Green Economy Journal Issue 59

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
Settlement patterns
The city of Singapore is situated in the southern portion of the
main island. Over time, urbanisation has blurred the differences
between city and country. Built-up areas now cover a large part of
the city-state. The older parts of the city have been substantially
refurbished, especially along the Singapore River but elsewhere
as well. The government’s Housing and Development Board (HDB)
has relocated commerce into separate districts and has created
integrated residential communities inhabited by people with a
mixture of incomes. About four-fifths of Singapore’s population
now resides in high-rise HDB flats located in housing estates and
new towns. The new towns – such as Woodlands, Tampines and
Yishun – are scattered across the island and are characterised by
easy access to places of employment and shopping districts.
THE LESSONS FROM SINGAPORE
1) The compact geography of the island has forced a compact urban environment, which has resulted in reducing the overall extent
of the infrastructure network.
2) The compactness of the city has enabled effective infrastructure services to be delivered.
3) Infrastructure effectiveness has improved community wellbeing.
4) More critically, Singapore’s approach does not rely only on physical infrastructure; it also emphasises proper legislation and
enforcement, pricing and public education as well as research and development.
5) Singapore has embraced innovative engineering and integrated management approaches to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
6) The Singapore government has been prepared to make the hard choices regarding what type of infrastructure it is willing to invest in,
and where. One of these is the restriction on private light vehicle ownership. Reducing private vehicle ownership has had a knock-on
effect with regard to road construction, maintenance, land area and associated services such as parking and traffic management.
7) In exchange for the restriction on private vehicle ownership, it has provided excellent public transport.
8) Singapore has been very strategic in its approach to new urban developments, targeting integrated residential communities
inhabited by people with a mixture of incomes. The new towns are characterised by easy access to places of employment and
shopping districts.
1 Brimelow, Ben, 2018. How a tiny city-state became a military powerhouse with the best air force and navy in Southeast Asia. Business Insider. Archived from the original on 8 April 2018. Retrieved: 11 July 2023
2 Department of Statistics, Singapore, 2019. Environment. Department Statistics Singapore
3 Global Data 2021. Largest Countries in the World by Population Density in 2021 (People per Square Kilometres)
4 Gan, V. 2015. The link between green space and well-being isn’t as simple as we thought. In: Bloomberg
5 Skytrax 2023. Airport of the year winner history
FINDINGS
6 MPA 2023. Singapore’s 2019 Maritime Performance
The consensus is that the higher the investment in infrastructure
the 8 higher World Bank, the 2022. economic Country Data: growth. Singapore. However, as alluded to in previous
articles, I have yet to see how much economic growth is delivered
by higher infrastructure investment, and how that investment is
to be sustained when the economy weakens as it does cyclically.
12 Fulmer, J. 2009. What in the world is infrastructure?. PEI Infrastructure Investor (July/August): 30-32
Ordinarily, 13 Investopedia, governments 2023. Infrastructure: are Definition, able Meaning, to reduce and Examples their infrastructure
investment spending in economic downcycles, but that shouldn’t
alleviate the maintenance spending associated with previous
16 Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment, 2023. Our water policy a nutshell
investment commitments, although it does, resulting in deteriorating
17 Land Transport Authority, 2023. Tracing our steps
infrastructure assets.
7 Sharanya, P. 2020. Singapore port container throughput hits record high in 2019. The Business Times, 13 January 2020
CONCLUSION
Compactness and strategic investment decision-making are key
factors in Singapore’s success. This raises further issues that need
to be investigated with regard to the original proposition. One of
these is the compact city, and the other is the use of innovative
engineering and integrated management approaches. The latter
speaks to microgrids and distributed grids.
In the next issue these two factors will be further explored.
9 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2018. City-state | Definition, History & Facts. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 23 November 2018. Retrieved 12 July 2023
10 Infrastructure | Define Infrastructure at Dictionary.com Archived 2016-03-05 at the Wayback Machine
11 O’Sullivan, A., and Sheffrin, S., 2003. Economics: Principles in Action. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. p. 474. ISBN 978-0-13-063085-8
14 Statista, 2021. Global investment on inland transport infrastructure as share of GDP in 2021, by selected countries
15 Han, G. 2023. Govt spending may hit 20% of GDP by FY2030, GST hike and tax moves were needed to fund growing needs: MOF.” The Straits Times, 9 July 2023
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THAT’S SUSTAINABILITY, FIRST.
Since our sustainability journey began, we’ve been leading the
way, writing our planet-friendly story one industry first at a time.
From becoming the first cement manufacturer in Southern Africa
to publish an environmental policy, to modifying our plants to
emit lower CO 2
emissions, to introducing a range of green cement
as early as 2000, putting sustainability first has been, and always
will be, second nature to us.
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