Committee of Supply – Head T (Ministry of National Development)

Building Our Future City and Home

Mr Alex Yam (Marsiling-Yew Tee): Mr Chairman, I beg to move, "That the total sum to be allocated for Head X of the Estimates be reduced by $100".

A verdant oasis, and nestled within it, flats, public and private, with smart features – elderly-friendly, family-focused, well interconnected, with clean air with minimal vehicular traffic. A city-state comprising other self-contained mini-cities, each a distinctive regional hub with their own commercial, business, social and educational facilities.

A vision for a future Singapore, one that we can all be proud of. This is not a pipe dream; this is work-in-progress. We already see signs of it in Punggol and Sengkang, also in the future developments for the Jurong Lake district, Bidadari and Tengah.

As we journey towards that vision, it is perhaps helpful for us to look back, look inwards and also look forward.

In looking back, it is important to remind ourselves that home ownership has been and continues to be a key component of our national policy and a key pillar of our social compact with Singaporeans.

We have gone from Third World to First World, as one of the key movers of social mobility has been our provision of affordable, quality public housing for the vast majority of Singaporeans.

Our housing policy is one that is much lauded internationally, one that has allowed generations of Singaporeans to move up the social ladder. Compared to many other countries like the United Kingdom (UK), Taiwan, Hong Kong and even Australia, just to name a few, the young there find it hard to rent a place, not to say afford to buy their own homes.

All these remind us of the purpose of development in our country: to provide better lives for our people. This brings us to the opportunity to also look inwards, at a housing policy that seeks to be both practical and efficient, and also one that is compassionate.

We have much to be grateful for. Flats for different people, different life stages, different incomes. Buy a home with your parents or stay near your parents, you get a grant. First-time applicants get a grant when buying a brand new or resale flat. Rental flats have been made available to young married couples waiting for their new flats to be ready. Flats for the elderly, to allow seniors to monetise their flats. These are but some of the schemes that promulgate social equity in Singapore. It is something which we should rightly be proud of.

I am also glad that the Fresh Start Housing scheme which allows families living in rental flats to be able to buy their own flats has taken off well. At the same time, I feel for those who continue to live in rental flats. I refer to an opinion piece in The Straits Times dated 16 February this year, and it is titled, "The Housing and Development Board (HDB) should apply its own occupancy rules to rental housing". The writers of the article highlighted the fact that though the occupancy cap for the number of tenants allowed in larger flats have been brought down to six, the cap for 1-room and 2-room flats remains at four. They argue that this cap should also apply to those living in HDB's 1-room to 2-room rental flats. In their survey, they claimed that 15% of those living in rental flats had more than four household members. They also state that overcrowding affects the well-being of children, family relationships and health.

I have seen this first-hand and I am sure many of us in this House have residents like that, too. I fully accept the Ministry’s stand that rental HDB flats are but an interim measure for families and they should be encouraged to move on to their own purchased flats. It would do wonders for the families living in these flats, particularly for their self-esteem and family relationships, if more can be done for them. What more can the Ministry do, in tandem with perhaps other Ministries, to do more for such residents and to give them that boost-up in social mobility?

There are also our elders who are living in rental flats. Those without kin, those who are single. Their silver years can be difficult, too. Often, they end up sharing a small flat with a complete stranger, with no privacy whatsoever. Some even endure abuse from their flat mates, living uncomfortably in silence because they are afraid of having no other place to stay.

Yesterday morning, the Ministry of National Development (MND) Facebook page also posted a link to an article on co-living. It is perhaps telling that the quote extracted for the post was this: "As it turns out, people do not really want to share bathrooms or bedrooms for that matter. But are fine perhaps with sharing kitchens, workspaces, gardens and the Internet".

So, how does the Ministry, therefore, respond to the changing needs even within our rental populations, in this case, for our lower-income families and, especially for our elders?

Another group of singles that the Ministry has made progress on is our younger singles. The newly enhanced Proximity Housing Grant also includes a higher grant of $15,000 for singles staying with their parents and $10,000 for those staying near their parents. Since 2013, the Single Singaporean Citizen Scheme has also been enhanced to allow for direct purchase from HDB.

However, while we continue to advocate strongly for more marriages and also strengthen parenthood benefits, society is evolving quickly. I have come across many single Singaporeans who face challenges in securing their flats because we have fixed the age base as 35 years of age.

Younger Singaporeans are becoming financially independent earlier, and are marrying later, how then can the Ministry reiterate the reasons for setting the bar at 35 years of age, or will the Ministry consider reviewing this in the future?

A separate group of singles also deserve our attention and a compassionate hand in addressing their difficulties. These are divorced parents.

Today, our policies perhaps are seen as compounding the difficulties of those already undergoing divorce, especially those who have custody of their children. While our HDB frontline staff do their best, it is perhaps time for us to take a better and closer look at how we respond to complex cases.

To give an example. One of my residents saw me almost a year and a half ago. Hers was a complex custody case. She had full custody of her two children, but only for a limited time, and then joint custody after that. She and her children were without a place to stay, moving from friend to friend, or renting short term from the open market.

I empathised with her and we worked on multiple solutions, yet each time that we tried, we were faced with a brick wall. Replies were factual but offering no real solace for a mother desperate to provide a better environment for her two young children and a safe haven for herself.

In Chinese, we have a saying, jing guan nan ban jia wu shi (清官难办家务事), even the most upright of judges will find it hard to settle family disputes, but try we must, and I think we can do better. Can the Ministry consider better case management of complex cases like these, if only for the children?

I am happy to report, for this particular case, her mother and her two children now have a flat to call their own. As we strive for a compassionate system, it is also timely for us to look forward.

One of the topics that occupied the space last year was the issue of diminishing leases. Along with those reducing leases, means that many of our flats – buildings and estate as a whole – are getting older. Therefore, there is definitely a need for upgrading, renewal and rejuvenation.

Today, we have the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme (NRP) and the Housing Improvement Programme (HIP) for our residential estates and the Remaking Our Heartlands Programme for neighbourhood centres. As more flats come of age, what else is the Ministry looking at to rejuvenate and refresh our estates?

While the future excites us, we need the past to also remind us of where we have come from. So, amidst a future skyline, we need signs of our past to be preserved as our built heritage. I spoke about this over the last two years of the Budget and hope that we can continue to do more.

Singapore's first tallest residential condominium, Pearl Bank Apartments, will be meeting up with the wrecker's ball very soon. Sold recently for $728 million, the apartments will, unfortunately, not be conserved. However, it is good to note that the developers have heeded the calls of heritage lovers and agreed to consider blending heritage elements into the new development.

What we can control, we do, but there are also clouds on the future horizon. According to the Climate Action Plan of 2016, sea levels are expected to rise, and with 30% of Singapore just five metres above sea level, what does this mean for our built infrastructures? How are we preparing for it? Part of this has been answered by the earlier Committee of Supply (COS) on the environment.

To achieve our vision of a future city and home for all Singaporeans, we need the right professionals and know-how to achieve this. How else will the Ministry also grow the pool of local talents that we have in the fields of engineering, design, architecture and technology? Mr Chairman, I beg to move.

Question proposed.

The Chairman: Mr Chong Kee Hiong, you can take your three cuts together.

Mr Chong Kee Hiong (Bishan-Toa Payoh): Thank you, Chairman. I hope more purpose-built flats, which take into consideration the needs of older generations, can be constructed. When they move into such units, it can also free up the flats that they occupy to increase the supply in the resale market, hence, moderating the prices of the resale flats and increasing choices for those who do not have access to Build-To-Order (BTO) flats.

On top of the enhanced Proximity Housing Grant (PHG), would the Ministry also consider increasing the supply of multi-generation or dual-key flats? Such units facilitate intergeneration caregiving and bonding with grandparents helping to keep an eye on the grandchildren while the parents look after their elderly parents at the same time. Most new flats will be built in new estates and to further encourage the elderly to move near their children, one of the best ways is to allow them to live together under the same roof. Multi-generational and dual-key flats will provide the elderly with some degree of privacy and independence, while enjoying the benefits of proximity to their loved ones.

Helping Low-income and Vulnerable Families

Helping low-income and vulnerable families secure a roof over their heads is one of the most important things we can do. HDB currently rents out about 58,000 flats to low-income households at subsidised rates.

I would like to ask the Minister: how long is the waiting period for these subsidised public rental flats? How many households are eligible but still on the waiting list? Will more flats be added to boost the stock of 58,000 units? Will the Ministry consider allocating more Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme (SERS) sites, which have been cleared but not immediately redeveloped, for such families? This will shorten the waiting time.

Overcrowding can be a problem in many of HDB's public rental housing. The occupancy cap for 1- and 2-room flats in the open market is four persons. How many of the subsidised rental flats have more than four occupants living together? Can the Ministry provide bigger households, especially those with children, with bigger units?

Overcrowded conditions are particularly detrimental to children. There is feedback that the environment in subsidised rental blocks can be unconducive for children with security, cleanliness and noise pollution being the main issues. To minimise such impacts on families living in these rental flats, what plans does HDB have to deal with these challenges?

Shaping Our Built Environment Together

I would like to ask the Minister for updates on measures to ensure high standards in building construction and maintenance and the utilisation of good-quality materials for safety. How does the Ministry enforce regular maintenance and checks in this sector? Are there plans to grow the pool of local engineers, technical and maintenance staff?

My concern arises from a number of incidents in recent years. There had been a few cases of falling building parts, including cladding and other external features, although we have in place Periodic Structural Inspections once in a decade for residential buildings, and every five years for other buildings. These are limited to checking for structural defects. Non-structural parts should also be checked, including exterior components, which undergo lots of wear and tear. Such checks are particularly important as the number of ageing buildings increase. I understand that the regulatory framework for the inspection of building facades is being reviewed. When will the review be completed and the new regulations be implemented?

HDB residents also face problems like cracking or popping tiles, leaky pipes and other defects. There were 700 cases of popping tiles in the first half of January. They occurred in different areas from Sengkang to Jurong West, Woodlands to Toa Payoh. HDB had said that such popping tiles were "consistent with the experience of previous years" and due to cooler temperatures.

Since these incidents have consistently taken place in previous years, HDB should take steps to minimise such problems through changes in the method of tiling and the type of adhesion materials used. Compared to other regions, our temperature range is much narrower and thus, more predictable. Hence, these problems should be more manageable and preventable. HDB should also consider checking the quality of workmanship and penalise or even ban contractors whose work are not up to par.

Another problem which plagues a number of buildings, from HDB blocks to commercial buildings, is lift operations and maintenance. From a Choa Chu Kang HDB block to Golden Mile Tower, malfunctioning lifts and the long waits for repairs have become an increasing concern. How can we prevent the installation of poor-quality lifts in the first place? Are the long waits for repairs due more to manpower shortage or shortage of available replacement parts? How severe is the shortage of qualified technicians and engineers here and what is the percentage of foreign and local staff?

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In addition, the deployment of new technologies and equipment, including drones, are ways to save on maintenance costs and improve safety. Would the Minister elaborate on innovative measures being used or considered for enhancing the safety and integrity of our built environment?

The Chairman: Mr Saktiandi Supaat, take your two cuts together.

Mr Saktiandi Supaat (Bishan-Toa Payoh): The construction industry is one which employs a large pool of foreign workers. Because it is labour-intensive, the cost of construction, coupled with the rising cost of materials, has kept margins low for the industry players. The need for the industry to adopt technology has also been a pressing need. This can help companies to be more productive as well as to reduce their dependency on foreign labour.

One area of significance is the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) which allows companies to build virtually before building for real. This technology will enable architects, engineers and contractors to work together seamlessly, and allow them to anticipate issues and fix problems before construction. Our overseas competitors from the United States (US), Britain and even China have been adopting this BIM technology. So, our contractors need to keep pace if we are to get a share of the business.

Can the Minister update us on what is being done to push for a high-tech built environment sector which can provide good jobs for Singaporeans and improve opportunities for local firms? In addition, how is the rejuvenating or remaking of our heartlands programme also linked to this?

Supporting a Self-reliant Community

Mr Chairman, our economy has been changing at a fast pace and, as a result, there would be citizens who are caught in the fast-moving situation. Some may lose their jobs and face financial challenges. A house is more than just a roof over one’s head. It reinforces stability and rootedness in the community. It is about identity and pride. Hence, for families who had to sell their homes due to financial setbacks, this can be especially difficult and emotional at times. Not to mention families thrust into financial difficulties due to loss of a sole breadwinner, divorce or even bankruptcy. I have seen some of my rental flat residents benefiting, for example, from the Fresh Start Housing Scheme. Most of the time, their young children benefit tremendously from a changed environment.

Hence, can I ask the Minister what is being done to help low-income and vulnerable families facing financial hardships? Can more be given through the Fresh Start Scheme, especially to help single divorced parents, get a slightly bigger flat than a two-room flexi-flat if they have more than three kids or more?

The Chairman: Mr Gan Thiam Poh, you can take your two cuts, please.

Home Ownership

Mr Gan Thiam Poh (Ang Mo Kio): Chairman, I welcome the news that HDB has started a new scheme to build flats ahead, prior to the launch. I would like to ask the Minister whether it is possible for HDB to review and reduce the waiting time for the applicants, so that they can collect their keys within two years of booking.

In addition, will HDB build more larger flat types? Flats with more rooms will reduce overcrowding for bigger families and facilitate procreation for those who aspire to have more kids. May I also request for more multi-generation flats to enable more three- or four-generation families to stay together? Many elderly residents have also told me that they would like to stay together with their children and grandchildren, but there is simply not enough space in current flat types. Some seniors also fear losing their autonomy and privacy. Dual-key units will allow them to have their private space to manage themselves.

Can HDB waive the resale levy and give more help to senior citizens and retirees who apply to right-size to two-room flexi flats, as practised in the past for Special Account (SA) applicants? There are applicants who may not have sufficient funds in their Retirement Account (RA) nor cash to pay for the flat but, at the same time, they may not qualify for rental flats.

Next, I would like to ask if there will be revisions to the terms and conditions for two-room flexi flats to enable more residents in rental flats to become owners. Also, how many BTO flats have integrated two-room flexi rental flats for singles and other types of flats in the same block to promote community bonding and integration? Lastly, how many singles have bought resale and BTO flats in each of the last five years?

Assistance to HDB Rental Flat Owners

Next, our HDB rental flats provide a lifeline to low-income and vulnerable families which have fallen on hard times. May I ask if the Ministry has the breakdown of rental flats that have two, three, four and five or more occupants? How many requests have been received from the applicants for a bigger rental flat due to the large family size and what is the success rate? Will the Ministry consider allowing them to own a bigger flat with a shorter lease at an affordable price first and then allow them to top up later the lease once their economic condition improves?

For large families, this suggestion would assist to relieve overcrowding, which can aggravate tension among family members already in difficult circumstances. Overcrowding is also highly unconducive for families with children and members, particularly the elderly, who are in poor health.

Home Ownership for Singaporeans

Miss Cheryl Chan Wei Ling (Fengshan): Chairman, home is a basic necessity for any individual and family. Without a permanent shelter in which one can call their home, it is inevitable for individuals or families to feel much anxiety and stress. Indirectly, this has broader implications on the society and can result in weaker social cohesion. Over the years, MND had been introducing different options to cater for home ownership of Singaporeans at different stages in their lives. This effort is encouraging and must continue to ensure everyone has a place to call their own. I would like to highlight a few categories of individuals for whom more can be done to assist them.

First, single parents with full custody of the children. Divorce is unsettling for those who have to undergo the unfortunate situation. It is not for us to judge the basis that triggered it. But for many who have children to care for, it is pertinent that they can provide a roof over the head of their young ones, especially if they are still schooling. For this, I am asking if interim housing over a short period of months can be provided to those who do not benefit from the sale of their matrimonial home, or if one party has been forced to leave the matrimonial home on short notice. It is increasingly difficult with small family units to assume that the divorcee can rely on their parents, siblings or relatives to help provide accommodation for them and their children. And it is even more difficult for those who are placed at shelter homes where the distance to commute is unmanageable for the children of different schooling age.

Second, seniors living in 5-room or executive flats with mentally incapacitated spouse. While HDB encourages our seniors to downsize and monetise their assets, for some of them, this is not a choice. I have encountered residents in such a situation. One has a wife suffering from severe dementia for years and they have no children. Without a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) or living will, they cannot downsize nor go for regular housing options to better finance their remaining years. HDB has advised for them to rent their flat out. But for those with a mentally incapacitated spouse, indeed, it is difficult to have another stranger or another family living in the same flat, be it for safety or emotional reasons. So, how can seniors like them be better prepared for the situation, given the likely increase in dementia amongst our seniors? I suggest that HDB assist and inform all seniors, the joint flat owners aged above 55, to be automatically encouraged to sign up for LPA.

Third, seniors living in short, as in less than 20-year leasehold private properties. Some seniors living in such properties are not well off. They might have inherited the property while others bought it when they were much younger. With a declining lease of the property, it poses a challenge for some to dispose of the property in the market. While we cannot cater for every condition, we need to begin considering the support safety net for these seniors. For these seniors living in such properties, will the Government consider exempting the review of the annual property value in their means testing for future aid scheme?

Lastly, families where the spouse is a non-Permanent Resident (PR) and listed only as a flat occupier. In the earlier years, this is common for some family units to have only a single name listed as the sole owner of the HDB flat. Usually, the flat occupier happens to be the wife, who typically is the home maker. Having lived in Singapore and raised their children here, some, to date, still remain as a foreigner due to different reasons. As they aged, it becomes even more difficult for them to convert to a PR or Singapore Citizen. The luckier ones may have children who have moved out to start their own family and are still able to support them. Others may not have any children or dependants. In the cases when the owner's spouse passes on, the plight of the living spouse will be quite tough. Finding a place to live in will become a tall order for many, especially if the women have little or no savings, having not worked throughout their life. Can HDB review the rules on how best to assist these individuals?

Put Service before Rules

Er Dr Lee Bee Wah (Nee Soon): Sir, MND's vision is "an endearing home, a distinctive global city". That is its true aim. And this makes a concrete difference to Singaporeans every day. However, there are times when its own rules get in the way of this mission. Let me raise a few examples.

I am glad of the new housing grants for singles to buy resale flats to live with or near their parents. But there are those singles who can only afford a 2-room BTO. These singles still face a long waiting time. We must not forget that for every average waiting time, there are those who apply many, many times and are still unsuccessful. Can we build more 2-room flexi flats?

Sometimes, it is not about the lack of flats, but rather HDB processes that prolong the process. One resident buying a balance flat told me that it took eight months from the time of application and yet the sale is still not transacted. After eight months, he is told to wait another six weeks for the grant process.

Perhaps, there should be a review of the whole HDB application process to see how it could be streamlined and speeded up. Is the delay due to a shortage of manpower? Or excessive paperwork, asking for information after information, or staff resigned and documents left in the tray unattended? There was a case last night. A resident told me that she applied for HDB Flat Eligibility (HLE) since February last year and still no news.

Another rule which I feel needs review is not granting HIP to flats built after 1986. The HIP scheme started in 2007. Then, the flats built in 1986 were 21 years old. Today, the flats built in 1987 are 31 years old, a full decade older. But they still do not qualify for HIP. About half of Nee Soon South was built in 1987. So, I can see that these flats need urgent repair. HIP will allow residents to do this at low cost and continue ageing in place.

May I also suggest we learn from previous batches of HIP and finetune the detailing? One such example is clothes-hanging racks. Many residents also asked why we did not replace rotting timber at the opening for the air-conditioners. It is very expensive for residents to do it individually. There is economy of scale when done during HIP.

Next, I would like to reiterate the difficulties faced in some repairing or construction work in landed properties. Not everyone is amenable to a neighbour's request to allow the workmen to carry out repair work, such as plastering on the neighbour's side. Will the Ministry consider a law where residents are required to allow access to carry out certain types of repairs or construction work?

Next, I would like to move on to feeding of animals in housing estates. There is a growing trend for people to feed strays, especially stray cats, in housing estates. But one has to exercise some responsibility when feeding these strays and clear up the food left behind. Otherwise this will result in breeding of pigeons, rats and pests.

I understood from the National Environment Agency (NEA) that the authorities do not consider it littering unless the food is left there for more than two hours. Why does NEA bother to spend valuable time and limited resources to monitor for two hours? By then, the feeders are nowhere to be found. Will the Ministry consider introducing stricter laws on animal feeding in public areas?

Lastly, I am glad to hear the setting up of the Infrastructure Office to tap on infrastructure opportunities in Asia. I would like to urge the Government to give local consultants and contractors more opportunities to participate in large Government-led projects in Singapore, so that they can build their track record. After all, without a track record, how can they venture overseas? I was told that some of the prequalifications called for Government projects are so onerous that none of the local contractors or consultants can qualify. In cases like that, has the Government thought of how to involve the local companies instead of just having them as smaller players down the value chain?

Elderly Poor and Home Ownership

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong (Non-Constituency Member): Mr Chairman, home ownership has been a core tenet of the nation ever since before Independence. Despite the Government's scheme to assist the elderly in home ownership, such as the Deferred Down Payment Scheme and the Temporary Loan Scheme for right sizing while having shorter leases for elderly owners, some basic flaws remain within our system, particularly for the elderly poor looking for the opportunity to own a home in their retirement years.

The elderly poor enjoy the same level of subsidies as the poor and other age groups, but is likely to have little or less time to earn any further income. Those who work are likely to earn less than what they used to do in their younger years.

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In line with the Prime Minister's recent message that we should look after the elderly, we should spare no effort in creating a society honouring our senior citizens, empowering every senior with the ability to own a roof over their heads and to live their lives in dignity should be the least we can do as a society to honour their contributions.

I propose establishing a senior support housing grant supporting any individual or family aged 55 and above wanting to get a short lease 2-room flexi flat for the first or second time. This assessment can be based on their marital status, age and income level to determine the level of the said grant offered of, say, up to $10,000.

For those who are elderly, poor and single, the additional single's premium is yet another absolute hit to their life's savings that they can otherwise spend in their retirement years. The fact that the single's premium remains at $15,000, even with a shorter lease being chosen, is another loophole that we can address for more affordable housing for our single seniors.

To reduce the heavy burden of the single's premium on our elderly poor singles, we should consider an additional scheme reducing the premium for any individual aged 55 and above purchasing a 2-room flexi flat for the first time on a shorter lease. The premium reduction of upwards to $5,000 based on their income level and length of lease upholds the rationale of the single's premium but reduces its impact for elderly poor singles who can then use their savings for their retirement.

The Chairman: Mr Pritam Singh, you can take the two cuts together.

Upgrading Ageing HDB Flats

Mr Pritam Singh (Aljunied): Chairman, many residents look forward to HIP as it addresses long-time gripes, such as pipe leaks, ceiling leaks and spalling concrete, the last of which occurs due to corrosion of steel reinforcement bars over time. While this is a natural wear and tear process, many elderly residents, in particular, are unable to mitigate the problem with regular painting for financial reasons and a relative lack of mobility for some.

In the course of house visits to homes where HIP works have already been undertaken, it is not surprising for residents to identify a re-occurrence of spalling concrete or a new occurrence in another area of the flat within a few years after HIP works are concluded. Although residents can request for the Goodwill Repair Assistance scheme, the cost for such repairs can come up to a few hundred dollars in some cases.

Would the HDB bear a greater part of the repair cost in view of the fact that the spalling concrete is fundamentally caused by the deterioration of the concrete floor slab in question? This view can be correlated with the point that spalling concrete repair is deemed to be an essential improvement under HIP. Would the Ministry look to reduce the residents' component from spalling concrete repairs, particularly for flats that have already completed their HIP?

Finally, as the HDB winds down its HIP programme, what are its plans going forward for the next few years? Does it plan to call for a new HIP programme for flats built after 1986? In addition, can the Ministry share whether it is exploring how it can collaborate from a whole-of-Government perspective with agencies like the Smart Nation Office, the Public Utilities Board (PUB) and even the Ministry of Trade and Industry's (MTI's) initiatives under the Built Environment Industry Transformation Map (ITM) to incorporate future technologies with its future upgrading programmes? Is there a possibility of pneumatic waste disposal conveyance systems to be part of future upgrading programmes at older HDB estates?

Reviewing Criteria for Rental Housing

Chairman, public rental housing remains an important feature of our public housing system. HDB recently announced that from May this year, the maximum number of tenants allowed in 4-room and larger HDB flats will be reduced to six, from the current nine. One of the reasons for this is to prevent overcrowding in HDB estates.

There are times when rental flat applicants share that crowded conditions at home make family living difficult, complicating already existing problems that are amplified in a low-income setting. Part of the public rental flat assessment process includes an HDB enquiry into whether an applicant has other means of family support. Very often, for rejected cases, HDB seeks the cooperation of the Family Service Centre to address disputes between family members. However, not all cases can be resolved, with some issues particularly intractable.

Would HDB, in line with a tacit acknowledgement that overcrowding can affect the living environment, consider the number of individuals residing in a current place of residence for rental flat applicants as a factor for consideration at the point of application?

Secondly, can HDB clarify if it intends to raise the income ceiling criteria of HDB rental flat applications in line with rises in real income as revealed by the Budget so that applicants who are in dire straits are not dissuaded from applying for such rental flats if their situation calls for it? Can the Ministry share how many rental flat applications it has approved for applicants whose gross income has exceeded $1,500?

Finally, can the Ministry update the total number of rental flats it intends to construct or if the current stock is envisaged to be sufficient for the foreseeable future?

The Chairman: Mr Png Eng Huat, you can take the three cuts together.

Expanding Home Improvement Programme

Mr Png Eng Huat (Hougang): Mr Chairman, Sir, many residents living in older estates welcome the Home Improvement Programme (HIP) for good reasons. The spalling concrete and water seepage problems I have seen in some of the older flats in Hougang are serious.

In the past, HIP would replace the main waste and soil discharge pipes in the toilets for all units as water seepage usually starts from the joint failure between floors. However, the last two HIPs I came across in Hougang would not touch these pipes unless they leaked. A number of residents I spoke to would like to change the pipes in the toilets and for good reason as their flats are more than 35 years old and the pipes, though not leaking, are due for a change. I hope HDB can allow residents an option to replace those pipes as part of the essential improvement work.

Next, many residents also wanted to do more for their ageing flats since HIP is going to disrupt their living environment for the next 10 days. The types of additional work some of these residents asked for are common home improvement works for things like changing the windows, changing the water piping for the entire flat or upgrading the earth leakage circuit breaker (ELCB), to name a few.

I am not asking the Government to subsidise this work but to provide an option to residents under the framework of HIP to change these common items in their flats at the same time. The cost of such improvement work can benefit from economies of scale sourcing if they are included in the HIP tender. While residents can make arrangements on the side with subcontractors, some subcontractors may not want to do such improvement works for the fear of breaking any contractual terms under HIP.

Finally, I have spoken about this before. I hope HDB would seriously look into redesigning the clothes drying rack offered by HIP. The current one impedes repair and repainting work using gondolas and is an eyesore to see so many metal structures sticking out of a single HDB block. Would HDB be open to tap on the polytechnics and universities to redesign the clothes drying rack for a change?

Designing Common Space

Sir, the HDB void deck despite, its namesake, is anything but void in the memories of many Singaporeans. Unfortunately, these open spaces we knew and grew up with are shrinking in many new estates. In its place are rooftop gardens and multi-purpose halls (MPH) about the size of two 5-room HDB flats. Some of the MPHs, unfortunately, were not designed with much thought and consideration for the very activities they were meant to cater for.

At a recent briefing conducted by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), I shared with the team some of the observations and actual feedback from the ground on the MPH in Hougang Meadow, a relatively new estate with studio apartments. Let me share a few anomalies about the design of the MPH.

First, the MPH in Hougang Meadow is built on top of a car park. To do an event at the MPH, the only way to load and unload equipment and stuff for the event is via a narrow passageway connecting the sheltered compound to the multi-storey car park beside it. Next, because of the proximity of the MPH to the nearby blocks, residents living on the lower floor can see the casket clearly from their windows whenever a funeral is held there. In one wake that I attended, the bereaved family shared that there is no place around the MPH for the contractor to place portable toilets. For a start there are no manhole discharge points. Even using chemical portable toilets is an issue as these toilets need to be cleaned every day, and there is no way for the service crew to do it in a hygienic manner on the roof top garden beside the exercise area and children's playground. The only place to locate the portable toilets would be under the block where the bereaved family lives. It is highly unusual for a wake at an HDB estate not to have sanitary convenience located onsite for bereaved family and friends who have to guard the wake throughout the night.

The design of the MPH also makes the sending off procession on the last day of the funeral very challenging. The passage on the MPH at Hougang Meadow to the waiting hearse can barely accommodate the pall bearers and mourners. They would also have to navigate the narrow passageway, pass the lift lobby at the entrance to the multi-storey car park and then make a U-turn down a deep ramp to a connecting car park and then to the waiting hearse at Level 1. The alternative route to take would be a longer walk along the same narrow walkway cutting through other void decks and surrounding blocks and to a busy stretch of Upper Serangoon Road. The same design issues are also present at Hougang Dew Court, another new estate with studio apartments. But the saving grace is that the MPH is located on the ground floor.

I have shared the above concern with URA in the hope that future MPH design for new estates would take into consideration the various requirements of the activities these sheltered pavilions are meant to cater for. As for the existing MPH, I hope HDB can look into correcting the design soonest as the void decks in these estates are too small and not suitable to hold any events like a funeral.

Heavy Vehicle Parking

Sir, the issue concerning heavy vehicle parking was brought up a few times in Parliament. We have a strange situation in Singapore in that we have more lots than there are heavy vehicles. But yet drivers are still facing inadequate parking lots in or near their estates. The demand and supply of heavy vehicle parking lots on the ground generally follow the movement and turnover of drivers living in an estate and this is something hard to predict or control.

The then Senior Minister of State for National Development in 2016 had described ways to address the heavy vehicle parking issues. So, I will not repeat them here. The solution highlighted by the Minister then will take time to bear fruit. In the interim, what can the Ministry do to help alleviate the issues faced by heavy vehicle drivers on the ground?

In the development plan for Defu Industrial Estate, is there a plan to build a multi-storey heavy vehicle car park as some resident drivers I spoke to continue to face parking problems in the heavy vehicles parked along Tampines Road and Hougang Avenue 7? A driver told me he has to wait a long time for a vacant lot. Each time when he works late, the chances of finding a lot would diminish greatly. He said he had to resort to illegal parking at times although he did so without causing obstruction or danger to other road users.

Can the Ministry put up some temporary heavy vehicle parks in Defu Industrial Estate in the interim? There are spots of vacant land there and these temporary heavy vehicle parks require minimal construction works and enforcement as all heavy vehicles have valid parking permits.

I hope the Ministry will continue to take a light touch approach in its enforcement of parking rules and regulations when these drivers have to resort to desperate measures to park their heavy vehicles so that they can go home early to get enough rest to drive the next day.

The Chairman: Assoc Prof Daniel Goh, take your two cuts together

Noise Pollution form Multi-storey Carparks

Assoc Prof Daniel Goh Pei Siong (Non-Constituency Member): Sir, noise pollution is a growing problem affecting Singaporeans who live in HDB flats today. Not only are the flats smaller than before, but the homes and buildings are also closer to one another now, thus it is not uncommon to meet residents troubled by stress from noise disturbances.

In 2010, the Straits Times published an article on ideas to cut traffic noise pollution, where it was reported that some of the measures used included building multi-storey carparks between residential buildings and roads to screen out the noise.

I would like to ask the Minister how effective building multi-storey carparks near HDB flats has been in reducing noise annoyances. Or has multi-storey carparks become themselves a source of noise pollution caused by the amplification of loud engines and screeching tyres? Has MND carried out studies to analyse the environmental and noise impact to nearby homes, or surveys of residents living in HDB blocks near multi-storey carparks?

Prefabricated Construction

The Government is taking big steps to shift towards prefabricated construction and generating lead demand via public sector projects. Some benefits include significant manpower savings and shorter construction times.

However, we have a strong renovation culture in Singapore, with homeowners aspiring to personalise their new homes. With more HDB flats moving towards prefabricated construction, how will this affect home owners’ renovation aspirations? Will HDB and the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) provide increased public awareness on the renovation and maintenance of prefabricated homes?

Secondly, buyers currently have the choice to buy non-prefabricated flats. I understand that HDB is aiming for 35% of new BTOs offered in 2019 to be using prefabricated construction. What ultimate percentage of new BTOs using prefabricated flats is HDB working towards? Will this create a price differential for resale flats in the future, given the strong renovation culture?

Lastly, as construction defects might take longer to show up in prefabricated construction, would HDB consider extending the Defects Liability Period beyond one year?

Public Housing for Single Parents

Mr Muhamad Faisal Bin Abdul Manap (Aljunied): Sir, the Government has made policy changes to level up the support for the children of unmarried single parents over the years, such as including them in the Baby Bonus Scheme, since 2017. But housing support for such households is still quite lacking. Currently, HDB exercises flexibility to help unmarried single parents with their housing needs on a case-by-case basis. But this flexibility is not good enough.

Sir, HDB has a scheme called Assist Scheme for Second Timers. This scheme, launched in May 2013, aims to provide assistance to divorced and widowed parents with children below 16 years old who may face challenges securing housing if they sell their matrimonial flat due to a divorce or death of a spouse. Under this Assist scheme, 5% of the 30% of 2-room and 3-room BTO flats in non-mature estates set aside for second timers are reserved for this group of parents.

Sir, the implementation of the Assist scheme is an indication that HDB recognises and is committed to assisting and lightening the struggles of single parents who face housing issues. As we are aware, unmarried single parents face similar challenges and struggles, if not more so, than the divorced and widowed parents. However, most unmarried single parents are of a young age and also a high percentage of them are mothers.

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Some of these unmarried single parents are not getting support from their parents and other family members, due to their soured relationship and, as a result, some experience displacement.

I sincerely urge HDB to take further steps in their commitment to assist single parents by formulating a housing assistance scheme that caters to lighten the struggles of unmarried single parents.

The Chairman: Mr Louis Ng, please take your three cuts together.

Waiving Ex-spousal Consent for Housing

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang (Nee Soon): Sir, going through a divorce is not emotionally easy for both parents and their children. And it makes matters worse when they have to worry about whether they have a home to live in after their divorce.

In response to the Public Petition I filed, MND has stated that "a range of Government agencies work together to ensure that no child is without adequate housing, regardless of whether his or her parents are single or married".

But the problem arises when parents do not have sole care and control of all the children and all the children are aged below 18 at the time of the divorce. They will need to get their ex-spouse’s consent to apply for subsidised public housing. This consent requirement is difficult since their relationship is clearly strained. I also note that sole care and control are now seldom awarded.

I do understand that in the last three years, HDB granted more than 200 requests to waive the consent requirement but I hope that the Minister can consider waiving this requirement altogether for all divorcees.

Integrating Rental Units into Community

Sir, I have two rental blocks in Nee Soon East and they are, in a sense, isolated from most of the other HDB blocks, with a school on one side and industrial properties on the other side.

I feel the stigma from living in a rental flat is strong, especially when they seem to be isolated from the community, and I worry about how children brought up in this environment will feel and what the impact is on them. I understand that there are existing HDB blocks where rental units are integrated with sold units in the same block, thereby integrating the community.

Can the Minister share HDB's experience with integrating rental units in the community and whether it has been beneficial for the children living there? Can the Minister also share whether HDB intends to build more of such blocks and, if so, when?

Increasing AVA's Budget

Sir, I have raised animal protection issues for the past two COSes and, this year, I really want to record my deep appreciation for the good work that the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) has done and to thank them for the tremendous progress they have made in the animal protection movement in Singapore.

While there are still issues to be worked on, nothing and nobody is perfect, but we are definitely heading in the right direction and the collaborative approach has yielded much success for both our residents and the animals.

So, this really is not a cut per se. In fact, I propose we do not cut their budget but hope that the Minister can consider increasing their budget so that the team that has done amazing work with very limited resources can do even more this year and can achieve even more progress.

Local Farming Sector

Mr Leon Perera (Non-Constituency Member): Mr Chairman, Sir, I declare my interest as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of an international research consultancy that does work in agri-food and other areas. Sir, nurturing the local farming sector is important for food security, which is a part of national defence, as well as for creating good jobs in what could be a high-tech, high value-added sector in future.

I would like to ask MND what proportion of the Agricultural Productivity Fund has been disbursed to date. When I moved an Adjournment Motion on indoor farming in Parliament in 2016, only a small fraction of the fund had been disbursed. I suspect good companies and projects do exist, as some have been highlighted in the media and in the Minister’s speeches.

Secondly, as I also touched on in my Motion, is MND looking into using underground space for indoor farming in the future, which London is doing, and which could bring certain food security benefits to Singapore?

Thirdly, recently, AVA has begun to offer 20-year leases rather than the 10-year leases previously for farmland, which is a welcome move. Can AVA confirm if this will be the trend for future farmland tenders? Also, what measures are being taken to ensure that the tendering process is fair to entrepreneurial startups vis-à-vis large international agri-business firms, since we may want to nurture innovative startups in this sector with the potential to become globally competitive?

Fourthly, around the world, a major trend is the increasing take-up of insurance and micro-insurance in the farming sector. However, our fish farmers have faced issues collecting insurance claims from natural disasters in the past. What has AVA done to help to educate farmers about insurance and the options they have?

And, lastly, Sir, and specifically in relation to fish farmers, can MND provide an update on the efforts to reduce the risk of disasters like plankton bloom and oil spills which can potentially devastate the livelihoods of fish farmers, among other harmful effects?

The Chairman: Mr Darryl David, you can take your three cuts together.

Improving Public Housing

Mr Darryl David (Ang Mo Kio): Mr Chairman, public housing is not just something that is a part of our national landscape. It is a part of our national psyche. With more than 80% of Singaporeans living in public housing and the fact that almost every Singaporean would have been to a public housing estate at some point in time, many visitors to our country are always amazed when I point out some of the more modern HDB blocks to them, saying that they look like private apartments. Indeed, such is the quality of design today that there are times when I myself cannot tell the difference between public housing and private condominiums when the two are side by side until I come much closer.

As much as the Government has continued to build modern, stylish and affordable new generation flats, it has also rolled out a variety of schemes and measures to enhance and improve the older flats at mature estates as well. I would like to ask if MND could share what plans it has to continue to improve public housing, especially for older flats and in the mature estates in the future.

Food and Agriculture

Singapore imports more than 90% of the food we eat. Although our limited farming lands and fishing grounds have made it impossible for us to be self-sufficient in food supply, we should, nonetheless, support our local farmers to adopt new farming technology to enhance our food supply resiliency.

Could AVA provide an update on the available schemes that our local farmers can tap on to develop their business? How will these schemes help us to meet our food needs and enhance our food safety and security?

I understand that AVA has, in recent months, tendered out several plots of land to vegetable farmers to experiment with new farm and farming technologies. Depending on the success of these projects, are there plans to help our farmers export their urban farming technology, or even other forms of Singaporean-developed agri-technology to the region and beyond?

Urban and Environment Design

Mr Chairman. From glow-in-the-dark trees, a solution that makes use of biomimicry technology and saves on street lighting, to the foot traffic electricity in London’s Heathrow airport, to parklets that have sprung up in urban areas to make city life more vibrant, much is being done all around the world for urban sustainability.

Parklets, for example, are very effective in increasing both green space and communal spaces in a city. Essentially, parklets convert curb-side parking spaces into small scale public parks where people can sit and relax. People get the chance to meet friends for a chat while enjoying the city, thereby increasing community engagement. Also, parklets replace parking spaces, reducing accessibility for cars and discouraging driving in the city, as part of a wider car-lite initiative.

There are also initiatives like New York’s GrowOnUs canal in Gowanus. Designed by Balmori Associates, a New York-based international landscape and urban design firm, the floating gardens act as sponges, filtering and cleaning water, as well as helping to provide wildlife with a safe habitat.

I would like to ask, Mr Chairman, what more can be done in terms of out-of-the box and creative ideas for the Government to partner with the people and the private sectors to make Singapore greener, more vibrant and exciting.

Breakaway Works on Landed Houses

Ms Sylvia Lim (Aljunied): Chairman, Sir, home owners, from time to time, will redevelop the houses they own. Sometimes, the works on landed property will involve breakaway works, when, for example, a semi-detached house is redeveloped to become a bungalow, or an intermediate terrace house is redeveloped as a corner terrace. These works involve breakaways from another house.

I have observed a few cases in my ward where such breakaway works have caused significant difficulties and anguish to neighbours, that is, the houses that are exposed after the detachment. One problem would be water seepage, as a party wall that formerly separated two adjoining houses would now become an exposed blank wall. Another concern that has arisen is whether works done by one party have affected the structural integrity of the neighbour's remaining party wall.

URA and BCA have issued a very helpful advisory guide entitled "Be Good Neighbours" that provides useful guidance on how home owners should go about doing their rebuilding works. It is stated that due consideration should be given to neighbours, such as doing Pre-construction Surveys of properties nearby and asking a Professional Engineer (PE) to conduct an Impact Assessment. The guide understandably spends a few pages on Breakaway works, due to the potential difficulties with newly exposed walls and roof structures.

When problems arise, for example, seepage occurs in the neighbour's home, how will BCA approach the issue? How far does BCA rely on the Qualified Persons engaged by the project owners to ensure compliance with the relevant regulations, or will it actively investigate? While it would be ideal if all disputes between neighbours could be resolved through mediation, much depends on the nature of the problem and whether there are structural issues involved.

It is not my intention to criticise BCA, as I am aware of the good and efficient work it is doing in many areas. The fact is that residents look to BCA to uphold standards in construction works.

Developing the Railway Corridor

Ms Low Yen Ling (Chua Chu Kang): Chairman, the 24-kilometre Rail Corridor from Tanjong Pagar to Woodlands is a development that has drawn wide interest from Singaporeans of all walks of life. It has inspired much imagination and plans and looks set to become an icon to shape new trends in land use, conservation, recreation and sustainability.

With its strong potential, the Rail Corridor will really become one of our brightest jewels in the western part of Singapore and in Bukit Gombak. Last year, we encouraged our residents to take part in the public consultation held by URA and the National Parks Board (NParks). Media reports have highlighted some of the feedback. We are looking forward to the many possibilities that the Rail Corridor will bring, especially for residents living in the vicinity. May we have an update of MND/URA’s plans arising from the public feedback?

As it develops the Rail Corridor, we hope that MND will take an integrated approach to land use, transportation and growing economic opportunities. For example, America’s Atlanta Beltline is one of its largest, wide-ranging urban redevelopment programmes. The 22-mile loop is based on the former railroad corridors encircling the city of Atlanta. It aims to ultimately connect 45 neighbourhoods and is now transforming the present landscape with multi-use trails and parks, modern streetcars or light rail transportation and affordable housing. The Beltline has also in its pipeline plans to conserve history, create jobs and contribute to public health.

Likewise, our Rail Corridor has considerable room for expansion. So, I would like to ask if MND is reviewing Government land sales in this area to capture or enhance the vitality of this development. I ask this because new residences or the introduction of commercial or community activities may release economic prospects that will energise the project’s offering. In addition, the historical significance and lush nature of the Rail Corridor make it an inviting spot for tourists to appreciate a lesser-known side of Singapore.

For all this to happen, and key to the Corridor’s success, is accessibility and also good transport infrastructure. Sir, I would like to ask how the needs of transportation to the Rail Corridor will be met. What are MND’s plans with the Land Transport Authority (LTA)? Can this high-profile development be better served by a Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station nearer than the current ones?

In addition, will the residents living in the vicinity of the Corridor be able to easily access its trails or features? For instance, I just went to Summerhill Condominium last weekend. The backyard of the Summerhill Condominium lies next to the fringe of the Rail Corridor. So, the residents from 20 over condominiums lying along Hillview Avenue hope that MND will allow a route to be constructed so that they can have a direct access to Railway Corridor instead of having to do a big detour. They are looking forward to the upcoming Coast-to-Coast Trail and also the new Nature Park Network announced by MND and NParks recently. Other attractions that will be at the doorstep of the western part of Singapore and also Bukit Gombak residents are a heritage gallery at the old Bukit Timah Railway Station and food and beverage (F&B) outlets at the former station master’s quarters.

As MND plans the Rail Corridor’s access points, we urge MND and URA to give close attention to how it can be reached by more residents living around it. Like the recent public consultation exercise has highlighted, the Rail Corridor is an important community space that the residents can share with fellow Singaporeans staying in the eastern part or even northern part of Singapore.

So, really, with good connectivity to the Rail Corridor, it plays a key role in its success. We are mindful of the need to also strike a balance between built development and nature conservation. So, we hope that with an integrated approach and careful planning by MND and URA, this can be achieved, as shown by the success of other green spaces like New York City's High Line or the Coulee Verte in Paris.

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With its unique qualities, the Rail Corridor in Singapore will not only enhance the quality of life but also create recreational opportunities for residents and many Singaporeans. It also has the promise of becoming a top icon emulated for its delightful combination of nature and biodiversity, for history and vibrant shared community spaces.

Assessing Performance of Management Corporation Strata Titles

Assoc Prof Randolph Tan (Nominated Member): Mr Chairman, I would like to ask for greater clarity about how the Built Environment cluster of the ITM focuses on management corporations of strata title (MCST) developments.

The number of such management corporations in Singapore has been growing, in line with the number of strata units. The large number of MCSTs would involve a large amount of resources and significant supply chains. The administration of such a large volume of resources by the MCSTs can have an impact on the output and productivity of industries involved. Some attention should be paid to encouraging the MCSTs to streamline their operations, adopt digital technology where possible, and improve outcomes in general. Hence, I have the following specific questions.

Sir, I would like to ask whether the Real Estate ITM covers the MCSTs. I would also like to know if there are programmes available for helping MCSTs to improve in efficiency and service delivery. Has the Ministry identified what the focus should be on in addressing the performance challenges of the large and disparate number of MCSTs that are currently in existence?

Finally, is there a concern that MCSTs will be considered a lower priority in industry transformation efforts?

The Chairman: Mr Ong Teng Koon, you can take your two cuts together, please.

Municipal Services Office (MSO) ‒ Services and Feedback Management

Mr Ong Teng Koon (Marsiling-Yew Tee): Mr Chairman, the Municipal Services Office (MSO) has been set up for more than three years now. At the time of the launch, many Singaporeans were happy to see that the Government was taking concrete steps to ensure that all municipal issues would be dealt with holistically.

In our digital age, users are accustomed to near-instant acknowledgement of messages and timely follow-up of any issues raised. Consumers are no longer passive users. They expect to engage with providers and give them their feedback, positive or negative, in order to improve the overall product or service.

To keep pace with expectations, the launch of MSO was a timely and necessary step to improve coordination amongst Government agencies and ensure that issues are resolved expeditiously. Since the launch, MSO has not been in the public eye much and the general population may not know how it has performed.

Beyond its current scope, does MSO have any plans to expand or to streamline its services? Could the Minister also give us an update on how MSO has improved municipal service delivery and the management of complex municipal feedback submitted by its residents?

MSO – Solution for Residents

Chairman, the OneService app is the centrepiece of MSO's engagement with residents, serving as the one-stop shop for residents to report, track and receive information on any issues in their area.

It makes it simple for residents to report any issues in their neighbourhood with just a few clicks. Just take a picture, fill in a few details, submit, press and voila, there you go! This is an important step to create engagement with our residents, as we need everyone to take responsibility for the quality in their own environment.

However, when I speak to residents, not many of them seem to be familiar with the app, and a good proportion have not even heard of it. According to the Google Playstore, there have only been around 50,000 downloads in Singapore. Given the potential benefits, could MSO give us an update on the uptake of the OneService App and are there any plans to further drive downloads and usage by residents?

I would also like to ask the Minister, beyond merely reporting of incidents around the neighbourhood, are there any plans to better utilise the platform to reach out to our residents? Does MSO have any plans to leverage elements of Smart Nation and the Internet of Things (IoT), such as sensors on lifts or street lights, to identify issues even before residents encounter them?

Efficiency in Service Delivery

Mr Baey Yam Keng (Tampines): Chairman, with the formation of NEA's Department of Public Cleanliness (DPC) in 2012, it subsumes the cleaning of public areas previously under the charge of various Government agencies.

This is a great step towards better efficiency of municipal services. However, the cleanliness of public housing estates still remains with Town Councils. I would like to ask the Municipal Services Office whether there is scope for better integration between the work of DPC and Town Councils.

Singapore already has more cleaners than a typical cohort of National Servicemen – 56,000 of them, really an army of cleaners. This is not sustainable, given the future outlook of an ageing population and the need to cut down reliance on foreign workers.

Last year, the Tampines Town Council reduced the corridor washing frequency from monthly to once every two months. Besides saving water, this frees up the cleaners to undertake more essential conservancy duties. In fact, as corridors are mostly just used by residents themselves, they are unlikely to be very dirty if residents play their part by keeping their own surroundings clean. So, I am appreciative of Tampines residents accepting this new arrangement and doing their part. Besides public cooperation, we need to think about how we can better organise the work that needs to be done.

So, speaking as Tampines Town Council Chairman, my experience tells me that most people cannot differentiate among the responsibilities of the different Government agencies. Unfortunately, the first finger that they point at will always be the Town Council. I am not saying that the other agencies are not doing their work. The fact is that various agencies are structured differently and we can do better by working together. The Town Council staff are very much on the ground and able to supervise the work of the contractors. In fact, we are also leveraging technology to help with monitoring.

So, if we look at the public areas the DPC focuses on, they include roads, pavements, backlanes, walkways, footpaths, footbridges, overhead bridges, drains, waterways, vacant state lands, community parks and park connectors. I do not expect the NEA officers to be able to check all these areas. Some of these areas are also very isolated or longish narrow strips of land that adjoin public housing estates which I feel there is potential for the Town Council to help with the cleaning and supervision duty.

While ownership and accountability run hand-in-hand, I wonder if we could just look at streamlining the deployment of cleaning resources in areas with a huge continuous expanse of public housing, for example, like Tampines. The daily removal of litter, which is done by DPC, could be outsourced to the Town Council, which already takes care of most parts of the HDB estate. Maintenance and repair of defects could still be handled by the respective agencies which own the land. Obviously, there will be operational details like contracting, budget and public liability that need to be looked into, but I believe these could be sorted out among the different agencies.

I hope MSO could explore how the actual execution and delivery of municipal services can be better coordinated at the whole-of-Government level, including Town Councils, so as to deliver services efficiently for our residents.

The Chairman: Minister Lawrence Wong.

The Minister for National Development (Mr Lawrence Wong): Mr Chairman, I thank Members for their comments and interest in MND matters.

MND's mission is to plan and build our city and home. It is a major undertaking and responsibility that span not just one or two years, but multiple years and even decades.

The Singapore we have today is the result of hard work by those who came before us. They master-planned our whole city, revamped our city centre, developed our housing estates.

Now, it is our turn to take Singapore forward. We must build a better Singapore for our children and future generations. We must plant the trees for them so that they can enjoy the shade. And we have a tremendous opportunity ahead of us to do this.

In his Budget Statement, Minister Heng Swee Keat shared the vision for Singapore to be a Global-Asia node of technology, innovation and enterprise, and there was broad support in this House for this vision. Mr Low Thia Khiang himself affirmed this in his speech during the Budget Debate. So, we have to work hard now to make this vision a reality.

There are many aspects to this work, but a major part of it is to build the infrastructure for our future Singapore. That is why we have a major pipeline of projects over the coming decade. Sir, with your permission, may I display some slides on the LED screens?

The Chairman: Yes, please. [Some slides were shown to hon Members.]

Mr Lawrence Wong: We have projects all over Singapore ‒ Changi Airport Terminal 5 (T5) in the East, Tuas Megaport in the West, we have the Jurong Lake District and the High Speed Rail, Woodlands, and the Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link with Johor, and the Punggol Digital District.

All of these projects would be coming on stream over the coming decade and they will help to strengthen our air, sea and land links. They will also help to strengthen our digital connections so that Singapore can be a more connected hub for the region, so that our city can be more vibrant and more attractive to investments and talent. More importantly, they will make Singapore a better home for our children and our future generations.

To achieve these goals, our first priority is home ownership for Singaporeans because when you own a home, you have a stronger stake in the nation, and a greater sense of belonging. This is why home ownership remains a key pillar of our nation-building efforts, as Mr Alex Yam highlighted. The Government remains firmly committed to providing affordable and quality homes for Singaporeans.

Members will recall how we had ramped up HDB flat supply in 2011. We launched almost 25,000 BTO flats per year and cleared the backlog at that time and, since then, we have been tapering the supply of new HDB flats. But we have tapered in a gentle way to ensure that there is sufficient supply. So, we offered over 17,000 BTO flats last year and we will continue to maintain a steady supply this year.

At the same time, we are watching the numbers carefully to ensure a balance in demand and supply for the longer term to maintain a stable and sustainable property market. Besides ensuring adequate supply, we remain committed to keeping prices affordable by pricing new flats below the market rate and having a generous subsidy in them.

One couple who have benefited are Mr Muhammad Fadli Bin Nordin and his wife Mdm Siti Diyana. They applied for a 4-room BTO flat in Woodlands, received $15,000 in grants ‒ this is on top of the subsidised price ‒ and the monthly instalments for the loan are fully paid for using the Central Provident Fund (CPF). So, no out-of-pocket cash, zero. Everything paid for in CPF.

While waiting for their flat to be completed, they moved into a Parenthood Provisional Housing Scheme (PPHS) flat. They benefited from the reduced PPHS rents last year, paying $900 instead of $1,100 per month. They gave birth to a baby girl in the PPHS flat, they moved into their home in July last year, their new flat, and we are very happy that they have just welcomed their second daughter last week!

We want to do more to help young couples like them with their first home. This is why we launched BTO flats with a shortened waiting time, not by compressing the construction, but by bringing it forward. So, we build ahead and, therefore, the waiting time for the couples is shorter.

HDB will launch the first batch of 1,100 such flats in Sembawang, Sengkang and Yishun this year. I am happy to announce that we will double the number of such flats in 2019 ‒ another 2,000 flats. The waiting time for these flats is around two to three years, as opposed to the normal waiting time of about three to four years.

Mr Gan Thiam Poh suggested to further reduce the waiting time. We will do our best and study how to do this, but please understand that it is not possible for us to do this for all flats, as some sites are just not ready for us to bring forward the construction.

It is physically not possible for HDB to produce instant flats to meet all of the demand. So, one way for those with more urgent needs is to buy from the resale market. And that is why we have taken steps to enhance the grants for resale flats. We enhanced the CPF Housing Grant for resale flats last year. We introduced PHG in 2015 to help families live closer together and, this year, we enhanced the PHG.

Taken together with all the different grants, when you take all the different grants together, first-timer families can now receive up to $120,000 in grants when buying a resale flat, and that is a 50% increase, compared to three years ago. And so, not surprisingly, we are seeing more first-timer families purchasing from the resale market, and I expect this to continue.

There are also some young couples who decide to settle down early, sometimes when they are still completing their studies, perhaps when the males are still performing their National Service (NS).

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Take the example of Mr Gerald Sim and Ms Stefanie Mok. Stefanie has just graduated; Gerald is still studying because he had to do his NS, so he is still studying. They are a young couple who have decided to settle down and would like to get married. In fact, they had been planning to buy a BTO flat since last year, but because Stefanie only started working in August last year, she did not have a sufficient period of employment to apply for grants.

Young couples like them may find themselves delaying their flat application for one or two years and then waiting another four years for the flat to be ready. I think that is a bit too long a wait.

Buying a flat is a serious commitment. But for young couples who have considered it carefully, I think we can exercise some flexibility to support them in their marriage and parenthood journey. So, we will now allow such couples to apply for the flat first and defer the assessment of income for housing loans and grants till just before key collection. For example, if a young couple wants to settle down early and are confident they can finance the purchase of the flat, they can apply for the flat first. They only need to pay half of the downpayment. This is already possible today. We allow them to pay half the downpayment. The remaining half is paid at key collection.

The flat will typically take up to four years to build. So, during that period, the couple can have time to build up their finances and, just before key collection, we will assess their income for purposes of determining the loan quantum and housing grants that they are eligible for.

This deferred assessment of income will apply to eligible couples from the May 2018 BTO/Sale of Balance Flats (SBF) exercise. We are also studying how we can further streamline processes to make buying an HDB flat much quicker and easier – I think the comments that Er Dr Lee Bee Wah made. In fact, we have already made several moves on this front. HDB has revamped the Resale Portal. All the eligibility checks are now done on one single platform. We cut down the appointment from two to one and, as a result, the application time is reduced from 16 weeks to eight weeks.

We have also made changes to our sales process and we started with the Re-Offer of Balance Flats (ROF) last year. Under ROF, all the unselected balance flats are pooled together in one common pool. They are not sorted out by flat types or by towns. So, applicants are put on a single queue and based on their queue number, they can choose any ROF unit that is available.

By doing so, we have been able to shorten the flat selection process. A typical SBF exercise, as Er Dr Lee mentioned, takes about eight months. It sounds very long, I can understand, but please understand that in a typical SBF exercise, there could be more than 100 different flat type and estate combinations. So, you have more than 100 different queues to manage. But with ROF, we have one single queue because all of the balance flats are pooled together.

So, because of that, we were able to shorten the flat selection process from eight months to six months. Our inaugural ROF exercise in August last year was a success, with more than 90% of the flats on offer being taken up. And just six months after the launch, about 400 families have already collected the keys to their new homes. So, we will continue to learn from this experience to see how we can improve.

Another area that we are looking at is the balloting process for BTO flats. This used to be much simpler and faster in the past. The applicants would attend a balloting ceremony. There were two bowls in front. The Member of Parliament would draw out two pieces of paper – one with the applicant's sales registration number, the other with a house number, and they match and this is it. After they get this, sometimes behind the scenes, they swap. Because if you did not like it, you can go and swap, but that happened without our knowledge. This was a simple process that used to happen in the past. This was Mr Phua Bah Lee doing the balloting in the past. And that was how we used to do it. It was simple, it was possible, because the number of flats and applicants were much smaller.

Today, HDB serves more than 50,000 flat applicants annually, it has to manage across different priority schemes with ethnic quotas to administer. As a result, it takes about six weeks to work through the entire balloting process. HDB has to check applicants' eligibility, sort out the requirements of the various schemes and quotas and, ultimately, ensure that the ballot is fair.

Still, I think, the time taken can be reduced. So, I have challenged the HDB team to see if they can halve the balloting time to three weeks. HDB has taken on this challenge and they are working through the processes and I hope they will be able to announce some good news before too long.

We are also very mindful that children and parents would like to live near each other to provide mutual care and support and that is something that we want to encourage. HDB offers various priority schemes, for example, the Married Child Priority Scheme (MCPS), Multi-Generation Priority Scheme (MGPS) and Senior Priority Scheme (SPS). These all help give priority to families to live closer together. Mr Gan Thiam Poh also suggested building larger flats so that families with more children can stay together.

That is, indeed, why we introduced 3Gen flats in 2013, and they had been well-received by home buyers. Mr Gan Thiam Poh and Mr Chong Kee Hiong suggested increasing the supply of 3Gen flats. So far, there is sufficient supply to meet demand, but we are monitoring the application rates closely and, if need be, we are prepared to build more.

There is also PHG, which I mentioned earlier, to help families to stay together and live near one another. Besides enhancing the grant quantum this year, we have also simplified the proximity condition to a distance-based one, within four kilometres (km). This will apply to both the PHG for resale flats as well as the proximity-based schemes for new flats like MCPS and SPS, which I have mentioned earlier, from the May 2018 sales exercise. This will give home buyers more choices of flats in neighbouring towns.

I am very glad to see very strong support from Members for our efforts to encourage families to live closer together and, through all the schemes that we have, we look forward to seeing more families buy flats to live together or near one another for mutual support.

While we help couples and families to settle down, we are also mindful that there is a diverse range of home buyers. There are second-timers, elderly looking to right-size, singles, divorcees and single unmarried, unwed parents. These are groups that various Members have talked about.

For second-timers, some face difficulties paying the resale levy. For those with difficulties, we are prepared to look at them and consider incorporating the levy into the purchase price. Many of them who are second-timers are also looking to get the flat urgently. In fact, for them, the better option is really to consider the resale market. PHG can help in this respect because that grant is available to second-timers, too. So, even if you are a second-timer, you buy from the market, first of all, there is no resale levy to pay. Secondly, they may get to purchase the resale flat with PHG. For those in rental, we have put in place a new Fresh Start scheme to support them in their home ownership journey.

For the elderly, I touched on this in last year's COS, we have many schemes to help them. We have built 2-room flexi flats for them. Again, they are priced with a significant subsidy to make sure that they are affordable. For first-timers, they, too, are eligible for grants, which will make the 2-room flexi flat very affordable for them. For second-timers, there is a levy to be paid, but we have capped the levy amount and adjusted it for the shorter lease. So, the maximum levy that would be paid on a 2-room flexi on a 45-year lease is $18,000, much lower than what a normal resale levy would be.

We have also made other enhancements last year, including deferring the downpayment until key collection for the elderly, when they right-size, providing a temporary loan, one-to-one counselling and an elderly priority queue at the HDB Hub. All these measures have helped, and we will continue to see what more we can do to support our elderly.

For the singles, that is another group that many Members talked about – Er Dr Lee Bee Wah, Mr Gan Thiam Poh and Mr Alex Yam. So far, more than 12,000 singles have bought new 2-room flats. The application rates are still high, I recognise that and we are doing our best to build more 2-room flats to clear the backlog.

Singles can also consider resale flats. Over the last five years, 27,000 have bought resale flats, more than the ones who have bought new flats. Again, the enhancements to PHG will make this a more attractive option. Because with the changes to PHG, as Members here have recognised, we are giving a higher grant of $15,000 for singles who buy a resale flat to live with their parents and now they are eligible also for a $10,000 grant to buy a resale flat near their parents. I hope this will provide more options to singles in the resale market. Again, taken together with all the other housing grants, singles may now receive up to $60,000 in grants to buy a resale flat.

Mr Alex Yam asked about the minimum age of 35 for singles to buy HDB flats. He mentioned that Singaporeans are marrying later, but the marriage rates are still high among singles under the age of 35. So, I think the age of 35 is still valid today. In any case, as I have mentioned earlier, we still have a backlog to clear, and we should focus on that and make sure that for those who are in the queue, we will build enough 2-room flats to help them get their 2-room flats first.

Another group that many Members talked about are divorcees. Several Members asked whether we can help them make a smoother housing transition, especially for the benefit of their children.

Mr Chairman, we recognise that divorce can be a stressful and emotional period, and a complex process with many decisions to be made. HDB provides advice to families on their post-divorce housing options to make their housing transition smoother. We help them purchase a BTO flat through the Assistance Scheme for Second-Timers (ASSIST), where they get priority when applying for a 2- or 3-room BTO flat in the non-mature estates. In the interim, before their flat is ready, they can rent a subsidised flat from HDB under PPHS. HDB also offers rental housing to those in need, including those who need help to tide over a protracted or acrimonious divorce.

One issue that divorcees may face is the time bar for purchase of subsidised flats. I think Mr Louis Ng mentioned this just now. This is a rule put in place in 1997 whereby, during the time bar, a divorced couple can only own one subsidised flat between them. So, both sides have to agree on who should be allowed to buy the subsidised flat. This is what we call the "mutual consent" agreement or requirement. The time bar was set at five years initially, and we have reduced it to three years. Since 2012, we have waived the mutual consent requirement for the parent with sole care and control of young children to buy a subsidised flat, in order to prioritise their housing needs. This has helped the majority of divorced couples with children, but there are others still subject to the time bar.

We have reviewed the matter and we have decided to remove the time bar completely. We hope that this will help divorced persons provide a more conducive living environment for their children and go some way to help families through an already difficult period of transition.

We will continue to do our best to help these and other groups, including single unwed parents with children. We already exercise considerable flexibility for such appeals, as I have elaborated upon in previous sessions, and we will continue to do so. We look at each case carefully and consider what is in the best interest of the child and, if necessary, we will assist the parents, or the parent and child, in purchasing a flat.

Senior Minister of State Koh Poh Koon will elaborate on how else MND is helping families in transition and various vulnerable groups.

Besides upholding home ownership, we must continuously look at ways to improve the way we build our future Singapore. Poorly designed cities can easily become a high-rise concrete jungle. We get all the problems associated with rapid urbanisation – crowding and social fragmentation. The city becomes a stressful and alienating place to live and work in.

But, at their best, modern cities with well-designed buildings and neighbourhoods can connect people and improve our well-being. So, we must innovate and explore new ways of building to achieve even better results.

One important shift is to push for higher quality and higher productivity in construction. It is especially crucial, given the major pipeline of projects that are coming up in the decade. We have embarked on many programmes and we have rolled out an ITM. Second Minister Desmond Lee will share about this in his speech later. For my part, I would like to touch on two important areas.

First, how can we build a more inclusive Singapore? Earlier in the Budget Debate, several Members talked about the importance of addressing inequality, bridging social divides and enhancing social integration. I think everyone here recognises that it is a complex issue that involves multiple strategies on the economic and social fronts.

Our urban and living environment also has a part to play to bring residents of diverse backgrounds together, promote social integration, and uplift the lower-income. So, how can our built environment help to foster a more inclusive Singapore?

I have a few suggestions and these are areas that we are working on. First, we must improve the way we design our buildings and public facilities. We are going for Universal Design, that means, designing for people of all ages and all abilities, both young and old, expectant mothers, as well as persons with special needs.

BCA publishes guidebooks and develops standards for Universal Design and disseminates them to the industry. In fact, our efforts have received recognition from outside parties, like the United Nations (UN), which praised Singapore for our "user-friendly built environment".

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We will continue to do more. BCA is looking at raising the bar further as part of our review of the Accessibility Master Plan and Accessibility Code. We will be engaging stakeholders, including public users, in this process.

We will pay special attention to the elderly, given our rapidly ageing population. All HDB estates are now barrier-free and we will see how we can further improve. We have been upgrading lifts in HDB blocks to provide direct lift access to households and incorporating elderly-friendly designs in our flats and estates. We also have the Enhancement for Active Seniors (EASE) programme to provide subsidised installation of fittings for our seniors, be it grab bars or anti-slip treatment to their bathroom tiles.

Mr Darryl David asked about the Government’s plans for the EASE programme. We are studying what more we can do under EASE. One particular item that we are looking at is to include assistance for those living in flats with multi-step entrances, and we will provide an update on this later this year.

Several Members also asked if we can enhance the designs of our flats to support our elderly. We have been looking at this and have introduced better designs for elderly-friendly estates and flats. One recent example is Kampung Admiralty. Within this area, HDB flats for seniors are integrated with a continuum of social and health services, so that the residents have easy access to all the services "under one roof". The feedback from the residents who have moved into Kampung Admiralty is very positive and we will study how this can be implemented in other areas as well.

Beyond better integration, we will go further by exploring assisted living. Assisted living is a model of living that integrates home and care. For example, within one block or even on the same floor, you can have individual apartment units together with shared communal facilities for dining, social activities and a range of eldercare services.

HDB will be working with the Ministry of Health (MOH) to pilot assisted living in public housing. We envisage a collaborative model where HDB will design and build the flat, and we will have to tap on private expertise to provide the services. We will pilot this in HDB flats and we will also study ways in which this can be done in private developments.

That is our first point on making the future Singapore more inclusive, in the way we design our buildings.

The second area is to ensure that our housing estates continue to have common spaces, public parks and greenery for all to enjoy. Several Members also spoke about this. It is critical, especially in our compact high-rise living environment. Mr Lee Kuan Yew started this with the push to make Singapore a Garden City. When we spoke with him in 2012 and asked him what more should we do to take Singapore forward, this is what he said: "Singapore must retain the sense of space. We're going to build taller buildings but we can’t build them closely together. There must be a sense of playing fields and recreational areas for children and old people – a sense that this is a full country with all the facilities which you expect of a large country but in a confined space."

This is the challenge that our planners have and they are very conscious of this. It is reflected in the way we design our HDB estates. The planners have a difficult job. They do not always have a large green field site to work with. Some sites come with constraints and they have to work around these constraints. They may not get everything perfectly right but we take in feedback, as many have shared, and we will continue to improve our designs for new estates.

For existing estates, we also have programmes to rejuvenate our estates, existing ones, to keep them vibrant and liveable. At the town level, our Remaking our Heartland (ROH) initiative has covered nine HDB towns and estates. We recently unveiled plans for Toa Payoh, Woodlands and Pasir Ris for public consultation, and we will finalise the plans later this year and start works thereafter.

At the precinct level, we have the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme (NRP) for our older estates built up to 1995. We typically select about 14 NRP projects a year, and I am happy to announce that, this year, we will increase the number and launch 20 NRP projects across the island. It is part of our efforts to provide support for the construction industry. So, we are bringing forward projects, particularly to help the industry during this period.

At the flat level, we have HIP, which several Members highlighted. This is for flats built up to 1986. We will finish selection of the existing eligible flats by the end of this year and expect works to be progressively completed around 2022.

Several Members have asked about expanding the scope of HIP and extending it to flats built after the existing cohort. As I have shared in this House previously, any upgrading programme is a major commitment that spans many years and would cost billions of dollars. We had just had a major debate on the Budget about fiscal sustainability and how Government spending is rising sharply, and how we need to raise revenues to meet these future needs. Any future upgrading programme has to be studied very carefully in this context. So, we are studying this very carefully. Eventually, when the proposals are put forward, I hope Members will support more resources for MND to do upgrading in existing estates as well.

That is our second area where we want to make sure that our estates have common spaces, parks, greenery that all can access and enjoy.

Thirdly, we can also facilitate more social interactions within the block itself. We already have the Ethnic Integration Policy (EIP) to ensure a better racial mix. We also try to mix different unit types within the same block, something which several Members spoke about. For example, in the past, we would build standalone blocks of studio apartments. Now, all 2-room flexi flats launched are integrated with other flat types within the same block.

For rental flats, likewise, these are the same considerations when we build rental flats. We try not to cluster too many rental flats together, and try to build them together with sold flats in the same neighbourhood so that residents can share and access the same communal facilities and amenities.

More recently, we have also launched three BTO projects with rental and sold flats within the same block itself. This is in Woodlands, Bukit Batok and Sengkang. The flats are still under construction but we will learn from this experience, get feedback about the lived experience in these flats and, if it is positive, we will certainly want to do more.

Importantly, it is also about how you design the block to maximise opportunities for social interaction. Some of these things, I would acknowledge, happen more through serendipity than deliberate design. I give an example of how, in the past, we did not have lifts on every floor. So, the lift landing somehow became a place where neighbours get to meet one another. I say this from personal experience because my HDB apartment was on the 21st floor on a lift landing, just next to the lift. So, the neighbours come and we get to meet them all the time, and you can have a chance to talk to them.

Today, lift landings are on every floor, so you do not have as many opportunities for interaction. It is meant for barrier-free access. I think it is a good thing, but you do not have that many opportunities to meet. So, we have to use other design methods to encourage neighbourly interaction. That is why in some of the new BTO flats, for example, in Dawson, HDB has tried out more seating areas in the common spaces near lift lobbies. We are trying out more greenery and rooftop spaces for residents to get together. These are different designs that are being piloted, that we are trying out. Again, it is something that we have to learn by doing, and from the experiences and feedback that we get, we can improve for each new project that we embark on. So, one major thrust in how we want to build our future Singapore is to make sure that we are more inclusive.

Another major emphasis in the way we build for the future is to make sure we have a more Distinctive Singapore. We cannot just be another modern city, one amongst many in the world. We have to be a city that stands out – stand out not by having the biggest, tallest or fanciest building but through our distinctive character and culture, our heritage and identity. This means capitalising on our strengths – our city in a garden, our clean and safe environment and our multicultural diversity and heritage.

[Deputy Speaker (Mr Charles Chong) in the Chair]

Part of our shared memories is captured in our buildings. So, we are, indeed, paying more attention to heritage elements in our planning process, as highlighted by Mr Alex Yam. Buildings with historical significance will be preserved or conserved and repurposed for other uses, as we have done with some of the buildings like the former Supreme Court and City Hall. Some old buildings may have to go but, even in doing so, we can find ways to preserve the memories of the place.

This is the approach we took for Dakota Crescent. We have heard the many calls for the place to be kept. There was a ground-up initiative by several architects to do this. Mr Lim Biow Chuan spoke about this in Parliament. We have considered the feedback and, in December last year, we announced that the central cluster of six buildings around the courtyard will be kept and repurposed, and that includes the dove playground which I think many have fond memories of.

Such efforts demonstrate that it is possible for us to combine both old and new to bring out what is distinctively Singaporean, and this is what we will do also for the Rail Corridor. It is a unique space where we can celebrate our heritage, culture and biodiversity, and it will connect close to one million Singaporeans. So, we are reviewing our plans around the Corridor, as Ms Low Yen Ling has suggested, to see how we can best make use of this unique space.

I agree with Ms Low’s suggestion that it is important that the Rail Corridor is accessible to all Singaporeans. We have been working closely on this project with the community, anchored by the Friends of the Rail Corridor comprising residents, students and nature and heritage groups. For a start, we are working on the central four-km stretch of the Rail Corridor based on public feedback. We will transform the conserved Bukit Timah Railway Station into a vibrant community node with amenities, open spaces as well as a heritage gallery.

As enhancement works for this central four-km stretch commence later this year, we will also improve accessibility to the Rail Corridor from adjacent developments like homes, schools, workplaces and transport nodes, including having new access paths in the nearby Hillview neighbourhood.

In parallel, we will implement trail improvement works along other stretches of the Rail Corridor this year, so that virtually the entire stretch of the Rail Corridor will be connected seamlessly. You can walk, run and cycle along the entire 24-km stretch by 2021.

The Rail Corridor will also serve as a gateway to parks and trails island-wide. It will intersect with the upcoming Coast-to-Coast Trail, which will span across Singapore from Jurong Lake Gardens in the West to Coney Island in the Northeast. It will have convenient access to nature parks around the Bukit Timah and Central Catchment Nature Reserves. It will connect to the Round Island Route, which is a 150-km continuous green trail which loops around the entire island.

Mr Chairman, even as we embark on our next phase of development, we are committed to enhancing our City in a Garden and making Singapore an even greener and more beautiful home for all to enjoy.

I have shared our plans for our future city and home. To achieve these bold plans, we need to work together. The Government cannot do this alone. We are building up capabilities, not just within the Government but also, as Mr Alex Yam said, amongst our architects, engineers, consultants and builders. But I agree with Mr Darryl David that the Government needs to partner the community, interest groups, businesses and industries in building our future city.

We can start with our neighbourhoods. There are many opportunities to co-create the common spaces in our HDB towns. Recently, we launched a pilot in Sembawang called Build-a-Playground. We build new playgrounds all the time. All of us see this in our estates but this one was different. We spent time engaging the residents. They worked together on the project from conceptualisation to design, to even the final assembly of the playground onsite. It took longer than usual – about two years to build this playground. This is much longer than the normal time it would take to build a playground. But the end result was worth it. Residents shared that they love the project, they take pride in it. Because they take ownership of the playground, they were involved in it, they appreciate and enjoy it much more.

This is a meaningful way to shape our common spaces together and we hope to do more of this in other estates, too. We want to enable such ground-up initiatives to shape our neighbours. HDB already provides support for residents to activate their community spaces and we hope that more would take up the funding support from HDB.

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One example is a project titled "Welcome to our Backyard" led by residents and volunteers in Aljunied Crescent. So, Members can see the before and after pictures. What was before was an empty grass patch and, because of the community involvement, they took ownership of it, they transformed it into a warm welcoming backyard with swings and mini gardens.

Besides our neighbourhoods, we have also supported many community-initiated projects in our public spaces all over Singapore. Last year, a group of stakeholders in Kampong Glam had an idea to spruce up a small park at Sultan Gate. With URA’s support, they installed park benches, picnic tables, lighting and even a giant swing. Now, there is a cosy spot for the public to gather and interact.

These are just two examples of the wonderful things that can happen when everybody takes ownership of the places we live and work in and we shape our urban landscape together. There is tremendous potential for all of us to do more together.

As a nation of home owners, all of us have a part to play in shaping our future city and home. In the last 50 years, we have transformed from mudflats to a metropolis. Let us now work together on our next lap of urban transformation to be a green, smart and liveable city, and to be a vibrant global city that is inclusive and that is distinctively Singaporean, a place we are all proud to call home. [Applause.]

The Chairman: Minister Grace Fu.

The Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien): Mr Chairman, I would like to thank Members Mr Ong Teng Koon and Mr Baey Yam Keng for their interest in MSO's work.

Every day, Government agencies and Town Councils receive some 3,000 feedback on municipal issues from residents. Most of them are straightforward and dealt with quickly. A good number require multiple agencies to work together to resolve them. These issues could range from the provision and maintenance of local infrastructure, such as footpaths and railings across different land boundaries, to complex problems, such as hoarding of items in HDB flats.

MSO was formed three years ago to improve coordination for these cross-cutting issues. To Mr Ong Teng Koon's query, I am pleased to report that good progress had been made by the Government agencies, Town Councils and MSO in improving municipal service delivery. It now takes 11 working days to resolve 90% of complex feedback involving multiple parties, a marked improvement from the 16 working days in end 2015. The various initiatives undertaken by MSO to improve coordination, such as appointing lead agencies to settle municipal issues regardless of land ownership, have borne fruit. These initiatives have resulted in the public’s needs being addressed more effectively and more promptly.

It has also engendered a culture change. Our agencies are working better together. They are adopting a more collaborative and resident-centric approach in handling interagency issues. There is a shift in mindsets in serving the public.

One such example was how NParks and HDB worked together on a request for a staircase connecting Clementi Avenue 6 and Ulu Pandan Park Connector. It seemed like a simple request, but there were complications. The area was earmarked for future public housing development and, hence, the staircase had to be planned with future developments in mind. NParks dealt with the presence of high-tension cables underground by using lightweight precast slabs to minimise deep excavation works. A ramp was also thoughtfully added at the side of the staircase for cyclists to access the Park Connector. There are many of such examples, which illustrate how our agencies are working well together and addressing residents’ needs holistically.

While we see more of such efforts, there remain municipal issues falling in grey areas where MSO can play a role to help. As Mr Ong Teng Koon had rightly pointed out, MSO focuses heavily on improving interagency processes which are not apparent to the public. Pigeon-related nuisance is one such example. Town Councils oversee the cleaning of common areas, AVA takes enforcement action against pigeon feeders, while NEA takes enforcement action in instances where high-rise littering is involved. Residents' Committees (RCs) of the People's Association (PA) are often roped in to counsel the feeders. These agencies work together in order for pigeon-related issues to be resolved holistically. To support their efforts, MSO has helped to formulate end-to-end workflows to clarify roles and responsibilities and tighten coordination in their handling of such pigeon-related nuisance.

Similar processes have also been developed by MSO for other complex issues, including animal hoarding, involving AVA, HDB, NEA, the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) and social welfare agencies; and the management of outdoor display areas, involving Town Councils and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF). Moving forward, MSO will continue to engage our residents and stakeholders to identify more of such grey areas where we can improve coordination and support the agencies and Town Councils in their efforts to serve residents better.

As we improve processes, we also need to ensure that our platforms and solutions continue to meet residents’ evolving needs.

Mr Ong had asked about the take-up of the OneService (OS) platforms to date and plans to use the platform to better reach out to our residents. In 2017 alone, the number of registered users and cases submitted grew by 43% and 100% respectively, reaching 114,000 registered users and 153,000 cases submitted. This is the result of MSO constantly improving the OS platforms to better serve the needs of our residents.

We introduced the OS App in 2015. Back then, it had six reporting categories and allowed residents to report municipal issues to Government agencies. Today, this has expanded to eleven categories, covering not just municipal issues under the purview of Government agencies, but also those of Town Councils and even private entities. For example, the Facilities in HDB Estates and Shared Bicycles categories introduced last year allow members of the public to report municipal issues in HDB estates to the Town Councils, and indiscriminately parked Shared Bicycles to bike operators. This makes it more convenient for residents to report on issues they encounter and also enable Government agencies and Town Councils to collect data more systematically to guide future planning and operations through studying trends and analysing hotspots. Going forward, MSO will also incorporate data collected from relevant elements of our Smart Nation infrastructure, such as sensors, to further enhance our analysis of problem areas and move upstream to better anticipate the needs of our residents.

MSO has also introduced the OS Portal, which aggregates municipal information for residents. This includes information from diverse sources which are of interest to residents, such as block washing schedules, e-waste recycling points and HDB's Welcome Parties.

Our goal is to transform the OS channels into a one-stop community platform that can meet residents' diverse municipal needs. In the coming year, besides providing feedback and accessing information, residents will also be able to use the OS channels to perform transactions, participate in community events and give their feedback and comments on local improvement programmes to help co-create their living environment. In the long term, we hope to make the OS channels a one-stop platform to address their municipal needs comprehensively.

Through the use of digital technology, MSO aims to bring about greater convenience to our residents and also to make it easier for residents to engage with Government agencies and Town Councils and actively participate in shaping their living environment.

As MSO works with our partners to improve the effectiveness of our solutions and platforms, we also work with Government agencies to improve productivity and cost efficiency. This is especially important in the manpower-lean environment today. Mr Baey Yam Keng asked if there is scope for greater integration in the area of cleaning between the work of Government agencies and Town Councils in order to achieve greater efficiency.

That is a good suggestion, which MSO will study. However, MSO wants to move even more upstream, by improving processes at the planning and design stage. Good planning and design make our municipal infrastructure cheaper to upkeep in the long run. For a start, MSO and NEA are working with infrastructure agencies, in consultation with the Town Councils, to establish design specifications and guidelines that will facilitate cleaning operations, including automated cleaning operations. The guidelines on the design of new public infrastructure will make them easier to clean and support mechanisation efforts by cleaning contractors.

Beyond cleaning, MSO is also looking at how to improve processes to facilitate timely and efficient responses to local infrastructure requests. While there are well-established funding schemes, such as LTA’s Walk2Ride Scheme, and MND's Estate Upgrading Programme (EUP), funding gaps for small-scale infrastructure at the local level do exist from time to time. MSO has thus piloted a small funding scheme to plug this gap. Some 140 infrastructure requests were received for the pilot. These are small-scale but nevertheless important requests that make a positive difference to residents’ daily living, such as having handrails up a footbridge crossing Geylang River, and lightings along a footpath near Punggol Point Light Rail Transit (LRT) station.

With the success of the pilot, MSO will be launching the Local Infrastructure Projects (LIP) scheme for small-scale local infrastructure on state land in 2018. For a start, the LIP scheme will have an initial budget of $3.6 million for the next two years.

Besides LIP, MSO has also worked with our partner agencies to develop escalation mechanisms so that conflicting demands or constraints among the agencies do not result in undue delays in the planning, development and maintenance of connectivity-related infrastructure. This will help to bridge the gap and support our agencies in meeting local infrastructure needs of residents more responsively.

To conclude, municipal service delivery has made significant progress. Leveraging the combined efforts of Government agencies, Town Councils and residents, MSO has worked to reduce overlaps and duplications, plug gaps in the municipal landscape and deliver better living experiences for our residents. MSO will continue to facilitate collaboration, build capabilities and harness technology, so as to enable the delivery of cost-effective and quality municipal services for residents and a better living environment for all.

The Chairman: Minister Desmond Lee.

The Second Minister for National Development (Mr Desmond Lee): Chairman, at the appropriate juncture, may I show some slides?

The Chairman: Yes. [Some slides were shown to hon Members.]

Mr Desmond Lee: Mr Saktiandi asked how we will create a high-tech built environment sector that creates good jobs for Singaporeans and improves opportunities for local firms. Over the past year, the Government has been partnering our industry, unions and institutes of higher learning (IHLs) to formulate ITMs for key sectors in the Built Environment cluster. These are construction, real estate, security, environmental services and landscaping. These five sectors cover the span of the infrastructure lifecycle, from conception, design and construction to operations and maintenance.

We want to help firms level up their capabilities, seize new opportunities and create good jobs for Singaporeans. So, we are now shifting gears to implement these plans. For example, the Construction ITM focuses on two areas to improve productivity and competitiveness in our sector. These are Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) and Integrated Digital Delivery (IDD). DfMA involves the prefabrication of building components in a highly automated and mechanised manner, just like the manufacturing process, before onsite assembly. This saves time, reduces our reliance on low-skilled foreign labour, and results in more consistent quality.

As Minister Lawrence Wong had said, we need to make major shifts in the way we build to achieve better results. Driving DfMA adoption for greater productivity is one such decisive shift. And to help our firms do so, we will continue to create lead demand and, at the same time, build more Integrated Construction and Prefabrication Hubs (ICPHs) to ensure a sufficient supply of prefabricated building components. By 2020, we target to increase the DfMA adoption rate to 40% of new developments, up from about 20% today.

We are also pushing for greater adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Integrated Digital Delivery (IDD). As Mr Saktiandi has described, BIM helps firms visualise detailed building designs in virtual 3D form before they are actually built, thus minimising potential issues during construction. IDD builds on top of BIM to connect various project parties through digital information. It also provides useful information about the building, for future maintenance or retrofitting.

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Since 2015, building plans for developments larger than 5,000 sq metres have to be submitted to BCA and other regulatory agencies using BIM. Eighty-six percent of our large consultants and 65% of our large contractors now make good use of BIM. We will also drive IDD adoption so that our built environment sector can reap further benefits from the entire construction and building lifecycle. To facilitate this, we will develop shared platforms and standards to increase IDD interoperability across the entire environment value chain. By 2020, we target to have between 40 and 60 projects adopting IDD, compared to five projects today.

Sir, adoption of these technologies is not just for big companies. Many smaller firms are also building up their capabilities in DfMA and IDD. One such example is a local firm called Tong Hai Yang, which is a homegrown construction and interior firm. The firm set up a subdivision to explore DfMA and this led it to develop its modular Prefabricated Bathroom Units (PBUs) as well as customised solutions to improve the fabrication and onsite deployment of its product.

Another example is Shin Construction, a local small and medium enterprise (SME) specialising in plumbing. As a plumbing subcontractor for residential developments, Shin’s adoption of BIM helped eliminate potential clashes between mechanical, electrical and plumbing pipes and air-conditioning ducts. This helped the project team avoid abortive works and delays during the construction phase.

As Er Dr Lee Bee Wah noted, local contractors also need to build up their capabilities and track record to succeed both locally and abroad. In this regard, Er Dr Lee said that stringent prequalifications in Government projects could prevent local firms qualifying and, hence, building up relevant experience.

We should clarify that prequalifications are not intended to limit opportunities, but to ensure that tenderers have the ability to tackle important and complex public works, such as MRT or deep tunnelling projects. While it is up to agencies to set their own requirements, they certainly have to be fair and not be unduly onerous. They should also ensure that their tenders obtain an adequate number of bids, to ensure fair competition.

Our approach to help firms is to give them the resources they need to build up their capabilities, so that they become more competitive. For example, contractors can tap on various schemes under BCA’s Construction Productivity and Capability Fund (CPCF) to build up their capabilities and to upgrade their workforce. About $530 million in funds have already been committed under CPCF, benefiting over 9,000 firms, 90% of which are our SMEs. In tandem, we also reviewed our procurement framework to place more emphasis on quality and this will facilitate healthier and more sustainable competition. With improved capabilities, local contractors will better their chances of qualifying for more construction projects.

In addition, we will also try to help our local firms internationalise, if they wish to do so, by finding opportunities for them to team up for large overseas ventures. If our firms can offer together a unique "Singaporean" way of undertaking the entire development cycle, such as through BIM and IDD, this will certainly enhance their competitive edge. One example of an opportunity is in Amaravati, the new capital city of the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. A Singaporean consortium comprising Ascendas-Singbridge and Sembcorp has secured a startup area to kickstart the new city’s development. Singapore companies with the relevant expertise should consider whether they can export their services there as part of the consortium.

Sir, we also launched the Real Estate ITM last month, focusing on two areas: one, property transactions; and two, facilities management (FM). In the property transactions space, we aim to streamline the process to make it more convenient for buyers, sellers and agents. For FM, our goal is to transform the way we maintain our infrastructure so that we can be more efficient and effective. Assoc Prof Randolph Tan is quite right when he said that we need to make good use of technology and better streamline our building management operations. This is especially important as our buildings and infrastructure age and as we continue to face manpower constraints.

We will, therefore, encourage building owners and MCSTs to invest in better and more effective FM solutions, such as real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance. This will streamline their processes, enhance user experience and reap long-term cost savings. This, of course, will depend also on demand that the buyers of these services, such as condominiums, industrial properties and commercial buildings recognising the value and the savings that can be reaped through having smart FM capabilities.

We will also encourage consultants and developers to systematically consider maintainability outcomes in the design and construction phase. This will enhance the sustainability of our buildings by reducing lifecycle maintenance costs arising from inefficient design. To operationalise this, BCA will be bringing industry, unions and the Government together in a Tripartite FM Implementation Committee (FMIC) to formulate, oversee and review the implementation of the plans for this sector.

There are many synergies among the various ITMs under the built environment Cluster. Platforms developed under one ITM could also benefit companies in different stages of the building lifecycle. Firms in this ecosystem can do much more to work together across functions and sectors.

To drive our built environment implementation efforts, BCA will set up a transformation office for the whole built environment sector, as previously announced. We will call this office Build-Singapore (Build.SG) to reflect its purpose of galvanising industry transformation to build our future city. While its initial focus will be to implement the Construction ITM, its longer-term goal is to reap synergies from the various ITMs in the built environment cluster.

Build.SG will work closely with Trade Associations and Chambers (TACs), IHLs and unions to engage our industry and turn our ITM plans into action. In particular, it will focus on helping firms build capabilities and deploy key technologies and deploy key technologies and lending support to firms keen on exploring overseas opportunities.

Build.SG will also act as a one-stop career office to attract, retrain and upskill professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) in the built environment domain. Sir, the built environment transformation is more than just about effecting firm-level change. Those working in the sector must also upgrade themselves to continue to thrive in the industry. And employers need to provide their employees with opportunities to do so.

Sir, I met Mr Muhammad Shaban at the launch of JTC’s J-Ops Command Centre last month. After graduating from the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), Shaban joined JTC in 1995 as a lift technician carrying out lift maintenance work. With JTC’s encouragement, he expanded into more complex areas, such as Building Management Systems. Eventually, his expertise enabled him to start taking on greater responsibilities, including supervising less experienced technical staff. He is now a key member of JTC’s Building Management Division, overseeing day-to-day operations in the J-Ops Command Centre, which is a centralised command nerve centre that monitors building operations and performance across JTC’s buildings. There, he works with building managers and engineers in building diagnosis and fault detection. We have invited Shaban to contribute to the improvement of the FM sector at the national level through FMIC. And I am glad that he has agreed to take up this challenge.

It is people like Shaban, with real, deep skills and experience who thrive on new challenges, continuously upgrade their skills and who are passionate about their work that will enable us to transform our built environment sector and provide new opportunities for Singapore firms and Singaporean employees.

Sir, in our built environment transformation journey, we also want firms and the research community to partner us in creating new technologies and solutions. As part of this effort, MND and our partner agencies will be launching a series of calls for research ideas under the Cities of Tomorrow Research and Development (R&D) Programme over the next few months, committing up to $40 million of research funds. We hope that the industry and research community will collaborate with us in this journey to transform the built environment sector through innovation.

So far, we have spoken about our efforts to transform the built environment sector to grow our economy and create good jobs. However, as our city ages, and as our focus also begins to be on FM and maintenance of the city, we will also need to find ways to future-proof our infrastructure, so that it continues to be safe and functional.

Mr Chong Kee Hiong has asked how we ensure that buildings are designed and constructed to be structurally safe, enforce regular maintenance and checks, and grow a sustainable pool of local skilled technical staff to support this. There are already measures to ensure building safety. For example, developers must appoint a Qualified Person (QP), who is a registered PE, to carry out structural design. And for more complex works, the design must be checked by independent Accredited Checkers. A QP and site supervisors must supervise building works to ensure that they are done in accordance with the approved plans. Building materials must also comply with prescribed standards and be tested by accredited laboratories. BCA will conduct site audits to ensure compliance with requirements.

BCA also requires regular inspections to ensure buildings remain structurally safe. As Mr Chong Kee Hiong pointed out, it is also important to ensure that non-structural aspects like building facades are well-maintained, especially as the city grows older. We have studied this and will be introducing façade inspection requirements. The regime will focus on buildings taller than 13 metres and older than 20 years, as they may pose higher risks. Inspection must be carried out by trained personnel and be conducted once every seven years.

Now, this takes into consideration the expected lifespan of some common façade materials, allows for detection of façade deterioration to facilitate timely repairs and aligns this with the typical length of Repair and Redecoration (R&R) cycles for HDB estates and the majority of condominium developments, to save costs. We aim to finalise the relevant legislation by end of this year. Building owners will be given about one year’s lead time to prepare, before the requirement comes into effect. BCA will continue to engage stakeholders on implementation details to minimise the burden of cost.

We will also support the new façade inspection regime by introducing inspection guidelines and strengthening R&D efforts to look into more effective and productive ways to carry out façade inspections. This could include the use of camera-equipped drones to check building façade conditions which, I understand, has been used overseas, by companies like Industrial Skyworks in Canada and Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates in the US.

I also agree with Mr Chong Kee Hiong that proper lift maintenance is important and that is why we earlier tightened BCA's maintenance regime for lifts to ensure their safety and functionality. For HDB lifts, in particular, we have also put in place additional procurement and maintenance processes to improve lift safety and performance. We are continuing to improve these processes and are now studying how to better evaluate downstream maintenance costs in the procurement stage, so that HDB can better differentiate between lift suppliers. For example, we are studying the evaluation of tender pricing over a longer time period via longer lock-in maintenance period for lift suppliers, as well as placing higher weightage on quality score, as compared to price score, in tenders.

The other part of the equation is to build a sufficient pool of competent personnel to conduct the required checks and servicing. Last year, BCA and our Labour Movement formed the Lift and Escalator Sectoral Tripartite Committee (STC) to look into ways to professionalise the industry and to attract more locals to join the sector. I understand that STC will provide its full recommendations later this year. But one recommendation being seriously considered is a voluntary progressive wage model (PWM) for local lift technicians. The PWM will be competency-based. Each wage level will be defined by specific skillsets and responsibilities. This sets out clear progression pathways for lift technicians and ensures they are remunerated appropriately for their skills and effort. We hope that companies will come on board and work together to build up a sustainable pipeline of skilled local lift technicians.

It is also important for us to ensure that our public housing remains safe and well-maintained. In that regard, some Members have asked if we can do more to address maintenance issues faced by flat owners. Generally, while we strive to minimise downstream maintenance through high-quality construction, flat owners also play a part in maintaining the flats as they age.

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Nonetheless, HDB has, on a goodwill basis, continued to assist flat owners should they raise maintenance issues, and advise them on possible follow-up actions. In addition, we offer heavily subsidised upgrading works under HIP to address common maintenance issues for older flats built up to 1986.

For issues, such as ceiling leaks and spalling concrete, which occur outside HIP, residents can apply for a 50% subsidy under HDB’s Goodwill Repair Assistance (GRA) scheme.

Finally, for tiles originally provided by HDB, HDB will replace dislodged ones within 15 years from the date of sale to the first owner. This is more generous than the private sector provision.

Taken together, these measures, including efforts at the local level, have helped keep the maintenance cost of our flats low for the majority of HDB residents.

Now, let me briefly address the remaining cuts. Er Dr Lee Bee Wah spoke about difficulties faced by some landed property owners in accessing their neighbours' property to undertake repairs. If home owners face such difficulties, they can seek help from their Neighbourhood Committees or other dispute resolution channels, such as the Community Mediation Centres, to try to resolve the issues amicably. Nevertheless, we will study to see if legislative changes are needed.

Ms Sylvia Lim spoke about owners of landed properties affected by breakaway works. There are already requirements on the homeowner to ensure that any breakaway works are done properly. This includes plastering and painting the exposed wall. The appointed QP has a professional duty to ensure that the works are structurally safe and done in accordance with all requirements. Should issues like water seepage arise later on, we encourage owners and neighbours to resolve them in an amicable manner, or via dispute resolution channels, which I mentioned earlier. If there are complaints about structural issues, BCA will investigate and take appropriate enforcement action for any breach of the Building Control Act. Having said that, similar to my response to Er Dr Lee Bee Wah, we will study whether legislative changes are needed.

Mr Png Eng Huat asked about the allotment of Heavy Vehicle Parking (HVP) spaces. His concern is about the availability of HVP at the local level. I understand that in his discussions with URA, as part of the ongoing master plan discussions, he has raised these queries, and we will continue to address them at the local level. URA also allows mutual exchanges of season parking locations amongst drivers within its HVPs through an online platform. Through such measures, we hope to assist Heavy Vehicle drivers with their parking issues. Likewise, we continue to encourage employers to play their part in providing the necessary commute facilities for their staff.

Assoc Prof Daniel Goh Pei Siong asked if designs could be improved to mitigate noise pollution from vehicles in multi-storey car parks. Sir, noise mitigation is a consideration when HDB designs and plans HDB estates. Specific to car parks, HDB considers the orientation and distance between them and residential blocks, and the placement of physical barriers, such as communal facilities as well as greenery, to screen the noise. We will continue to incorporate good planning considerations and make use of technology where appropriate, such as noise modelling, to mitigate noise impact.

Assoc Prof Daniel Goh Pei Siong also asked about the impact of prefabricated construction methods on home owners' renovation options. Under both traditional and prefabricated construction, home owners are not allowed to hack or remove structural elements. However, flats built with prefabricated prefinished volumetric construction (PPVC) tend to have thicker structural columns. HDB is studying ways to give flat owners more flexibility for renovation even in such units.

HDB has also facilitated renovations. For example, we no longer provide kitchen walls, so that home owners need not hack them during renovations. Since 2015, HDB has also used drywalls for non-load-bearing internal partition walls and these are easier to remove, compared to traditional concrete walls.

Lastly, some Members have spoken about animal issues and human-animal interactions. Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang described his most recent experience working with AVA on animal protection issues. I would like to thank the Member for his encouraging words and I am sure our officers would be very encouraged by what he said.

AVA will continue to partner IHLs, Animal Welfare Groups (AWG) and the broader public to address human-animal issues and develop solutions, using a humane science-based approach that involves close partnerships with the community. This year, AVA will launch a Trap-Neuter-Release-Manage Programme for stray dogs and we look forward to working closely with AWGs and veterinarians to make this programme a success.

Er Dr Lee Bee Wah asked for stricter laws against animal feeding, particularly for cats. Certainly, irresponsible feeding creates problems for everyone. In this regard, AVA has been working with AWGs and other agencies to educate the public about responsible feeding practices. That said, we recognise that there are a small number of irresponsible feeders despite this increased engagement. So, for hotspots with persistent cases, we will ask our agencies to step up enforcement and we welcome Members' feedback on specific areas that need to be focused on. We believe that this combination of measures in both education and enforcement will help to reduce irresponsible feeding over time.

Sir, we are entering an exciting phase in the transformation of our Built Environment sector, which will lead to added growth and good jobs for Singaporeans. In this process, we will continue to future-proof our existing infrastructure to ensure that they remain safe and functional for the long term. Collectively, we will continue to shape our urban environment into one that affords new and exciting opportunities for Singaporeans in a vibrant and exciting future city.

The Chairman: Senior Minister of State Koh Poh Koon.

The Senior Minister of State for National Development (Dr Koh Poh Koon): Mr Chairman, let me begin by thanking Mr Darryl David and Mr Leon Perera for their comments on our local agricultural sector. Both Members spoke about its importance and how we should continue to nurture the growth of our agricultural sector. I agree with them. That is why AVA launched the Farm Transformation Map (FTM) in collaboration with the Industry Consultation Panel last year.

FTM provides a platform that brings together Government agencies, industry players and IHLs to transform our farming sector to become more resilient and productive. FTM remains a "live document" that is constantly updated based on evolving needs.

I am glad to report that we have made progress. For instance, AVA launched the new farmland tenders on 20-year leases last year. This is the first time that AVA is tendering out land using the Fixed Price tender method. This allows tenderers to compete on concept as opposed to price. Proposals will be evaluated based on production capability, track record, relevant experience, innovation and sustainability. Any farmer who is committed to being productive and has a good track record will stand a good chance of winning the tender.

Eden PurelyFresh farm is one such example. It started out growing vegetables using traditional farming methods. But in 2012, the owner Mr Chan Yow Tiong, decided that the farm needed a new approach in order to stay competitive. So, he brought in Mr Desmond Khoo, a technologically savvy 25-year-old entrepreneur with strong marketing skills. Mr Khoo also owned a few vegetable stalls in wet markets, as well as a fresh food import business. Through this complementary partnership, the farm began exploring innovative ways and technologies to increase their productivity. I am happy to note that Eden PurelyFresh farm won a plot of land in the last tender exercise with a proposal to grow vegetables using greenhouses with innovative monitoring systems. This shows that with the right partners and mindset, farmers can, indeed, take their businesses to the next level. In fact, this ongoing series of tenders will provide existing farmers with a clean slate of sorts to bring in new technology and transform the way they operate, without the encumbrances of previously existing operations.

There are also opportunities for farming in unconventional spaces. Rooftops are interesting possibilities in our highly urbanised environment. In 2014, we piloted Singapore's first rooftop farm, Comcrop, at SCAPE mall in Orchard Road. We saw its potential to scale up and facilitated conversations between Comcrop and JTC for a 35,000 square feet rooftop space on one of JTC's food factories in Woodlands. With space the size of seven basketball courts, Comcrop has now finalised plans to develop eight high-tech greenhouses with environmental controls. We will continue to push for such innovative projects to optimise our land use and to grow our urban farming movement.

But farm transformation can only succeed if the industry takes the lead to embrace innovation as well. So, in this regard, I am glad that a few members of AVA's Industry Consultation Panel came together last October to form the Singapore Agro-Food Enterprises Federation (SAFEF). SAFEF aims to represent, advance and promote the agro-food sector in Singapore for economic development and for export. As a ground-up initiative, SAFEF's founding members collectively contribute more than 50% of our locally grown produce and represent some of our most productive food farms. Having these progressive farmers band together to walk this journey with us makes me confident that we can raise the sector's productivity and improve our food security. I look forward to more farmers joining SAFEF and working closely with us. Indeed, we want to do even more together. We have worked closely with the industry and taken on board their feedback to review existing schemes and develop new initiatives to better support our farmers.

Let me highlight three key initiatives. First, we will further enhance the Agriculture Productivity Fund (APF). Many farmers have told us that they are happy to adopt more productive technology. However, new farming systems require heavy capital investments. Advanced greenhouse systems with environmental controls and automation, which can double their production, can cost around S$4 million. We appreciate that this poses challenges for many of our farms. So, to help farmers take this leap, we are increasing the APF Productivity Enhancement component's co-funding cap from $700,000 to $2 million for our strategic food farms. This is a significant enhancement.

Beyond the capital cost of implementation, farmers have told us that they need assistance in testing these new systems prior to a larger-scale deployment, to ensure that the technology can be adapted to our local conditions and produce. Several rounds of trials are usually necessary before farmers can commit to a particular technology or a system at a commercial scale. Hence, we will now introduce a new test-bedding component to APF to co-fund up to $500,000 for food farms that want to testbed new solutions.

Secondly, we will develop a Singaporean workforce for our farms of the future, in partnership with our IHLs. It will provide a talent pipeline to ensure our farms have skilled manpower to undertake transformation and innovation. For a start, Temasek Polytechnic will launch its new "Earn and Learn" work-study programme to attract ITE graduates into the aquaculture industry. Under this programme, participating farms can enjoy up to $15,000 worth of incentives for each graduate to defray their training costs. I am glad that six of our food fish farms have already pledged support for this programme. The graduates will start their 12-month attachment programmes from April this year. I hope that our farmers will, indeed, take this opportunity to create a positive learning experience for the graduates. This will help encourage our young talent not just to enter the industry, but also to stay and contribute more to the industry.

Third, we will do more to help increase demand for local produce. As our farmers become more productive, they will naturally need more consumers to support them. In this context, we organised the first SG Farmers' Market last September at myVillage mall in Serangoon Gardens. The event generated plenty of interests. More recently, we co-organised the second Farmers' Market last month with SAFEF. More than 25 local farmers participated and I am happy to say that most of them sold out all their products to the crowds that visited the Market. This was a very good response.

Five busloads of my own Yio Chu Kang residents visited the Market and snapped up the produce. I have heard good feedback from my residents. I also know that many of our grassroots organisations organised groups to support the event. For that, I want to thank everyone for your support. We will keep up the momentum and bring Farmers' Markets to our heartlands by August this year.

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AVA will also partner SAFEF in developing a broader marketing plan for our local produce to raise our consumers' awareness. I urge consumers, especially Singaporeans, to support our fresh and nutritious local produce.

These efforts will strengthen the ecosystem and operating environment for our farms. But as the industry matures, we also need to start looking at the wider food value chain. We will continue to work towards creating an enabling environment to keep our local agricultural sector commercially viable and sustainable for the long term.

Let me move on to supporting our families in need. Everyone wants a safe haven to call home, but some may have lost their homes or have been displaced. Several Members have highlighted that this can be a difficult time for these families, and asked for assistance for single parents, families in hardship and our seniors.

Minister Lawrence Wong earlier announced that we will lift the divorce time bar. HDB may also offer rental housing to those in need and displaced by divorce. Some may have no family to turn to. They also cannot buy an HDB flat until the divorce is finalised and their housing eligibility and budget are clear. HDB does help them. We will deal with them on a more flexible case-by-case basis.

Miss Cheryl Chan spoke about the housing needs of widowed Non-Residents. Now, following the demise of their Singaporean spouse, they may retain the flat with a Singaporean family member. Where there are young children involved, HDB can allow the flat to be retained in trust for the children or let those with no other housing options rent a flat.

Mr Muhamad Faisal Abdul Manap asked for our housing policy to better cater to unmarried parents. We encourage those who can live with their family to do so, for mutual support with childcare. But each family has different needs and circumstances and, therefore, we will exercise flexibility where needed, to ensure that every child has the opportunity to grow up in a stable and secure environment.

As Mr Saktiandi Supaat highlighted, families in financial hardship may end up without a place to stay. And they may worry about being rejected from public rental because of past property ownership.

In fact, HDB takes a needs-based approach in assessing applications for public rental. HDB considers their income, whether family members can accommodate them, and the applicant’s ability to afford a flat. This takes into account also the sales proceeds from their previous property, if any. We have updated the eligibility criteria for public rental to make these considerations much clearer.

Several Members asked about how we help Singaporeans who do not meet the public rental eligibility criteria and how we cater to larger families with children. Let me emphasise again that this is why HDB’s needs-based approach is important. While the public rental income ceiling is one consideration, the cost of home ownership is another. Over the years, home ownership has stayed affordable, with more grant options and also higher grant quanta.

We want to encourage home ownership whenever possible. Those who can afford to buy a flat, especially first-timers with grants, are not allowed to enter into public rental, even if their income is within the ceiling.

On the other hand, others above the income ceiling may be accorded flexibility. For example, larger families have higher expenses, which we account for when assessing their housing options. In the last three years, we let more than 470 families with income above the income ceiling enter public rental.

Today, a family of three can already rent a 2-room flat if they earn an income. More than 90% of rental households have four or fewer registered occupants. For the larger families, most live in the larger flats.

I would like to assure Mr Chong Kee Hiong and Mr Pritam Singh that the waiting time from application to key collection now averages three months, down from a peak of 21 months in 2008. This is the result of HDB ramping up supply over the last decade to about 60,000 rental flats today. We will continue to monitor the need to build more rental flats. Some wait time, however, is inevitable as HDB assesses each application and considers the household's preferred location. For those in urgent need, HDB may offer them priority allocation or interim rental.

For both rental and home ownership blocks, HDB and the Town Councils work together to ensure the cleanliness and maintenance of common spaces.

Let me now address Members’ suggestions for seniors. Mr Dennis Tan and Mr Gan Thiam Poh suggested measures to help low-income seniors buy a flat, which we will study further. Today, seniors already have the option of short-lease 2-room flexi flats, which are highly affordable. Mr Dennis Tan's suggestions to reduce the singles premium are already in place. All price components for short-lease flats are adjusted downwards based on the lease chosen.

Now, with grants, first-timer seniors can buy a short-lease 2-room flexi flat for as little as $3,000. For second-timer seniors, we cap their resale levy at $30,000 and adjust it downwards based on the shorter lease. They can buy a 2-room flexi flat, on a 40-year lease, for as little as $58,000, including resale levy. This is just over half of what they would pay for the same flat on a 99-year lease.

We also thank Miss Cheryl Chan for her suggestions. While the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) actively encourages Singaporeans to make an LPA and to do so early, this is ultimately a personal decision. We also note her points on means-testing for seniors living in short-lease private properties. We will study these issues further with the relevant agencies.

Home ownership is a cornerstone of our nation and Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked how we are helping rental tenants with this. Members will know of the Fresh Start Housing Scheme, for second-timer rental families with young children. I am pleased to update that more than 130 of such families applied, and 61 have been emplaced. Thirty-one of them have booked a flat, of whom two will be collecting their keys this year.

One of our Fresh Start families is the Chng family, who booked a flat in Yishun last year. With the Fresh Start grant of $20,000 and his CPF savings, Mr Chng bought the flat without a loan. After collecting their keys, the family of four can receive up to $15,000 in grants over the next five years, which will grow their CPF savings.

For rental families who are ready to buy a flat, we want to help them do so sooner. Therefore, we will reduce the minimum stay requirement for Fresh Start, from two years currently, to one year. This means that eligible families may even be emplaced in the Fresh Start programme before the first rental tenancy renewal. Fresh Start is still a very new scheme. We will continue to consider further enhancements with the Advisory Committee. We encourage all rental families, including those who wish to purchase a larger flat, to discuss their home ownership aspirations with HDB.

On average, about 800 households move from rental into home ownership each year. Most of them are first-timers, helped by affordable flat prices and our generous housing grants. Rental families also get priority allocation under the Tenants’ Priority Scheme (TPS). After we expanded TPS to include second-timer families in 2016, 150 more families have benefited.

One of them is the Ng family. After entering rental, Mr Ng found steady employment and grew his income. The family of five has recently moved into their own 3-room flat in Punggol. I am happy for them and wish them every success.

I hope these data and examples will assure Members that we take a needs-based approach in providing assistance. We will continue studying how to support families on their home ownership journey, and I look forward to sharing more of our progress next year.

The Chairman: Clarification time. Mr Alex Yam.

Mr Alex Yam: Mr Chairman, I thank the Ministers for their replies to our cuts. Just two clarifications. A number of Members have raised this point but pardon me if I missed the response amidst all the answers.

The first is with regard to rental and this is directed to the Senior Minister of State. Many of our rental precincts tend to be a little bit sparse in terms of facilities and design. A number of Members spoke about the impact the living environment has on families as well as their children. Is there more that the Ministry can do to provide better facilities for some of these existing precincts because the newer ones are seeing better facilities?

The second has to do with our older, single Singaporeans living in rental flats. I think three Members raised this point that co-living together can sometimes bring about a lot of stress because of a lack of privacy. Is the Ministry studying ways to provide a greater measure of privacy, especially for some of the older flats?

Dr Koh Poh Koon: Mr Chairman, in response to the first question, rental flats are actually integrated into the overall housing precincts with other flat types, so they are not isolated. As a design, they are actually integrated with the other types of HDB flats of various sizes. As part of our Neighbourhood Renewal Programme (NRP) that is at the precinct level, the area will be enhanced. This includes rental flats in the area as well.

For the second question about creating more privacy to help those in the Joint Singles Scheme, co-staying within a 1-room flat, since 2012, our new building plan already put in some facilities, like partitioning, in the rental flats. And in the newer ones, I think beyond 2013 to 2014, for example, the partitions also include separate doors and a separate window so that there is a lot more privacy for these tenants co-sharing a unit. Hopefully, it will reduce any chances of friction and to give them a lot more privacy.

The Chairman: Mr Pritam Singh.

Mr Pritam Singh: This query is to do with the spalling concrete issues, particularly post-HIP and whether HDB can consider taking on a larger share of the GRA.

Mr Desmond Lee: I thank the Member for his follow-up question. We addressed this in answer to a recent Parliamentary Question (PQ) as well. If there are issues concerning the quality of the work done by the consultant or the contractor brought in under GRA, you can certainly raise it and HDB will check. If it is, indeed, poor-quality work by the GRA contractor, then we will ask them to rectify.

The Chairman: Er Dr Lee Bee Wah.

Er Dr Lee Bee Wah: I have four clarifications. The first two are addressed to Minister Lawrence Wong. I am happy to hear about the increased number of NRPs. I would like to know whether there is an increase in the number of EUP projects. Secondly, is there a delay to HIP completion because I remember during Minister Mah Bow Tan's time as well as my favourite Minister Khaw Boon Wan's time, it is mentioned that it will be completed by 2021. But now I heard it is 2022. Is there a delay and, if there is, why is there a delay?

The next two questions are addressed to Minister Desmond Lee. For infrastructure projects that I mentioned where, when it comes to prequalification, the local contractors do not qualify. It is because they specify that they must have completed projects of certain size, very big size, so none of the local contractors qualify. So, I would like to ask the Minister, in situations like that, can BCA consider breaking down the project to smaller parcels so that the local contractors can have a share in it and to build up the track record. Otherwise, they can never have a track record and go overseas.

The second question is about the feeding of stray cats. Why is it that NEA said they cannot take action until it is left there for two hours or more? Why do we waste time and resources to monitor those two hours? The moment they walk away, it should be littering. Can the Ministry work with NEA to sort this out?

Mr Lawrence Wong: Mr Chairman, just to reply to Er Dr Lee Bee Wah's question, we will continue to roll out EUP as we had previously announced. Whether we can do more, it is something we would have to study. Again, it would be based on various considerations, including availability of funding.

On HIP, our commitment was to complete selection by the end of the year. That is consistent across various Ministers' speeches, I am sure. We have kept to that commitment; we will finish the selection by then. I have given an estimate on when these projects will be fully implemented because the implementation varies. It depends on so many different factors. Sometimes, you need more time for consultation and so on. So, that is an estimate. It may be 2021, it may be 2022. But that is really an implementation process rather than selection. The selection, we have committed to doing it this year, and we will do it by the end of the year.

The Chairman: Mr Desmond Lee, would you like to respond?

6.15 pm

Mr Desmond Lee: Sir, may I respond to Er Dr Lee's two questions. The first is with regard to infrastructural projects where there are prequalification requirements. We have to strike a balance between ensuring that projects are carried out by builders who have capability and experience in doing so and, on the other hand, ensuring that the local contractors are given the opportunity to build track records. So, these are tensions we have to deal with every time when we call a tender, including a prequalification tender.

Certainly, we make sure that the requirements and the prequalification stage do not unfairly prejudice local firms. Because if you have never done a project before, you will never have the track record to other projects of a similar kind. This is limited, therefore, to complex projects, involving a lot of technical expertise, such as, as I have said earlier, MRT and the deep tunneling works. Having said that, even for MRT works, if you look at how LTA has done it, they parceled the projects in order to give local contractors an opportunity to learn how to do this.

For certain complex projects, you will find that our local contractors also partner foreign firms which have that technical expertise and, in that respect, a certain degree of tech transfer and learning comes about. Certainly, we have impressed upon our agencies that in setting these requirements, they have to be mindful that these are, indeed, necessary for the project and do not unfairly prejudice our local firms.

Finally, on cat feeding, we will certainly discuss this further with the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) and NEA. I believe that the Member would have done well to raise it at MEWR's COS. Working with the community and animal welfare groups, we have been able, in certain areas, to have a mix between enforcement and educating the feeders to ensure that the area is properly upkept.

The Chairman: Mr Leon Perera.

Mr Leon Perera: Mr Chairman, I would like to thank Senior Minister of State Koh Poh Koon. Just three questions for him. I may have missed this, but could he clarify how much the Agriculture Productivity Fund (APF) has been disbursed to date?

Secondly, could he provide an update on MND's efforts to mitigate the risk of plankton blooms, oil spills and so on which may affect fish farmers? What are they doing on water quality issues?

Thirdly, on the land tendering system, the Senior Minister of State talked about the changes to the system. Would the Ministry give some consideration to whether the tendering system, whether it is a fixed price tender or a more traditional tender, does that disadvantage startups and SMEs versus a large agri-business or corporation? We may have an interest to ensure that at least some of the land goes to startups or entrepreneurs. Because whether it is on track record or financial resources, large agri-business corporations may have an advantage. So, I just wanted to know the Senior Minister of State's thoughts on that going forward.

Dr Koh Poh Koon: Mr Chairman, the first question on how much of APF has been disbursed, unfortunately, I do not have the numbers on hand right now. But many of the farmers whom we had spoken to, as I said in my speech earlier, were keen to tap on the fund for technology to enhance their operations. Some of them may have held back because of the ongoing land tender. They wanted to wait for the certainty of lease. That is why the 20-year lease that we put out for these new plots of land are extremely helpful for them to see how they can best amortise their investments over a longer timeframe. Hopefully, the enhancement to the APF that we announced earlier, from $700,000 to $2 million, will allow them to more seriously invest in useful technologies spread over a 20-year timeframe, and take on really productive technologies to move the sector forward.

On the Member's second question on the aquaculture, fishery sector and what AVA and the Government are doing to help them mitigate the risk of plankton blooms, we know that there were a couple of serious plankton blooms that happened in the recent past. What AVA has done is that they have stepped up water quality monitoring, checking on the plankton count and also on the oxygenation level. They are also looking at water temperature. And when any of these parameters exceed a certain comfort level, AVA will send out SMSes to all the farmers on their mobile phones so that the farm operators or the owners will be alerted to a potential plankton bloom and take necessary precautions and remedial actions.

AVA has also put up some R&D grants a few years back and encouraged fish farmers to use some of these grants to testbed solutions that will help them develop systems that protect their fish stocks from harm. About three to five local fish farms have used the funds quite well to adopt and create new technologies, like the closed containment systems, for which they can rapidly deploy and protect their fish stock when a plankton bloom does occur.

Having said that, they are still a very small portion of all the fish farms out there in the coastal areas. And I think no one would be able to prevent a plankton bloom because these are exogenous factors relating to weather, relating to water conditions. What it means is that more of our fish farms ought to tap on the grants to develop systems that mitigate some of these risks that are quite unpredictable. We want to encourage more of our fish farmers to use this and to do so, but they have to make the move. We can provide the grants, we can provide the conditions, the expertise as well, but they must do so.

The third thing is on the fixed price tender. This is the first time we are doing the fixed price tender method. What it does is that we are no longer looking at bidding as a main determinant of who gets the plot of land. What this means is that any farm or any industry player who wants to put up a good proposal with productivity enhancement, with good technology adoption and, more importantly, also with a good track record of having been successful locally, producing in good quantity of local produce that is accepted by our market, will stand a better chance of winning this tender. So, it is based on a fixed price, the price of the fair value of land rather than a bidding war. What it means is that it will not disadvantage smaller players compared to a big player which has got deeper pockets. This is the intent of why we go on to a fixed price model for this particular tender exercise.

The Chairman: Mr Louis Ng.

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang: Sir, three questions. But first, let me say a big "thank you" to my now favourite Minister – Minister Lawrence Wong. Can I confirm that the removal of the mutual consent requirement is with immediate effect? Second, does it apply to people who were divorced before the announcement today? And third, can I check with Minister Desmond Lee whether we can increase AVA's budget?

Mr Lawrence Wong: Thank you, Mr Louis Ng. The implementation details will be put up by HDB. The timelines and who will be eligible will be all made clear. So, I do not want to dwell on that now in terms of the time bar. But we do want to do it soon and we want to make sure that as many people will benefit from this lifting of the time bar as possible.

The third question is on AVA's resources, whether more will be given to AVA. We manage with the allocated resources that MND has. AVA is given a budget like all of the agencies under MND. We spoke earlier in the Ministry of Finance's (MOF's) COS, that every Ministry is striving to do more with less. So is MND. Just because I am the Second Minister for Finance does not mean that I get special pass. We do the same across the board. All Ministries are trying to manage with more limited resources and the same applies to us and to our agencies within MND's purview. Within the resources that we have, we encourage all agencies to do more. If there is a need, a new function or new value that is created, new projects that they deem are worthy, then there is a central pool within our Ministry which we can re-allocate from, so that these meritorious projects are funded. And that is what we will continue to do.

The Chairman: Mr Gan Thiam Poh.

Mr Gan Thiam Poh: Chairman, two questions. One, what is the status of the uncompleted units left behind by LUP, that is, those that cannot be completed, that means, those that cannot be done in the past, there are still some?

The second question is: what help can be given to those who are having financial difficulty who are renting a flat outside while waiting for their BTO flat? They cannot afford to pay the market rate. Hopefully, they can get it slightly cheaper through the HDB's Interim Housing scheme. Can that be looked into?

Mr Lawrence Wong: Chairman, on LUP, we gave an update not so long ago in a PQ. I do not have the information with me now but we gave an update on those that have already been implemented. For the outstanding ones, we have tried out a few options, they have not been effective. So, we will continue to study these options, whether there are newer technologies that will help. There are not that many blocks left and these are more difficult designs which are very hard for us to put in the list in a cost-effective manner. We have already said if there is anyone living in these sorts of blocks who need help, particularly with medical needs or mobility needs, then we can look at this and see how best to assist them.

On the second question, for those who have applied for a BTO flat and need rental, there is PPHS to help them. That provides them with rental in the interim while they wait for their new flats to be ready. And as the Member would recall, we reduced PPHS rental rates last year, and that would make it even more affordable.

The Chairman: I think we have time for two more clarifications. Mr Png Eng Huat.

Mr Png Eng Huat: Chairman, with regard to the MPH design that I mentioned, will HDB be coming in to change the existing MPH design, the one at Hougang View Court and Hougang Meadow, where it is quite impossible to hold a decent funeral wake, especially on the last day, due to the passageway and due to the configuration of the MPH?

Mr Lawrence Wong: Mr Chairman, again, it is a very local specific issue in this new BTO estate. I am not familiar with it, but I will ask HDB to look at that particular issue and see whether there is any way to address Mr Png's concerns.

As I have mentioned earlier, in the HDB team, there is an inhouse architecture design team, but they also work with private architects. They are continuously seeing how we can improve our designs. They may not always get it perfect because each time they do something in a particular new estate, there are site constraints and they have to work within all these constraints to put in place the BTO units as well as the amenities and facilities, sometimes in a quite constrained manner, especially if the site is not big enough. So, for this particular area, let me ask HDB to check and see if there is anything that can be done to address Mr Png's concerns.

The Chairman: I will allow the last question from Mr Yee Chia Hsing. He has been putting up his hand for a very long time already.

Mr Yee Chia Hsing: On this issue of helping local companies win Government contracts when they do not have the track record, can the Ministry also look at the experience at the individual level? So, if a local company itself has not undertaken such a project, it can hire a professional engineer or chief engineer who has worked on such projects before to boost the track record.

Mr Desmond Lee: I thank the Member for the suggestion. Certainly, in evaluating the tenders that are put in, we look not only at the firm's experience but, quite frequently, also look at the curricula vitae that are put in, and who will be working on those projects.

The Chairman: Mr Alex Yam, would you like to withdraw the amendment?

Mr Alex Yam: Mr Chairman, it leaves me to thank my three favourite Ministers and Senior Minister of State, Permanent Secretary Foong Pheng as well as all the colleagues at MND and the seven Statutory Boards for answering our 32 cuts. With that, Mr Chairman, I beg move to withdraw my amendment.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

The sum of $2,665,913,000 for Head T ordered to stand part of the Main Estimates.

The sum of $9,438,305,000 for Head T ordered to stand part of the Development Estimates.