Singapore Exports Its Government Expertise in Urban Planning

Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop, The New York Times 27 Apr 10;

SINGAPORE — Last autumn, Singapore’s senior minister of state for national development and education helped officiate at the groundbreaking for a housing development in a new “eco city” that eventually will be home to 350,000 people. But the metropolis — featuring a power plant fueled by organic waste, pedestrian-oriented urban design and plenty of green space — is nowhere near Singapore: It is in northeastern China.

Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City is a $22 billion effort to turn an expanse of nonarable salt pan and deserted beaches into a 30-square-kilometer, or 11.5-square-mile, urban area southeast of Tianjin. For China, the project is intended to showcase resource-efficient technologies and serve as a model for other new cities in the country.

For Singapore, a city-state of five million with few natural resources and one of the highest population densities in the world, it is another chance for its companies to cash in on decades of government investment in urban planning.

In the 1960s, Singapore suffered from severe overcrowding, poor living conditions and a lack of infrastructure. Today, thanks to numerous public housing and land reclamation projects, a modern international financial and business hub stands where slums and squatters once resided.

“In the past 40 years, we’ve acquired a good reputation for our design and master plan for urban development. A lot of cities have come here asking us how we did it, and how we got where we are in this short span of time,” said Wong Kai Yeng, group director of Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority International, referring to growth since the former British colony gained independence in 1965.

Rapid, uncontrolled urbanization in developing countries is creating environmental as well as socioeconomic problems, including the growth of slums and increases in air pollution and waste. What the World Bank describes as possibly the biggest challenge of the 21st century is also a giant business opportunity for those ready to share their know-how.

While many engineering and architectural firms do business globally, Singapore is unusual in its systematic governmental efforts to export the country’s public-sector expertise — in effect, selling pieces of the Singapore Inc. model.

“What we see Singapore doing differently from other cities in the developed world is that in addition to offering technical assistance, it has cleverly harnessed these interests into its economic growth strategy,” said Abha Joshi Ghani, manager of the urban development and local government unit at the World Bank.

“It has increasingly structured the city’s competitiveness and growth around sustainable development with the aim of using Singapore as a test bed for future urban solutions,” she added. “It’s addressing areas of challenge that Singapore itself faces, and at the same time facilitating the export of knowledge and best practices among developing-country cities globally, thus creating jobs for its businesses and population.”

Four years ago, the government set up a one-stop shop, the Singapore Cooperation Enterprise, to respond to foreign requests to tap its governmental experience, including urban planning and training in fighting corruption. Two years ago, Mr. Wong’s department, the Urban Redevelopment Authority International, was established to specifically deal with overseas enquiries on urban planning issues.

Each month, the Singapore Cooperation Enterprise, which has a full-time staff of 20, receives about 10 foreign delegations seeking expertise in areas like infrastructure development, master planning and water treatment. The agency organizes visits to relevant ministries and departments and puts on 5- to 10-day training programs.

So far, the enterprise has worked on more than 100 projects, including advising on master planning for the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil, advising Oman on the strategic development of its capital markets and training officials from Dubai’s Department of Finance. The government estimates that the enterprise funneled $40 million into Singapore’s economy in its first two years; more recent data are not available.

A Singapore Cooperation Enterprise spokesman declined to give financial details on its own income from consulting work, studies and reviews, saying only that it gets paid on a cost basis. Its chief executive, Alphonsus Chia, said in a statement that its primary aim was to lay groundwork for Singaporean firms and improve relations with other countries.

Kigali, the capital of Rwanda and among the fastest-growing cities in the world, is one of the developing cities turning to Singapore for advice. It selected the enterprise and Surbana Urban Planning Group (which is wholly owned by Temasek Holdings, the investment vehicle of Singapore’s government) to help with detailed plans for its new central business district.

“We were impressed by Singapore’s expertise in urban planning and how they have built an environmentally friendly city,” said Rangira Bruno, a spokesman for the Kigali City Council, which visited Singapore in 2008 to meet with government agencies dealing with urban planning, housing development, city transportation and water management. “Singapore has built a green city which is different from European and American cities.”

Mr. Bruno said Kigali officials were interested in learning how Singapore had managed to transform itself in the last four decades “from a third-world economy to a middle-income economy.”

Beyond urban planning, Singapore has also had some success exporting its know-how in the water sector. In 2003, Singapore opened its first two NEWater plants, which treat sewage via microfiltration and reverse osmosis, purifying the water for commercial and industrial use as well as human consumption. This year, with the opening of a fifth plant, the system will meet 30 percent of the city-state’s water needs, while a desalination plant meets a further 10 percent.

Chua Soon Guan, director of policy and planning at the Public Utilities Board, said that while the wastewater and desalination plants had been commissioned to reduce Singapore’s reliance on imports of water from Malaysia, they had had a far broader economic effect. The experience that local companies acquired in developing the projects has lent them credibility when vying for international contracts, he said.

The Public Utilities Board actually participates in tenders with private companies, providing technical expertise and support in areas like operations and maintenance. “It lends credibility to the company’s bidding for the project,” Mr. Chua said.

Since 2006, Singaporean companies have clinched over 100 water-related projects globally worth more than 7.7 billion Singapore dollars, or $5.52 billion. Those included a 1.5 billion-dollar sewage treatment plant in Qatar by Keppel Seghers, a 632 million-dollar desalination plant in Algeria by Hyflux and a 1.4 billion-dollar power and water desalination project in Oman by Sembcorp.

Choo Chiau Beng, chief executive of Keppel Group, said he believed his company had benefited from its work for Singaporean government agencies. “These partnerships have helped us to springboard our presence overseas,” he said, citing the Keppel Seghers Tuas waste-to-energy power plant in Singapore and the NEWater projects. It allows the company, he said, “to present a compelling track record when we pursue projects abroad.”

Keppel is heavily involved in Tianjin Eco-City. Initiated by the two governments when Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China visited Singapore in 2007, it is now driven by Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City Investment and Development, a 50-50 joint venture company between a Singapore consortium led by the Keppel Group and a Chinese consortium led by Tianjin TEDA Investment Holdings, a state-owned enterprise based in Tianjin.

The Chinese government said last year it would invest about 16.5 billion renminbi, or $2.41 billion, over three years in the construction of 149 priority projects to push the development of the city. Several Singaporean companies have announced plans to invest the area’s first “eco-business” park, a 4 billion-renminbi project slated to occupy 30 hectares, or 74 acres.

For example, First DCS, a provider of heating and cooling systems, is working on a feasibility study of the energy requirements of the business park. Pan Asian Water Solutions plans to locate its Chinese headquarters in Tianjin Eco-City and consolidate its existing pipe and valve manufacturing operations in the business park. It plans to invest an estimated 100 million renminbi there over the next two years.