US-AEP COUNTRY ASSESSMENT:
Republic of Singapore
1. ECONOMIC PROFILE
Demographic Conditions
and Trends
Singapore has a population of 3.1 million. Its low
population growth of 1.1 percent a year from 1980 to 1993 contrasts with its
high economic growth.2 Unlike Malaysia, Singapore's population is
dominated by Chinese; but, like Malaysia, Singapore faces a potential
skilled labor shortage following its successful fertility control program in
the late 1960s that resulted in a fertility drop of 70 percent in twenty
years.3 The Singapore government now believes it can support a
larger and growing population.4 Its new population policy
envisages a faster population growth that might reach 5 million, but
planners are addressing a projected population of 4 million.5
Despite such an increase, Singapore seeks to maintain its present
multiethnic composition in which Chinese form about 77 percent of the
population and Malays and Indians comprise 14 percent and 7 percent
respectively.6
Economic Conditions and
Trends
Singapore has retained its rank as number two in
the World Economic Forum's 1995 World Competitiveness Report. As the world's
seventh richest country, measured by GDP per person,7 its real
GDP growth is projected to continue at high rates for the next several
years. Unemployment has held at 2 percent; inflation is only 2_3 percent per
year. Singapore's challenge is how to maintain its growth in the face of
increasing labor, land, and other costs, and competition from Malaysia,
whose expanding infrastructure, port development, and manufacturing base
makes it of growing concern.8
2. ENVIRONMENTAL PROFILE
Industrial and Urban
Environment Background
At independence in 1963, Singapore had an
unemployment rate of 30 percent, which drove economic policy toward high
employment industries such as textiles and ship building. By
the 1970s Singapore moved on to encourage semiskilled work on
electronics and parts for multinational corporations. At the same time, it
began vigorously to attract multinational corporations themselves to
Singapore. By the 1980s Singapore was able to increase taxes and enforcement
measures in ways that drove many of the old high-employment but dirty
industries out, while seeking to attract cleaner, less employment-intensive
ACRONYMS
- GDP: Gross domestic product
- ENV: Ministry of Environment
- EDB: Economic Development Board
- JTC: Jurong Town Corporation
- MTI: Ministry of Trade and Industry
- SPSB: Singapore Productivity Standards Board
- EIA: Environmental impact assessment
- NGO: Nongovernmental organization
- US-AEP: United States-Asia Environmental
Partnership
industries. As a result, Singapore's economy is
today dominated by high-value-added employment. Of its more
than 3,000 multinational corporations, some 900 are from the United States
and 900 from Japan. It boasts the world's second largest concentration of
petrochemical industries and refineries.
Its environmental policy became thoroughly
integrated into its industrial policy beginning in the late 1960s when the
vision of a clean and green Singapore was articulated.9
Singapore's success is due to land use plans that were formulated and
carefully implemented to (a) establish a financial urban center,10
(b) protect Singapore's water catchment (which provides some 30 to 40
percent of drinking water),11 and (c) create an industrial
area outside the catchment, zoned and managed for industrial development.
These land use plans have been backed by a strong regulatory and enforcement
structure developed around sophisticated monitoring and highly efficient
government agencies. Singapore's Ministry of Environment (ENV) began as an
antipollution unit in 1969 in the Prime Minister's Office and became a
ministry in 1972. Since then, ENV has worked hand-in-hand with the
powerful Ministry of Trade and Industry and its Economic Development
Board (EDB) and Jurong Town Corporation (JTC), which manages the industrial
estates. Today, Singapore's "Green Plan"12 is a basic part of its
economic development program. It has proved highly successful in attracting
multinational corporation headquarters and regional offices for outreach and
investment in Asia generally.
Industrial and Urban
Environmental Conditions
Singapore is unique among Asian cities for its high
quality environment:
� Today, essentially all of Singapore is served
by sewerage systems.
� Air pollution levels are well within the World
Health Organization's long-term goals and U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency standards.13
� Solid waste management has high priority.
Refuse collection has increased steadily. Fifty-two percent of solid waste
is domestic and commercial. The remainder is from industry (42 percent)
and institutions (1 percent).14
� Extensive monitoring and strong enforcement
bolster its pollution policies.15
Singapore has led Asia and the world in managing
vehicular traffic and pollution. ENV has high emission standards; vehicle
numbers can only increase as road construction permits. Vehicle owners must
pay high taxes of from 200 to 300 percent of the cost of the vehicle; none
are allowed to remain in use more than ten years without
facing rapid tax increases. A tax on leaded fuel is S$0.10* per
liter higher than unleaded fuel, resulting in lower lead levels.
Environmental Trends and
Issues
Singapore's environmental pollution priorities
illustrate the high quality of its environment. Noise pollution is one of
the city's priorities, as is the elimination of odors from sewage treatment
plants (because odors require a larger buffer zone and land is at a
premium). The Singapore government is upgrading its urban pollution
management system and will be spending approximately S$3
billion upgrading its environmental infrastructure. New investment is
largely focused on rehabilitating old sewers, new lift stations, and new
sewers for new housing, waterfront developments, and new towns. Singapore is
expanding its sewage treatment works and the treatment capacity of three
existing facilities.16 The government has also established a
vigorous waste-recycling scheme for residences and commercial sectors and
waste minimization efforts with industry.17 Refuse collection is
being "corporatized," which means operated by government on a
self-sufficient basis, and eventually privatized.18
New challenges are coming, however. Existing
landfill sites are now nearing capacity; management of hazardous and toxic
wastes is receiving increasing attention within the industrial zone. Efforts
are being made to reduce the number of zones judged subject to environmental
hazards and to concentrate industries using hazardous
materials.
3. GOVERNMENT
Government dominates this city state by shaping
nearly every facet of political and economic life. Since the elections of
1963, the government has been ruled without interruption by the People's
Action Party, which formulated the growth policies that have sought to bring
increased wealth to all economic strata.19
Key Environmental and
Industrial Ministries
Singapore's primary ministries concerned with
environment and industrial development work closely to achieve a common
policy. The ministries most concerned with industrial and urban affairs
include the following:
The Ministry of Environment was until the
early 1980s the only such ministry in Asia. Its staff of 7,000 has overall
responsibility for Singapore Green Plan public awareness campaigns,
environmental monitoring, and establishment of environmental regulations and
enforcement. ENV led the successful effort to clean up the Singapore River,20
introduced environmental auditing to Singapore, and is responsible for most
refuse collection in Singapore. It also regulates vehicular emission
standards. ENV has established a private consulting company, Singapore
Environmental Management and Engineering Services, which hires ENV staff and
works abroad on a consulting and contractual basis. ENV's public awareness
activities include annual and long-standing tree planting
efforts as well as antilittering and waste minimization programs.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI)
plays a key environmental role. Its four divisions are trade and
international business, industry, research and planning, and
corporate services. Key boards under the ministry are the Economic
Development Board, JTC, and the Singapore Institute of Standards and
Industrial Research.
MTI's Economic Development Board has
a network of international offices in the United States, Europe, Japan, and
the Asian-Pacific region to initiate contacts with potential investors and
promote Singaporean interests abroad. EDB is strongly engaged in promoting
multinational corporation investment in Singapore and works closely with ENV
and JTC to ensure that manufacturing remains at about 25
percent of GDP and that industry is increasingly at the high-value and
high-return scale. EDB designed application and processing requirements for
industrial and multinational corporation permits around what the public
could understand and the information it could provide; EDB
works closely with JTC and ENV on this permitting as well. EDB has
established significant incentives for industries through taxes, grants, and
loans.21 As part of Singapore's regionalization program, EDB
tries to induce multinational corporations to go to industrial parks in
Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City, and elsewhere in China; they look for companies
already comfortable working with Singapore companies. EDB has a clear sense
of the kind of industry it wants to attract and exercises discretion on how
it uses its package of incentives to induce multinational corporations into
Singapore or regional activities.
MTI's Jurong Town Corporation is a statutory
board in charge of the fiscal implementation of industrial development and
manages about 10 percent of Singapore. It began as the Engineering
Department within EDB but separated in the late 1960s. JTC allocates land to
companies that may themselves build or that may occupy buildings established
by JTC under a thirty-year lease (with an additional thirty-year option).
JTC has built all the required infrastructure�sewers, roads, substations,
electrical and communication lines in JTC's zone. Presently, half of the 500
companies in the zone are small- and medium-sized enterprises (ten to
fifteen employees). On the offshore islands, which are sites for Singapore's
petrochemical and refinery plants, JTC contracts for major reclamation work
for landfill to expand the site. All telecommunications, electrical, and
other infrastructure are given to the appropriate government agency for a
fee, whereupon it is managed by that agency. All JTC's infrastructure
development costs are recovered in its leases. In the zoned industrial park
of about 5,000 hectares, land is leased with the requirement that companies
invest at least S$1,005 per square meter.
JTC is totally self-financing; it pays property
taxes to the government and buys land for development from the government at
market prices. In selecting new tenants, JTC reviews applicants' information
and reviews all information with EDB and ENV. All inquiries are screened
within nine days and responses are obtained from ENV within a week. If ENV
needs more information, JTC directs the companies to provide it directly to
ENV. Like EDB, JTC looks to high-value-added, low labor, high land
productivity, low space, and not hazardous industries. Also like ENV, JTC
has an international arm, JTC International, which helps build and operate
industrial parks in China, Vietnam, and Indonesia. About half of JTC's staff
of 1,000 support JTC International.
MTI's Singapore Productivity Standards Board
(SPSB)22 is a self-supporting statutory board established in 1973
that conducts research and development similar to that of Korea's Institute
of Science and Technology or Taiwan's International Technology Research
Institute, with whom it has links. It primarily seeks to develop technology
for Singaporean companies. It also does testing and certification of ISO
900023 and will carry out ISO 14000 certification in the future.
SPSB works closely with EDB to identify supporting services it might carry
out through EDB's international consulting wing�Novo
Technology Development, which draws on SPSB's staff for joint ventures
abroad.24 Currently, most of SPSB's clients are small- and
medium-sized enterprises.25 SPSB's Regional Institute of
Environmental Technology is a joint Singapore_European Union project to
promote and facilitate use of appropriate environmental technology in Asia
by European-Singaporean and regional cooperation. It provides information to
European and Asian firms on technology, best practices, regional and country
policies, markets, and business opportunities relating to environmental
management and technology. Corporate environmental management and ISO 14000
are of particular interest.26
The Ministry of National Development's Urban
Redevelopment Agency carries out Singapore's comprehensive planning
process for the government and the private sector. The agency works in
cooperation with ENV, EDB, JTC, and other boards to implement the concept
plan that carries out the master plan.27
The National Science and Technology Board,
established in 1991 under MTI, resembles the U.S. National Science
Foundation. It does not carry out research and development but gives grants.
It also seeks partnerships with U.S. companies in high technology fields and
works with EDB and Singapore's seven research institutes and seven research
centers. Key goals of the board include that Singapore have the most
advanced infrastructure and that Singapore move rapidly up the ladder toward
clean technology.
4. POLICIES AND LAWS
Singapore's approach to environmental pollution
management is, in order of priority, prevention, monitoring, and
enforcement. Perhaps more than any other country in Asia, Singapore has
shaped environmental policy based on the notion that government should lead
the way and actively promote a clean environment rather than simply react to
environmental problems.28 The law is important in Singapore:
enforcement is rigorous, and environmental laws are taken seriously.
Singapore is currently reviewing its environmental laws and drafting new
environmental management and protection legislation in ways that will
improve their integration.
Environmental Policies and Laws
Singapore has a sophisticated array of laws
concerning air, water, solid waste, noise, and other pollution, in addition
to a strong planning system.29 A new hazardous waste law now
establishes a much higher S$10,000 fine for first violations and S$20,000
and a jail term of one year for second violations.
Industrial Policies and Laws
Singapore's environmental laws are shaped and
administered with balanced sensitivity to the requirements of industry. On
the one hand, strict and effective enforcement of environmental standards is
the bedrock of Singapore's approach. On the other hand, implementation of
environmental laws is dominated by administrative discretion that responds
to needs and practical circumstances of industries seeking new permits. To
some extent, the discretion given ENV and its cooperation with EDB and JTC
have fostered a system that permits some degree of negotiation for the kind
of permits and timing of the standards required. Owners of polluting
industries are not tolerated; however, owners of
contaminated areas may be able to negotiate with ENV over time on cleanup
standards and schedules.
ISO 14000. Government regulation has been
the main impetus for many of Singapore's home industries, whereas most
multinational corporations are progressive in using clean production
techniques and environmentally sound practices to promote environmentally
friendly images to the public. Many local industrial enterprises, however,
do not have the knowledge of clean production methods and advances to make
changes in their industrial processes. They are, therefore, less likely to
adopt such changes in the absence of awareness-building efforts. Despite
this tendency, however, the ISO 14000 standards and guidelines have
attracted keen interest within both ENV and the newly named SPSB and are
likely to be adopted. The European Union has a strong program with SPSB
which, among other things, has focused on ISO 14000.30
Public Information Policies and
Laws
Public interest law is not a force in Singapore;
advocacy and pressure work less well than cooperation and engagement.
Environmental impact assessments (EIAs) are not required by law, not public
when completed, and often regarded as not needed for every project, although
they are sometimes looked on as important requirements that are inadequately
applied to address natural habitat issues on the island.31
5. URBAN ENVIRONMENT AND
INFRASTRUCTURE
Singapore's approach to its environment and
provision of infrastructure responds to its industrial strategy. It has
vigorously encouraged multinational corporations to locate their corporate
or regional headquarters in the country and has sought manufacturing that is
high value added, highly productive, but low in labor and space
requirements. Hazardous industries are now discouraged, just as in the 1970s
Singapore discouraged dirty industries and activities.32
Increasingly, the nation seeks partnerships between Singapore investors in
the region and European, Japanese, or U.S. firms. These industrial goals are
reflected in EDB's major strategies:
� Manufacturing 2000 is intended to
sustain manufacturing at 25 percent of GDP and outlines action plans for
major sectors, including aerospace, petroleum and petrochemicals,
specialty chemicals and pharmaceuticals, electronics components and
systems, heavy and precision engineering, and light industries.
� International Business Hub 2000
envisions Singapore as a hub of international business and trade by the
year 2000.
� Regionalisation 2000 will build a strong
external economy that is closely linked to and enhances the domestic
economy. EDB will identify opportunities and bring together partners to
participate in the Asian-Pacific economy in mutually
beneficial ways.
� Local Enterprise 2000 will build
promising Singaporean enterprises into multinational corporations and
industry leaders in their own right.33
The urban environment continues to be shaped by the
long-range Singapore Green Plan, which was intended to "cultivate an
environmentally conscious population, promote resource conservation and
clean technology, and increase efforts in protecting the local and global
environment." The government of Singapore intends to achieve the following
targets by the year 2000:
� Higher standards of health and environmental
cleanliness
� A more environmentally conscious and proactive
business sector
� Establishment of the city-state as an
Asian-Pacific regional hub for the transfer and marketing of environmental
technology and expertise34
� Transformation of Singapore into a "model
green/environmental city." Policy objectives include cultivating a clean
and healthy environment, an environmentally conscious and responsible
people, and a focal point for regional and international environmental
activities. Emphasis will be placed on public education and promotion of
Singapore as a regional center for environmental technology.
Urban infrastructure is a high priority for
investment. Singapore is a center for regional infrastructure
investment as well, with large investment plans and projects in India,
China, and countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.35
Singapore is planning an estimated S$3 billion upgrade of its own
environmental infrastructure water supply, wastewater, and solid waste
facilities.
Water Supply
Watershed management through land use planning that
has protected its catchment basin has long been critical to Singapore's
water supply from its own territory. That program remains important, but 60
to 70 percent of its potable water is piped in from Malaysia. Singapore and
Malaysia are debating water rights and proposed increases in pricing. Black
& Veatch/Binnie is providing consultancy services to the Public Utilities
Board for a deep-tunnel water project estimated to be worth S$2 billion.
Wastewater
ENV is upgrading sewage treatment at
four facilities at an estimated cost of S$950 million.
Solid Waste
ENV is designing a solid waste
landfill and upgrading several sewage systems, for which Black & Veatch/Binnie
is providing the consulting work. The market for incinerator projects in
1997 has been estimated at S$2 billion.
Hazardous Waste
The main industrial waste site for hazardous waste
is now within JTC's industrial zone, where large firms treat hazardous waste
on site, whereas the smaller companies pretreat it before sending it to
sewage treatment facilities.36 Some new contamination issues are
showing up as old leases expire in the industrial zone; concern is
increasing about how toxic waste is disposed of and whether or not it is
sometimes illegally exported instead.37
6. PRIVATE SECTOR AND
ACADEMIA
Industrial Organizations
Several industrial organizations play important
roles, some with strong governmental involvement. Among the important
industrial organizations are the following:
� The Singapore Association of Environmental
Companies is an independent nongovernmental organization (NGO) and
self-funding organization formed in 1994 and dedicated to facilitating
environmental business and technology transfer. Also intended to act as a
bridge between developing and developed countries in promoting
environmental technology, the association would like to establish
Singapore as an environmental technology center. It seeks memoranda of
understanding with environmental agencies and bodies from other countries
to establish a pool of technology resources for industry's use and
application.
� The Environmental Business Information
Center was set up to facilitate linkages with information networks in
other countries and to provide data on environmental business in the
region, export and investment opportunities, and contacts with foreign
companies.
� The Singapore Confederation of Industries,
formerly, the Singapore Manufacturers Association, represents
an important potential contributor to clean technology in the industrial
sector. Some 90 percent of Singaporean manufacturers are component
suppliers to multinational corporations. Most are small: the average
member of the confederation has a staff of about 100.38 The
Singapore Confederation of Industries has developed an industrywide
campaign to encourage all companies in Singapore to sign the Singapore
Business Charter for Sustainable Development. Chief executive officers are
encouraged to sign the charter and make employees aware that the company
is adhering to its environmental management standards. So far, 1,200
companies have signed on; a directory called "The Green Pledge" lists all
the signatories. The confederation operates the United States-Asia
Environmental Partnership's (US-AEP's) Center for Clean
Industrial Technology and Environmental Management in
Singapore.
� The Singapore Chemical Industry Council,
including more than seventy chemical, petrochemical, and pharmaceutical
companies, has developed a "Responsible Care Programme" to teach its
members how to incorporate sustainable practices into their businesses.
The council provides training to contractors who supply this industry
sector. Since its inception in 1990, this program has been actively
promoted; the council has worked closely with ENV to go beyond regulatory
requirements for pollution control and mitigation.
Financial and Research Organizations
Key banking institutions include several
that are engaged regionally.39 A number of research institutes
that are associated with the Nanyang Technological University engage in
environmental technology.40
7. ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS AND
PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT
General Public Awareness of
Environmental Issues
Since its formation, ENV has engaged in constant
environmental public awareness campaigns, but the first such campaign on
making Singapore a clean city was held even before independence in 1959.
Tree planting has been a long-standing campaign (and a long-held concern of
former President Lee Kwan You), as well as antilittering and waste
minimization.
Nongovernmental Organizations
An ongoing challenge often cited in Singapore,
however, is that "`[b]y taking care of everything' the Government has to
accept the criticism that it has created a fairly passive citizenry." Levels
of public understanding of environmental problems are cited by some as
uncommonly low. Opportunities for NGOs to become more active are so far
limited. Unlike other Asian countries, the United States, or Europe,
Singapore has no NGO "environmental movement."41 The oldest,
best-known Singapore environmental NGO is The Nature Society,
which began as a branch of the Malayan Nature Society. It focuses on natural
area conservation issues and engages in the planning process, impact
assessment, and other nonconfrontational activities. In 1990 the government
set up The National Council on the Environment, now known as the
Singapore Council for the Environment. The council is a voluntary
organization made up of private and corporate sector members and members of
the media. It operated under ENV and has been the most active in the
Singapore Green Plan Action Program. Its aim and tasks have been to promote
environmental awareness; organize seminars, workshops, and campaigns for
environmental awareness; provide environmental awareness seminars for
businesses and handbooks for industry; and educate consumers and students on
green activities.42
The Media
Although Singapore's media generally reflect
government perspectives, environmental issues receive regular attention. A
new development is the service of three local Internet providers, which now
reach 5 percent of the population.43
8. U.S. GOVERNMENT
AGENCY ACTIVITIES
U.S. government activities in Singapore have
included the establishment of a supply logistics base for the U.S. Navy in
the late 1980s and ongoing promotion of U.S. agricultural exports by the
Agricultural Trade Office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
US-AEP Activities in Singapore
US-AEP has supported 22 environmental exchanges,
processed 269 trade leads, and sponsored 20 technology grants through the
National Association of State Development Agencies. With the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, US-AEP has supported environmental action
teams and short-term technical assistance.
9. OTHER BILATERAL AND
INTERNATIONAL ENGAGEMENTS
Japan has made disbursements to Singapore
that after 1989 have been in the form of technical cooperation grants. The
total disbursements between 1989 and 1993 for technical cooperation grants
was $197.5 million.
Canada's International Development Research
Center is a Canadian public corporation whose activities focus on
implementation of Agenda 21, the global action plan for sustainable and
equitable development. Singapore is the regional office for Eastern and
Southeast Asia.
The German government has established a
large trade center, managed by German industry, in Singapore to promote
regional trade in environmental and other technology.
The World Bank and Asian Development Bank
do not have any programs in Singapore at this time.
Singapore is a member of the U.N. Environment
Programme's International Environmental Information System (INFOTERRA).
10. OPPORTUNITIES TO
SUPPORT CLEAN PRODUCTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
As a highly developed city-state with a substantial
international impact in Asia, Singapore is unique; yet, it offers lessons as
well as opportunities for regional changes. Singapore has critical regional
influence; its ". . . greatest potential as an environmental market lies not
in projects for local clients but as a center for the distribution of
environmental equipment and services to other countries in the region."44
Singapore is also a model for other cities throughout Asia that have
increasing responsibilities for their urban and industrial management; the
nation demonstrates how a city can be made healthy and attractive and how
industrial and environmental policy can be productively linked.
To be the regional center for multinational
corporations that Singapore wants and needs to be, it must also keep up
technologically and environmentally. Its effective command and control
system has arguably worked so well that it has sometimes discouraged clean
technology in favor of efficient end-of-pipe solutions. But now that ENV is
seeking ways to reduce staff and costs, Singapore itself is a market for
advanced environmental and industrial policy approaches, cost-effective
clean technology, and the most efficient infrastructure investments.
Policy Framework
There are several key environmental/industrial
policy priorities in which U.S. government agencies, businesses, and NGOs
might engage with Singapore.
Market-based incentives. Singapore is likely
to mix its effective but increasingly costly command and control system with
more cost-effective and incentive-driven approaches. Regional workshops and
exchanges can help it become a center for clean technology by increasing
knowledge of specific market-based incentives favoring clean production and
greater industry self-enforcement.
Mechanisms for technology assessment and urban
planning. Singapore's experience with urban green and clean planning and
management is of broad regional interest and appropriate for regional
programs concerned with the use of environmental information for
decisionmaking, including EIAs, technical assessment methods, and assessment
techniques for incorporating clean production into new industrial estates.
Cost-effective technologies. With
Singapore's growing interest in achieving clean production, the nation would
benefit by programs that analyze cost-effective clean technologies in the
United States and foster exchange programs to the United States with ENV,
JTC, and EDB on the economics of clean technology and new market-based
incentive approaches.
Demand-side management. Singapore is a
potential market for policy analyses and exchanges focused on demand-side
management systems for water consumption and waste production. Exchanges on
the technical aspects of EIAs in assessing these factors would also be
useful.
Industrial Environmental
Management
US-AEP has recently established a Clean Technology
Information Center in Singapore. As elsewhere, consideration should be given
to stimulating interest in U.S. clean technologies through video
conferencing that allows Singaporeans to become acquainted with the
application of clean technology in the United States.
Toxic release inventories. Toxic and
hazardous waste is a growing concern in Singapore. Experience with this
issue in the United States and elsewhere, including toxic release
inventories and industrial pollution intensity measures, could be shared
through exchanges, workshops, and joint policy analyses of opportunities and
experiences practical for Singapore.
Clean production in new regional industrial
estates. Singapore's regional investment role offers a signal
opportunity for joint U.S.-Singaporean ventures in the Asian region that can
introduce cost-effective clean technology in these developments.
Environmental Infrastructure
Privatization. Singapore has no plans for
immediate privatization of environmental infrastructure, although it has
successfully privatized its telecommunications sector. The Public Utilities
Board is the key authority for future decisions on privatization; the order
of privatization is expected to be first power, then water, waste
collection, and landfills. Peat Marwick & Morgan Grenfeld were appointed to
advise the government on how to approach a privatization plan.
Water supply. Future water supply projects
may include construction of a pipeline to bring water from Indonesia,
because it now comes from Malaysia. Singapore and Malaysia are negotiating
questions about water rights and price increases. Desalinization projects
are also under consideration. Black & Veatch/Binnie is providing consultancy
services to the Public Utilities Board for a deep-tunnel water project
estimated to cost $2 billion.
A few major business opportunities exist in the
environmental infrastructure market other than upgrading the existing
facilities. Most new opportunities in Singapore for U.S. firms revolve
around links to major Singapore investors and developers as they pursue
environmental infrastructure projects in the region.
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ENDNOTES
* Unless otherwise indicated. all dollar
amounts are U.S. dollars.
1. The Economist describes Singaporeans as
living ". . . in the cleanest, greenest, most modern and efficient city in
South-East Asia. And they are affluent." ("Singapore's Sheepdog Trials"
[September 14, 1996, 33].)
2. World Bank (1995). Growth in per capita gross
national product was 6.1 percent (1982_93).
3. Ling (1995, 101).
4. Ling (1995, 101).
5. Population density in Singapore is one of the
highest in the world at 4,500 persons/square kilometer (Ling 1995, 105).
6. Ling (1995, 106).
7. "Singapore's Sheepdog Trials," The Economist
(September 14, 1996), 33.
8. "Determined to stay ahead," The Financial
Times (November 27, 1996), 11.
9. The Minister of Health made this statement in
1968 before the Parliament, reflecting the clear views and preferences of
President Lee Kwan Yew, although the first master plan for Singapore in 1958
cited the need for a "clean and green city."
10. Singapore's Land Acquisition Act in 1966 gave
the government authority to (a) take property without recourse except
with respect to compensation terms and (b) assemble urban land for
resale in blocks suitable for redevelopment and construction of a modern
financial district, hotels, and condominiums (Ling 1995, 122.)
11. Duck farms and piggeries were removed,
squatters were resettled, backyard trades and industries were also resited
(Ling 1995, 19).
12. The Singapore Green Plan was presented at the
Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992; the nation's action
program includes environmental management and infrastructure, encouragement
of clean technologies, environmental technology, and building of
environmental consciousness and corporate responsibility on the environment.
The plan governs the activities of all Singapore government agencies.
13. Ling (1995, 19, 20).
14. Ling (1995, 17).
15. ENV conducts monthly monitoring of water
quality for forty-seven streams and thirteen reservoirs and all monitoring
of individual industrial plants at sewer entry points. Automatic valves shut
if the pH is above or below proper limits; ENV is immediately notified by
telemetry. Only ENV can open the valves again. In 1994 ENV carried out more
than 4,000 inspections on industrial premises and more than 11,000
inspections on nonindustrial premises. Of the 871 warning letters issued,
179 cases were prosecuted under the Clean Air Act, Water Pollution Control
and Drainage Act, Poisons Act, and the Environmental Public Health Act (Ling
1995, 20).
* In January 1997, S$1 equaled
approximately US$0.71.
16. Singapore (1994, 13).
17. ENV personnel recently visited Seattle to
investigate experience there with domestic recycling but found their own
problems more difficult because high-rise refuse shoots do not permit easy
segregation of refuse (ENV, Singapore [March 1996]).
18. Refuse collection is now subsidized.
19. Campos and Root (1996, 39).
20. Ling (1995, 18).
21. Presently EDB offers an investment allowance
for plants able to recycle water to offset up to 50 percent of capital
investment against income. EDB offers soft loans of 3.5 percent to lease
automation equipment and a write-off of equipment for pollution control in
one year. Its pioneer program offers a tax holiday for five years on income
produced for high-value-added companies. It offers incentives of 70 percent
of the consulting cost of automation feasibility studies as well.
22. Recently renamed but formerly the Singapore
Institute of Industrial Research (SISIR), SPSB is still within the Ministry
of Trade and Industry.
23. It has certified 700 of the 1,000 ISO
9000_certified companies in Singapore (SPSB, Singapore [March
1996]).
24. See SISIR (now SPSB) (1995).
25. SPSB works for multinational corporations to
improve the quality of the work done for them by Singapore suppliers. SPSB
took Singapore supplier representatives to the United States, Japan, and
Germany to examine precision stamping of components (all arranged by EDB).
It will do automation studies for suppliers in Singapore and will do
automation feasibility analyses for EDB to determine eligibility of
potential soft loan recipients. It works extensively for the Housing
Development Board, the biggest user of materials in Singapore, to do
specifications for tenders (SPSB, Singapore [March 1996]).
26. RIET (1994); SPSB, Singapore (March 1996).
27. The Master Planning Committee, chaired by the
chief planner of the Urban Redevelopment Agency, allocates land for various
uses, determines intensities, and addresses land use conflicts. Development
Guide Plans then translate these plans into local geographical context and
visual settings. Environmental impact assessments, if deemed necessary, may
be required to assess impacts of new developments on heavily built up or
environmentally sensitive areas.
28. Singapore's experience belies the often
expressed observation that the concerns and actions of nongovernmental
organizations and citizen associations shape issues and instill urgency that
make policymakers and legislators respond. Soon after independence,
Singapore's political leaders perceived a clean environment as essential to
economic prosperity.
29. See article, "Environmental Protection: The
Legal Framework" (Ling 1995, 47_99).
30. An SPSB market study from mid-1995, which
gauged interest in ISO 14000 among companies in Singapore's private sector,
reported the following:
� 47 percent of companies are in favor of
implementing ISO 14000, citing as their reasons both a moral
responsibility toward the environment and a desire to be recognized as
environmentally conscious.
� 37 percent of companies were neutral mainly due
to lack of information/understanding as to what exactly ISO 1400 entails.
� 16 percent are not interested due to the lack
of a pressing need to become certified.
31. See article, "Environmental Protection: The
Legal Framework" in Ling (1995) for a discussion of the legal aspects of
environmental protection in Singapore and the laws relating to pollution and
enforcement. This source reviews the laws on air pollution (the Clean Air
Act, Controls of Vehicular Emissions and Air Quality Monitoring, Noise
Legislation, Public Order and Nuisance Acts, Environmental Public Health
Acts, and Water Pollution and Waste Management Acts) along with
international conventions to which Singapore is a signatory.
32. Sawmills and granite and sand-processing
quarries have been moved offshore to various small islands and in some cases
to neighboring Indonesia.
33. See Singapore (1995).
34. See Allen (1992).
35. Singapore has the largest cash reserves�more
than $65 billion�in the world. The Singapore Government
Investment Corporation was established to make investments outside of
Singapore. The corporation is a co-investor in the Asia
Infrastructure Fund, which has large amounts of equity (US-AEP 1996).
36. US-AEP (1996).
37. The assessment team heard concerns about the
possible export of toxic waste to Thailand as well as dumping in the Straits
and the South China Sea.
38. Jayarana Menon, director, Manufacturing
Services, Singapore Manufacturers' Association, Singapore (March 1996).
39. See Rodwin (1995). The Government of Singapore
Investment Corporation was established to make investments
outside of Singapore, including a $200 million investment in the
Asia Infrastructure Fund. The corporation noted the following hurdles
with environmental infrastructure sector investments: high levels of
nonrevenue water, municipal water companies in deficit, and a need for good
foreign operating partners. The corporation is looking at two projects in
China dealing with water, wastewater, and waste management. It
is also reviewing a Penang water supply project.
40. Some examples include the following:
Gintic Institute of Manufacturing Technology
was formed as a national research institute within the Nanyang
Technological University and funded by the National Science and Technology
Board. Gintic's major tasks include research and development to identify
processes and technologies to modernize Singapore's manufacturing
industry, upgrade local manufacturing facilities to keep them competitive,
and transfer technical results from applied research and development to
local manufacturers.
The Environmental Technology Institute
was established by the National Science and Technology Board with a
mandate to establish a world-class infrastructure to make Singapore's
environmental technology industry more competitive. The institute is also
run through Nanyang Technological University.
The Institute of Environmental Epidemiology
conducts regional courses, training, research, and consulting services on
environmental health_related problems, including toxic chemicals and
carcinogens, and, together with regional counterparts, will research and
review projects to provide quality assurance in this area.
41. See Ling (1995, 298), citing Allen
(1992, 265).
42. Ling (1995, 292). Descriptions and lists of
other Singaporean NGOs are cited on pp. 292_95.
43. New government controls are anticipated on the
content of Internet material ("Singapore's Sheepdog Trials," The
Economist [September 14, 1996], 34).
44. ASEAN (1993, 47). |
