In light of unprecedented growth and rapid urbanisation in Asia, the Republic leads the way with sustainable and innovative urban solutions.

As a resource-constrained city-state, Singapore is continually evaluating innovative solutions to meet its national needs. Backed by a progressive leadership, Singapore has created resource-efficient policies and technologies through well-placed investments and forward-thinking collaborations. These have helped the Republic achieve both economic development and sustainability, and have improved the country’s overall quality of life.

Singapore’s efforts have not gone unnoticed; the UN Habitat’s State of the Worlds’ Cities Report 2008/9 gave the city-state high scores in areas of pollution control, transport management and public housing, citing the nation as an example of good governance and balanced development.

From transportation and public housing, to energy management and water treatment, Singapore has developed and adapted some of the world’s most advanced urban solutions. The city has managed to turn its challenges into rewarding opportunities. Some of its solutions have also been replicated and implemented successfully in other cities.

A Global Hydrohub
Singapore’s success in water management is testament to the country’s resilience as it strives to achieve water self-sufficiency. With a strong emphasis on R&D and innovation, The Public Utilities Board (PUB), the Republic’s national water agency, pioneered the use of the 16-inch reverse osmosis membrane system on a large scale. This system was subsequently modified and introduced in PUB’s water reclamation plants in 2003 to mark a new era in Singapore’s water history. Today, this ultra-clean, high-grade recycled water is supplied primarily for nondomestic use. Branded NEWater, it is supplied to wafer fabrication parks, industrial estates and commercial buildings, where it is used for industrial and air-cooling purposes. NEWater contributes to 30 per cent of Singapore’s overall water supply and will increase to 40 per cent come 2020.

The success of NEWater has gained international recognition and the Republic has garnered the interest of international players looking to tap into Singapore’s expertise in water management. Multinational companies such as GE Water, Toray and Siemens Water are collaborating with public research institutions and research centres within Singapore’s universities to establish global R&D facilities here. At the same time, Hyflux, a homegrown water-treatment company and now a leading global environmental solutions provider, operates a global R&D and membrane manufacturing facility in Singapore — Asia’s largest R&D centre for membrane technology outside Japan. It has also gained entry into the growing China and Middle Eastern markets with its innovative water technologies, and won the project to build the world’s largest desalination plant in Algeria.

Today, Singapore is recognised as a Global Hydrohub, home to a vibrant water industry of more than 70 companies. In this field, Singapore continues to innovate and invite leading companies to testbed cutting-edge technologies on its water infrastructure. Already, players in the water space such as Nitto Denko, Meidensha and Hitachi are testing advanced water technologies in PUB’s Ulu Pandan Water Reclamation Plant.

As urbanisation accelerates and the need for clean and affordable water increases, Singapore hopes to play a role in providing sustainable water solutions for cities around the world. As a leading adopter of innovative water solutions, the city-state can act as a reference market for companies looking to build track records here and later scale up their solutions for global markets.

A Living Lab For Innovation
Going forward, Singapore looks to replicate its success in water management to areas such as Built Environment, Clean Energy, Infocomm Technology, Security and Urban Mobility. Not only will Singapore need to address city-specific problems such as traffic congestion and homeland security, it will have to do so using sustainable solutions built upon the principles of innovation and resource efficiency.

This presents unique opportunities for collaborations with companies on R&D, design, testbedding, and demonstrations of future-oriented urban solutions here. Singapore’s ability to bring together industry, government agencies and research institutes to support experimentation and new idea generation is a key strength investors are likely to want to capitalise on. The city’s expertise in developing integrated,  systemslevel solutions is also another important advantage companies can build upon. The Urban Solutions Programme Office of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) seeks to bring together solution providers and lead users, supported by a conducive regulatory environment, research institutes and excellent infrastructure to co-develop solutions to best meet Singapore’s needs. This provides an opportunity for companies to push the boundaries of innovation in an integrated environment, build track records and use Singapore as a reference site to launch into growth markets in Asia and beyond. The city-state’s excellent connectivity and its status as a trusted global business hub and financial centre are additional pull factors that make Singapore an ideal launchpad for the commercialisation of leading-edge urban solutions.

Singapore’s Sustainable Blueprint
Under a blueprint unveiled by the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Sustainable Development (IMCSD) in April 2009, Singapore is setting aside S$1 billion (US$714.4 million) over five years to help create a greener, more energy efficient and sustainable Singapore, influencing the way Singaporeans live and the way businesses run. Some targets the city-state hopes to achieve by 2030 include:

• having 80 per cent of all buildings - including existing ones - achieve the Green Mark Certified rating from only over 200 buildings today
• having a 35 per cent improvement in energy efficiency from 2005 levels
• having 70 per cent of all journeys made to be via public transport

An Economic Strategies Committee (ESC) – a panel of leaders from the public and private sectors convened in 2009 to help chart the country’s growth strategies – also recommended in February this year that five per cent of peak energy demand in Singapore be supplied from renewable energy sources by 2020.

Testbeds for Urban Solutions
In setting out to achieve its sustainable targets, the city-state is partnering companies in testbedding several innovative Urban Solutions:

• HDB Solar Testbed
  Being in the heart of the Asian sunbelt has given Singapore a natural advantage in the growing solar energy industry. The EDB is partnering the Housing Development Board (HDB) on a large-scale test-bedding of solar technology within 30 public housing precincts across Singapore. This project will help HDB and Town Councils better understand solar technologies so that it can be implemented on a wider scale when it becomes cost effective to do so in the future. In meeting our domestic needs, the project will also help the solar system integration industry innovate and develop new capabilities, such as optimising solar systems for the tropics. 

• Towards Smarter Power Grids
  While Singapore already has one of the most reliable power systems in the world, there is scope to develop a smarter grid that ensures Singapore’s electricity infrastructure is ready for the future while offering consumers more choices in energy consumption. To this end, the Intelligent Energy System (IES) pilot testbed, was announced in November 2009, and will be implemented on multiple sites across the nation with the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) as the focal point to test and develop Advanced Metering and Communications Infrastructure, Demand Response Management Systems and Management Systems for Distributed Energy Sources. 

• Urban Mobility and Intelligent Transport Systems
  Having succeeded in implementing the world’s first electronic road toll collection system (ERP) as an effective means of managing traffic congestion, Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA) has since rolled out the Singapore Urban Transport Solution (STARS) initiative, which focuses on collaborations between R&D and leading infocomms companies such as IBM, 3M and Cisco to create real-time traffic prediction, telematics, transport optimisation and integrated user experience. Such measures are in line with LTA’s Land Transport 2020 Masterplan, which aims to create an environmentally friendly people- centric transport system.

Besides traffic management, another key interest area for Singapore is sustainable mobility. A multigovernmental agency taskforce led by the EDB and LTA set up last year, is investing S$20 million (US$14.3 million) to study the robustness, cost-effectiveness and environmental impact of electric-powered vehicles in a tropical environment. The taskforce aims to set up a network of charging stations by the end of the year, and expand the network as demand grows. Renault-Nissan and Keppel Energy were the first signatories under this framework, which was established in May 2009.

Large-scale Integrated Living Labs
Besides the testbedding of specific technology, Singapore has also designated large-scale integrated platforms for the testbedding of systems-level Urban Solutions, each with their unique characteristics.

- Punggol Eco-Town
Punggol Town, positioned as Singapore’s waterfront eco-town, will be a “living laboratory” to test new ideas and technologies in sustainable development, integrating urban solutions to create a green living environment. Green technologies and urban solutions being tested will focus on the areas of energy, waste and water management. Eventually, the HDB hopes to lower the implementation cost of these solutions and to replicate them across other towns island-wide.

- CleanTech Park
A 50 hectare eco-business park, named CleanTech Park, jointly set up by the EDB and the Jurong Town Council (JTC), is set to be a choice location for greenminded business owners. This development will push the boundaries of sustainability, serving as a largescale integrated “living laboratory” for testbedding and demonstration of systems-level clean technology solutions. Building on the synergies of being located next to the Nanyang Technological University, CleanTech Park will also house R&D activities from the university to promote collaborations between industry and academia, and unleash the economic potential created from these collaborations. It will serve as an epi-centre for research, innovation and commercialisation in clean technology. CleanTech Park will house a working population of 20,000 when it is fully built by 2030.

An artist perspective of the CleanTech Park

Solutions Today for the Cities of Tomorrow
These major developments have firmly placed Singapore as a valued partner to co-develop innovative solutions within the Asia Pacific. Through partnering companies in rigorous R&D, testbedding and careful implementation of urban solutions, Singapore has successfully bypassed looming resource constraints while building up strong capabilities for future-oriented technologies. More importantly, in offering its findings as urban solutions to the world, Singapore has secured for itself a position at the forefront of the 21st century.