Melissa Tan, Straits Times 22 Aug 09;
URBAN sociologist Saskia Sassen of New York's Columbia University has praised Singapore's efforts at environmental sustainability but says even more radical efforts are needed.
In a lecture yesterday, she also said cities should look to past strengths to differentiate themselves, including traditional methods of sustainable development.
'In this global era, the specialised differences of cities, of urban economies, matter much more than they did 20 years ago. That means that cities compete less with each other,' she told The Straits Times after giving a lecture entitled Global Cities At A Time Of Crisis at the MND penthouse.
'It is to the advantage of cities to understand what are the different economic histories they have had, how they can use their past - rather than thinking they all have to be like London, New York, Paris,' she said.
Cities should make use of their historical or traditional expertise, she added, citing the example of Chicago.
That US city used to be a 'material economy...they had huge steel mills; they grew millions of pigs, tonnes of corn...They know how to run a global steel mill; New York doesn't,' she said.
As for Singapore, 'it needs not to think that it's competing with all other global cities. It isn't. It's only competing with some, and then only a bit...There is no perfect global city', she said.
Professor Sassen suggested that Singapore use its traditional expertise in entrepot trade - noting that it 'manages ports in South America, even in Europe'. 'It's a very broad range of potential economic activities that you can derive from your past.'
She commended the Republic's approach to environmental sustainability.
'Singapore is in the lead in terms of not just inventing in the laboratory, but also applying and implementing sustainable measures' such as road pricing policies.
But she cautioned: 'We have entered a whole new era where we need it at a much deeper level. Singapore is in a trajectory towards environmental sustainability. It is way ahead of New York, for instance. But we are discovering...in recent years how much more radical we have to be in order to address the question of global warming.'
The lecture was organised by the Centre for Liveable Cities - a policy-oriented think-tank established by the Ministry of National Development and the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources.
