SINGAPORE should look more closely at how it can use its industrial land to help enhance its liveability as a city, the high-level Economic Strategies Committee has recommended.
One proposal is to site offices, shops and restaurants alongside manufacturing plants. And if this is done well, these new facilities can breathe new life into previously sterile areas.
In an interview on Wednesday, Senior Minister of State for National Development Grace Fu – who co-chaired the ESC sub-committee on maximising value from land – said the Government should inject this type of flexibility into the use of land in a gradual and targeted manner.
But she also warned against too much flexibility, as it could raise the price of industrial land to an unaffordable level for businesses.
Still, one example of an industry that could benefit from flexibility in land zoning is food manufacturing, suggested Ms Fu.
There is no reason why a food manufacturer with its manufacturing business in an industrial park should not be able to locate its plant next to an office where research and development is done or a kitchen or restaurant where products can be tested by consumers, she said.
Over time, this type of area could even become a hub for the food and beverage industry to test consumer responses and tastes, she added.
Suki Sushi director Kelvin Ong said: ‘We’re not allowed to do commercial sales in a factory.
‘Yet doing it this way means the profit margin is good, and the consumers benefit because you cut out the middleman’s fees and you don’t need to pay the shopping mall landlord.’
He also said mall rents are high for start-ups, and added: ‘Besides, on weekends, some people may want to go to a factory area to shop for cheap goods. There will be more choices.’
Ms Fu also said the Government should be prepared to explore different lease tenures. Now, industrial land typically comes with a 30-year lease, with an option to extend.
‘In our discussions with industrialists, we have realised product life cycles are a lot shorter. We thought we could explore other lease terms.’
Other ideas the sub-committee threw up included a suggestion that land allocation be subject to a measurement of productivity like the number of jobs created per hectare.
Industrialists are also being encouraged to build higher instead of wider. Ms Fu said grants can be made to industrialists for them to study all this.
And turning to the subject of industrial landlord JTC, she said: ‘From developing land, JTC may have to look at developing townships for new industrial parks.’
Mr Tan Tiong Cheng, chairman of Knight Frank property consultancy, said injecting flexibility is clearly good.
‘If people see Singapore as very adaptable and conscious of change, it becomes more attractive,’ he said.
Source: Straits Times, 5 Feb 2010
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