The Economic Strategies Committee has recommended that Singapore should look closely at how some of the industrial lands could help enhance the city’s liveability.
One proposal is to develop new offices, restaurants and shops alongside the manufacturing plants. If this is done according to plan, the new facilities can boost new life into previously sterile areas.
Grace Fu, Senior Minister of State for National Development, who also co-chaired the ESC sub-committee on maximising value from the land, said in an interview that the government should implement flexibility into the use of land in a targeted and gradual manner.
But she warned about too much flexibility, as this could result in industrial land prices increasing to a level that businesses cannot afford.
Ms. Fu suggests that one example of an industry that could take advantage from land zoning flexibility is food manufacturing.
She also said there is no reason why a food manufacturer with operations in an industrial park should not be able to set-up beside an office building where research and development is done, or restaurants where their products can be sampled by consumers.