Clear vision, long term perspective crucial to realising investments: Jaya
Teh Shi Ning Business Times 23 Jun 09;
GIVEN urbanisation's challenges, infrastructure and technology will be 'essential long term investments for a sustainable water future, even in uncertain economic times', Senior Minister Prof S Jayakumar said at the opening ceremony of the Singapore International Water Week (SIWW) yesterday evening.
Speaking to the 1,800 international delegates, trade visitors and guests present, Prof Jayakumar, who is also the coordinating minister for national security, highlighted key sustainable development challenges faced by cities worldwide.
'Cities enjoy economies of scale and potential for creativity arising from concentrated human activity. At the same time, they face many issues such as housing needs, public health, congestion, access to clean water and sanitation,' he said.
These challenges are accentuated by the fact that they have to be faced with finite financial and natural resources, and the uncertainty introduced by climate change's impact on the world's distribution of fresh potable water and food supplies, he added.
With the unprecedented rate of urbanisation, Prof Jayakumar said that there will be a 'critical need for more innovative and sustainable water solutions'.
This year's SIWW thus focuses specifically on infrastructure and technology's importance to sustainable urban water management.
Clear vision and a long term perspective are crucial in implementing technology and building infrastructure, Prof Jayakumar said.
'Preserving water resources and protecting the environment are both long term investments entailing huge costs in the short term but yielding benefits that come about only after some time,' he said, raising the examples of NEWater and Marina Barrage here.
Water management infrastructure should also be integrated into overall urban planning for optimal results, as in the conceptualisation of Singapore's Deep Tunnel Sewerage System, he said.
But, Prof Jayakumar added, each city will need to adapt technology to its own unique context. 'I believe a conference like this helps to promote the sharing of innovative ideas and emerging technologies, with a strong focus on practical and replicable solutions.'
Organisers of this year's SIWW expect to match or exceed the $370 million worth in deals signed at last year's event.
The Water Expo alone has seen the number of participating companies grow from 389 last year to over 400 this year.
Some 10,000 visitors are expected at SIWW 2009's various events, which will last till Thursday.
A well of opportunity in the water sector
Stakeholders in the value chain need to join hands to effectively meet the sector targets
Sharad Somani, Business Times 23 Jun 09;
WHAT are the key challenges for the water sector and options for countries to effectively develop water sector infrastructure? The solution may lie in effective partnerships between the various stakeholders as well as innovative ways to financing these projects.
The Asia-Pacific is home to 60 per cent of the world's population, but 17 per cent of its population today is still not served by proper supplies of water or sanitation facilities.
According to the Asia Water Watch 2015 report, the 'Target 10' of the Millennium Development Goals is to halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2015.
Overcoming the challenges facing the water sector will not be an easy task.
The immediate needs of the sector are two-fold. The first is to increase the coverage of the water distribution network, and the second is to improve current operational efficiencies.
These needs can be met by mobilising large investments as well as infusing the latest technology and leading management practices in the sector.
Various stakeholders across the sector value chain need to come together to effectively meet these sector targets. These include government and public agencies, the private sector and multilateral and development funding agencies such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
In the recent past, reasonable level of private sector activity has been observed in Singapore, the Philippines and Malaysia, among others, in the water sector for the region.
The experience has been mixed, with a few successes interspersed with failures. This is primarily due to the high costs of water supply and an over-commitment based on inaccurate demand estimates.
It should, however, be noted that in cities where water services have been privatised, Jakarta and Manila among others in Asia, the performance has been far better than the average for the 18 key cities in the region as a whole.
The greatest successes saw the private sector playing a useful role in the water sector, with success measured in terms of revenue collection efficiency, minimising the number of staff per 1,000 connections, connections metered and capital expenditure per connection.
In the Singapore experience, three water projects have been successfully developed. The involvement of the private sector in upstream water sector projects such as the desalination and NEWater production projects are examples of this success.
Some reasons for this include Singapore's robust regulatory and legislative framework, transparent selection process, well-defined concession or off-take contracts, and the security of payments as these are made by a credit-worthy government.
The Singapore experience has set a precedent for successful private sector involvement in the region. This experience, when complemented by the presence of other strong regional and international water companies, provides an impetus for the growth of the water infrastructure using public private partnerships in the Asia-Pacific.
A recent KPMG survey report, titled Bridging the Global Infrastructure Gap, highlights the critical role which infrastructure investments can play in the economic and business growth of a country.
However, executives in every region surveyed expressed concern that infrastructure investment would not be adequate.
Business leaders in the Asia-Pacific were most concerned about this issue. About 80 per cent of the respondents believe that the government should partner the private sector for major infrastructure projects.
This issue highlights the need to tap into all sources of financing for projects, notwithstanding the dearth of private and bank financing in the current economic slowdown.
Financing and project structures
A need therefore exists for innovative financing structures. These should involve financial institutions and investors with a longer-term view.
Examples include pension funds and multilateral agencies given their appetite for infrastructure asset class and development objectives.
Pension funds can help bridge the current absence of long-term bank financing. Structures such as forward-financing, take-out financing and loan guarantees can be explored to meet the constraints faced by banks in the current climate.
On their part, multilateral funding agencies such as the ADB and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation also play a role in encouraging forward-looking policies and sustainable partnerships and help the water sector meet its targets.
Financing aside, it is important to learn from past experiences in the design of project structures.
These should capitalise on the expertise existing within the private sector, while avoiding the problems associated with projects which have failed under a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) agreement or concession.
For example, getting the private sector involved in BOT contracts involving upstream projects (excluding building of water reservoirs or treatment plants) and linking the payments to previously agreed performance benchmarks may be one way of building a sustainable partnership between the public and private sector.
In the short to medium term, there will be more partnership opportunities in the water and wastewater sectors of in the Asia-Pacific region.
With the expected interest by international and homegrown Asian companies in these opportunities, the key to successful partnerships is to have innovative project structures that address the concerns of the stakeholders while achieving overall sector targets.
Governments, the private sector and international funding agencies all have to come together in creating these win-win partnerships.
Sharad Somani is executive director of the KPMG Global Infrastructure and Projects Group who also leads the regional Utilities & Infrastructure Advisory team. His views do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of KPMG in Singapore
Water Week draws 10,000 delegates to Singapore
Liaw Wy-Cin, Straits Times 23 Jun 09;
SINGAPORE'S signature water event has drawn even more delegates this year than last year, despite the global downturn and the H1N1 bug spreading.
Some 10,000 policymakers, academics, scientists, engineers and representatives of water-technology firms from at least 80 countries are here for the Singapore International Water Week, up from the 8,500 who were at the inaugural conference last year.
Senior Minister S. Jayakumar, speaking at the opening, said that infrastructure and technology were key to developing innovative, sustainable water solutions.
But these were both difficult to muster and required considerable investment, so ultimately, 'each city needs to adapt technological advances to its unique context', he said to the 1,500 guests at the opening at Suntec Singapore.
A conference like the Water Week will promote the sharing of innovative ideas and technologies, he added.
On the sidelines yesterday, ministers from 11 economies discussed the development of infrastructure development in the Asia Pacific, and came up with a declaration that they would work together to find sustainable solutions for water supply.
Over the coming week, high-level discussions will be held among the conference participants, and water-technology companies, both local and foreign, will showcase their latest innovations.
Singapore's largest water-reclamation plant at Changi will be declared open today as part of the week's programme.
And the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize will be handed out tomorrow to a Dutch scientist for pioneering the technology to purify used water in the absence of oxygen.
Yesterday, Professor Jayakumar launched a new Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize, to be awarded next year to individuals or organisations that have made outstanding contributions to creating vibrant, liveable and sustainable cities.
On the business front, the deals made at this year's event are expected to outstrip last year's $370 million.
The number of companies showcasing their wares this year is 420, up from last year's 389.
Water technology centre opens at NUS
Liaw Wy-Cin, Straits Times 23 Jun 09;
SINGAPORE, which 40 years ago had to ration its scarce water resources, has now developed the latest technologies to collect and purify water.
Many breakthroughs in treating water were the results of partnerships between the industry and universities, said National Research Foundation (NRF) chairman Dr Tony Tan yesterday.
He was the guest of honour at the opening of the latest such tie-up - a water technology centre set up by the National University of Singapore (NUS) and General Electric (GE) Water and Process Technologies.
The $150 million NUS-GE Singapore Water Technology Centre will focus on providing clean water to fast-developing areas such as China, India and the Middle East. It will look at how to reduce the cost of desalinating seawater, treating used water for re-use and producing
ultra-pure water for the semiconductor industry. It will also analyse chemicals in water and wastewater.
Water was one of the major research priorities identified by the foundation when it was set up three years ago.
Speaking to about 80 executives from the NRF, GE, Singapore's national water agency PUB and the Economic Development Board, Dr Tan said: 'The universities' researchers see across multiple sectors and can bring together existing technologies in unexplored combinations.
'On the other hand, the industrial partners know the customers, large and small.
'They understand the need to be cost- effective, innovative, reliable and entrepreneurial when delivering products and services to the marketplace.'
The centre is in a new 11-storey research building at the NUS Kent Ridge campus called the T-Lab building, which will be opened next year.
The building is a joint project between the NUS and the Defence Science and Technology Agency. One wing houses Temasek Laboratories, which carries out defence research, while the second wing is for other research programmes.
