Singapore took 35 years of making a plan and shaping its physical landscape and now, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is well prepared for a bigger canvass.
The URA Consulting Group (URACG) was put up in order to provide a planning expertise for the overseas projects. Meanwhile, in Singapore, new places in the area have been awakened. After Marina Bay was constructed, Singapore River is expected to be the next one to experience an energising touch.
Yesterday, Mah Bow Tan, the National Development Minister, spoke at the Corporate Plan Seminar of URA about how the master plotter would move towards its role in “place management”, which combines the resources of both private and public sectors to produce places, areas, and districts that are vibrant socially and economically, he said. Aside from the role of URA as an infrastructure provider and master planner, the stat board works with stakeholders on more soft initiatives such as marketing, branding, and events programming, he added.
Mister Mah stated that the URA Consulting Group is now undertaking the “place management” of the Marina Bay. It will allow its portfolio to expand including the Singapore River. Additionally, it will preside over a coordinating forum intended to “synergise the place management efforts of partner agencies at Orchard Road and also the Civic District-Bras Basah/Bugis areas”.
The creation of URACG is intended to help the URA Consulting Group in playing a much bigger responsibility outside the shores of Singapore.
Mister Mah added, “Our planning expertise is very much sought after outside of Singapore. In fact, it has played a leading role in the master planning of projects like the Tianjin Eco-City, which is now being built, which has drawn on Singapore’s experience in integrated planning and urban management”.
To elaborate, according to the URA spokeswoman, the priority of URACG will be to support and sustain the government of Singapore in government-to-government level overseas projects, which need expertise on master planning. Additionally, URA can associate to several local companies form the private sector, where appropriate, to accomplish consultancy work for large projects. The scope of URACG in terms of its services will usually include master planning and concept and, urban design, as well as processes of development control.
Another URACG role is to offer trainings on professional development along urban planning and other related matters for the international and local partakers from the Urban Leadership Programme. Recently, URA carried out a training programme about the planning of integrated land use for the participants from Abu Dhabi, Brunei, China Qatar and Singapore.