the 6.8 per cent decline in Q2.

Rents in other industrial spaces, including business and science parks, continued to fall but moderated from the previous quarter.

SOURCE: ChannelNews Asia

COMMUTERS will get more than connectivity when the train pulls in at the Esplanade MRT station.

Scheduled to open next year as part of the Circle Line Stage 1, the station will boast a shopping area called Esplanade Xchange.

There are similar shopping areas at Raffles Place and Dhoby Ghaut stations, with the most recent opened at Choa Chu Kang in January last year.

The Esplanade station will house about 40 shops spread across 2,000 sq m – or slightly less than half a football field – of retail space.

SMRT said it aims to have a good mix of retail and food and beverage shops.

The station, with a floor area of 19,000 sq m, is the largest of all the Circle Line stations.

It will have four entrances: at Suntec City; One Raffles Link; the War Memorial Park; and the former Singapore Armed Forces Non-Commissioned Officers Club.

There will also be three underpasses, linking commuters to Raffles City, Marina Square and One Raffles Link.

SMRT is marketing the retail space and will call for tenders later this year.

But Singapore Polytechnic retail management lecturer Sarah Lim said retailers will find it ‘quite challenging’ to draw the crowds unless they can ‘provide something completely different’ like unique food or retail offerings.

They may also need to position themselves as a niche shopping area like the Heeren, which caters to younger shoppers

‘Their main competition will be the Orchard Road area where the buzz is very strong with new mall offerings and a number of buildings being upgraded,’ she added.

While noting that there will be constant human traffic in the area, she pointed out that Raffles City and Suntec City are already established malls.

Without proper ‘positioning and branding’, the Esplanade Xchange could just become a thoroughfare for people heading to shops in these other malls.

SMRT said there are plans for 700 sq m of shops at some of the 10 other Circle Line stations opening next year, including the Bras Basah, Promenade, Nicoll Highway, Stadium and Paya Lebar stations.

Since Ms Saw Phaik Hwa became SMRT’s chief executive in 2002, she has pushed hard to make good use of its space in stations for retail purposes.

For its first quarter ended June 30, SMRT’s operating profit for retail space grew by 12.9 per cent to $12.5 million.

SOURCE: Straits Times