Liveable cities: Singapore exports its expertise

Foreign officials flock here to learn about urban management
Amresh Gunasingham Straits Times 11 Aug 10;

SINGAPORE is enhancing its reputation as the go-to classroom for other countries hoping to learn how to build the liveable cities of tomorrow.

Officials from 40 countries including China, India and nations in the Middle East have come here in the past year to study the nuts and bolts of building landfills, managing waste and recycling water for industrial use and drinking.

And homegrown companies such as Keppel Seghers and Sembcorp have gone abroad, to the Middle East for example, to sell their technological know-how.

They have found rich pickings. In the past three years, they have signed deals to build water and waste-treatment facilities worth upwards of $4 billion.

Associate Professor Simon Tay, who chairs the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, said Singapore's leap from being a Third- to a First-World metro-polis has produced many lessons from which growing cities in Asia and beyond can draw. By combining technology with pragmatic policy-making, it continues to be a test bed for innovative technologies sought after as a model of the way to go, said Prof Tay, who used to chair the National Environment Agency (NEA).

Prime examples of cities which have learnt from Singapore are Tianjin, which is developing its Eco-city, and Guangzhou, with its Knowledge City.

Mr Michael Chia, the chief executive of Keppel Integrated Engineering, said: 'With more communities around the world realising that reliable and proven technology can provide effective solutions for waste-water treatment and waste management, there's an increasing demand for such technologies.'

Agencies such as the Economic Development Board and International Enterprise Singapore, which have been pushing the 'Singapore Inc' brand overseas, have their work cut out for them as countries strive for economic advancement that is, at the same time, environmentally sustainable.

The NEA, for example, has shared its knowledge of how to build and maintain landfills to contain waste in space-constrained cities, using its offshore Semakau Landfill as an exhibit.

The NEA also showcases the systems it uses to monitor key environmental indicators such as pollution levels and meteorological data, said its director of industry development and promotion Dalson Chung.

But what sort of trickle-down effect will this growing recognition of Singapore's expertise have here, particularly at a time when the public is openly questioning, for example, the capacity of the drainage system to cope with floods?

Prof Tay named two benefits: One is that tapping green technology will build the tools to further enhance Singapore's landscape.

'This is a green infrastructure that adds to the value and appeal of the city and underscores property prices and

everyday activities like outdoor dining, whether at the hawker centre or stylish cafes,' he said.

The other benefit takes the form of economic trickle-down from there being more companies providing environmental services on a global scale, he said.