More expensive bets

Well, news that Genting International will incur a cost overrun of S$800m for its casino resort (Pix source: Genting International Proposal listed by Wikipedia) on Singapore's Sentosa Island due partly to higher construction expenses has not come as a surprise.

Genting International, a unit of the late Malaysian tycoon Lim Goh Tong's Genting Bhd, now expects to spend as much as S$6 billion to build the Sentosa casino, up 15 per cent from an earlier estimate of S$5.2 billion.

The Reuters report said the new budget for the casino, which includes a contingency provision of S$250 million, also covers the cost of six new attractions as well as improvements to transportation and access infrastructure.

Singapore is undergoing a construction boom due to the award of several large projects such as a new financial centre, the two casino resorts, several shopping malls and a slew of redevelopments of private apartments known as en-bloc deals in Singapore.

Similarly, Sophie's World reckons that cost overrun is expected for the other casino project -- Las Vegas Sands' 20.6-hectare piece of waterfront land at Marina Bay.

Apart from the tight construction market, Singapore is facing a higher import bill for sand and other building materials due to the ban on the sale of sand by neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia.

In addition, the construction job for the Marina Bay Sands project on the reclaimed land is likely to be way more complex than Genting's project. According to an engineer, a lot of big boulders were used in the reclamation of the land in the 1980s. This makes it more difficult to extricate the boulders for the foundation work. By the way, Sophie's World has never seen so many construction cranes on a single site!

So, will the two casino resort developers be able to complete the mammoth projects -- each resort will cost as much as the Circle Line subway system in Singapore -- by 2010 as planned?

Don't bet on it!

Cleaning up Johor Straits good for S'pore too

Punggol, which is located on the northeastern part of Singapore, will be given a new lease of life. Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said during his National Day Rally speech on Aug 19 that the masterplan for the area dubbed 'Punggol 21-plus' is 'back on track'.

'Punggol 21-plus' will boast features like a freshwater lake - and a waterway running through the estate with homes and a town centre built on both banks, according to ST. The north-eastern coastal suburb will also get recreational facilities like water sports, gardens and parks with jogging tracks and eateries for al-fresco dining.

It all sounds great, but Punggol and the rest of the northern part of Singapore will never be as vibrant as the southern region of Singapore. The southern region, which has always been the commercial hub of Singapore, is rapidly being transformed into a more fun place.

The southern part of Singapore will have two world-class integrated resorts with casinos within the next three years or so. The government has awarded the Marina Bay site to Las Vegas Sands, which is building also building the world's biggest casino in Macau, and the Sentosa site to Genting International.

That's not all in the Marina Bay area. The new downtown is taking shape and there will be world-class gardens, a giant fresh-water reservoir, and a huge ferris wheel. There will be plenty of activities around the clean and pristine Marina Bay once all the plans are in place.

While the southern part of Singapore is attracting all the big dollars and attention, the northern part of Singapore will continue to be relatively subdued despite the latest plan to rejuvenate Punggol.

As Singapore is small with 704 square kilometres in area, every inch of Singapore, including the northern part, will have to be spruced up eventually. But it won't be easy to rejuvenate the northern coastline.

For a start, water off the northern part of Singapore, which is bounded by a strip of water known as Straits of Johor, is very dirty. The straits is a narrow waterway separating Singapore and its close neighbour Malaysia.

The straits is almost like a giant cesspool that has not been flushed for more than 80 years. Why? This is partly because the causeway, which was built on reclaimed land and cuts across the straits to link the two countries, has been blocking the free flow of water in the straits since it was completed by the British in 1924.

Singapore has done its part to reduce further pollution to the straits, spending $7 billion to build massive tunnels to move sewage to two new waste treatment plants in Changi and Tuas, instead of discharging waste into the straits.

Malaysia is also trying to clean up the straits, although not as successful.

In 1996, former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad proposed an overhead bridge to replace the ageing causeway in a bid to free up the flow of water in the straits. It is part of a grander plan to turn the southern Malaysian state into a transportation hub. The project would have allowed small ships and barges to traverse the straits.

The bridge project has not taken off after ten years, complicated by internal Malaysian politics and disagreements with the Singapore government. Last year, current Malaysian government led by Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, called off the bridge project. Malaysia could not strike a deal with Singapore, which wanted to buy sand and use Johor airspace as part of the quid pro quo to jointly build a new bridge.

The decision to abort the project incensed Dr Mahathir, who is still on a warpath with his successor despite bouts of heart attacks. The Malaysian statesman had early said he would stop his bickering if the bridge is built. He had continued to criticise the bridge issue as reported in malaysia-today.

The bridge project is expected to remain on the backburner for some time, as the two governments have not been able to resolve all their differences since the two countries separated in 1965.

With or without a new bridge to replace the causeway, Malaysia and the Johor state government must step up efforts to clean up the five dirty rivers flowing into the Johor Straits.

But it will be more ideal if a new overhead bridge could be built to replace the over-utilised causeway and allow water in the stagnant straits to circulate more freely.

A cleaner straits will be good for the long-term development of the coastal areas of both Singapore and southern Malaysia, which will have a new development zone called Iskandar Development Region.

A cleaner Johor Straits could also help make northern Singapore, including Punggol, a more thriving hub one day.

S'pore's bubbly property market, part 3

Singapore property giant Kwek Leng Beng recently made the most bullish forecast for the Singapore property market so far, according to a Bloomberg interview. He's second from right in the larger pix that was published in local newspapers last year. Leng Beng stood next to famous architect Moshe Safdie (with moustache) in the winning bid for Marina Bay integrated resort and casino project, which will be developed by Sheldon Adelson of Las Vegas Sands. Leng Beng is on the left in the inset with younger brother Leng Joo. Notice how Leng Beng has an expressive way with his hand! :-)

But Leng Beng's prediction is plausible. He is one of the most astute readers of the local property market. He and his late father Hong Png of the Singapore Hong Leong empire have had an uncanny ability in reading the Singapore property market. They got so many cycles correct, including the latest bull run by Kwek junior.

And while everyone wrote off Las Vegas Sands in its bid for the Marina Bay integrated resort site, Leng Beng was the sole public backer of the American developer. Er, the other backer was dad, who correctly predicted the winners of the Marina Bay and Sentosa integrated resort and casino tender exercises.

Happy Birthday Singapore!

Pix source: The Straits Times' National Day Special, which has many impressive pictures.

Singapore turns 42 today. It's another day of impressive celebrations with military-like precision. Everything appeared to happen on schedule, based on what we saw from our apartment and on TV.

The fighter jets roared past Marina Bay effortlessly, government leaders came on time in their pristine white, and the beautiful fireworks were well timed. Even the performances by the school kids went without any obvious glitch. Kit Chan's voice was stunning and moving.

But there was one flaw, as usual. Many Singaporeans still appeared to have difficulty in singing the national anthem, Majulah Singapura.

Singapore adopted the Malay song as its national anthem after it was booted out of Malaysia and became an independent nation in 1965. While Malay was more widely used then, it is no longer the lingua franca of Singapore today. Three quarters of Singaporeans are Chinese who are more comfortable with English and Mandarin. Even many Malays in Singapore are more conversant in English.

It's sad to see many Singaporeans still struggling with their national song. It's highly questionable whether they know the meaning of the lyrics even if they can sing or hum along. Some, including members of the ruling party, just stood stoically when the national anthem was played.

The solution is not to teach all Singaporeans to sing the Malay song. It's perhaps better to come up with a new national anthem in English. More people will be able to sing the song and appreciate it.

After all, many Singaporeans probably understood what Kit Chan sang tonight.

Additional reading:
Mr Wang Says So
Aaron Ng

Floods on Both Sides of the Causeway

(Pix source: The Straits Times)

IT rained cats and dogs in Singapore and in the border Malaysian town of Johor Baru yesterday. Singapore's Met Dept said it was the heaviest rainfall in 75 years, while Johor Menteri Besar Abdul Ghani Othman described it as a 'once in 100 years' occurrence.

Parts of Singapore were submerged in water but the damage didn't appear to be too widespread in the developed island nation.

However, the situation was more serious in Third World town of JB. More than 10,000 people were evacuated from their homes after floods hit most parts of Johor.

The flood is a rare phenomenon in Singapore since the flood alleviation programme in the 1980s and 1990s. And such events will be event rarer in Singapore once the Marina Barrage is completed next year to help turn Marina Bay into a fresh water bay and helps regulate tidal flows to stem flooding of inland low-lying areas. Must say it's a simple and brilliant idea.

But the same cannot be said about JB, which will continue to experience massive floods in the future -- definitely more than once in every 100 years. See earlier postings on Johor's woes.

Sizzling Red Dot

A very useful map in The Straits Times of what's hot and what's not in the Singapore private residential property market.

Although only a small part of the island is currently in red to show the hot property interest, it won't take too long before the property fever spreads to the rest of the island.

The little red dot is definitely sizzling with the massive inflow of funds into property and private wealth sector. And the two upcoming integrated resorts and casinos -- Las Vegas Sands at Marina Bay and Genting-Universal at Sentosa -- will definitely add more sizzle to the island's already hot economy.

Singapore is definitely fast becoming Asia's Switzerland, or even more in the next five to ten years.

Big Singapore Tourism Bet

The Singapore tourism engine will be firing on all cylinders in the next few years as part of the plan to boost tourist arrivals to 17 million from 9 million in less than a decade. The 9-million mark was reached yesterday amidst much fanfare, according to the ST report today.


(Picture Source: The Straits Times, Singapore)

Dec 7, 2006 Tourism booms as arrivals hit nine million
By Krist Boo & Lim Wei Chean
BLEARY-EYED Russian tourist Elena Vladykina was taken aback by the orchid garlands and noisy drumming and dancing that greeted her on her 6am arrival at Changi Airport yesterday.

Then she realised she was being welcomed as Singapore's nine-millionth visitor -- a sweet ground-breaking number that caps a year of new records for Singapore's tourism industry. Last year, the island received 8.9 million visitors.

Yesterday, there was much to celebrate for the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), whose senior executives turned up at the airport to welcome Dr Vladykina, 29, after her 14-hour flight from Moscow. She was whisked off in a limousine with $35,000 worth of hotel, shopping and other vouchers.

It took Singapore just two years to leap from eight million to nine million visitors, said STB's assistant chief executive for leisure, Dr Chan Tat Hon.

The seven-millionth visitor was welcomed in 1995, but it took almost another 10 years before the eight-millionth showed up in 2004.

The tourism Singapore target now seems a tad conservative if the two integrated resorts and casinos -- Las Vegas Sands' Marina Bay and Sentosa -- can achieve their targets.

The next big news will be the decision on the winner of the Sentosa project -- widely expected to be made tomorrow -- to help achieve the Singapore tourism goal. All three bidders -- Genting-Universal, CapitaLand-Kerzner and Eighth Wonder -- have each promised to deliver more than 10 million extra visitors to Singapore.

And there is still last-minute lobbying, as seen in two letters published in ST today, by fans of the two front-runners for the Sentosa IR project -- Genting-Universal and CapitaLand-Kerzner.


A Genting win will benefit Singapore
I REFER to the articles, 'Harry's Island at cinemas worldwide?' (ST, Nov 30) and 'Free nightly show, says Eighth Wonder' (ST, Dec 1).

Having resided on both sides of the US continent for seven years, I wonder if Eighth Wonder or, for that matter, Kerzner-CapitaLand can attract the tourist numbers that Singapore wants.

Very often, visitors would want me to spend time with them at Disney or Universal Studios and, to a lesser extent, Six Flags or Sea World. Hardly anyone would care to visit Getty Center, Guggenheim, Atlantis or, for that matter, the Volcano at Las Vegas.

Most would want to have a fun day for themselves and their families at Disney and Universal Studios. Not many would want to get wet. Hardly anyone would want to gawk at architecture.

At Disney and Universal Studios, you can see their smiling faces, and feel their excitement. Universal Studios is a very recognisable name.

Genting's partner, Star Cruises, the third largest in the world, could use Singapore as a hub for their guests.

The other two contenders lack this and an attraction like Universal Studios. Can you imagine Universal Studios and the cruise business going to one of our immediate neighbours? Disney may or may not come in later.

If Genting wins, Singapore wins - if tourism is what Singapore values.

Lau Chee Kian

Go for the iconic, avoid the insipid
I REFER to the article, 'Sentosa IR race: Who will win?'' (The Sunday Times, Dec 3). I find the writer's take on which bidder will be selected to develop the Sentosa integrated resort very economical and safe.

No doubt, this approach has worked well in Singapore many times. It will give us a resort that is packed with features, economically optimised, comfortable to most, but insipid and hardly iconic.

The decision this time round is like no other. In our quest to be a truly global city and our search for the 'wow' factor, we can afford a little risk, trade a little function for aesthetics, economics for uniqueness, and familiarity for icons.

Hence, my choice would be Kerzner/CapitaLand's bid. Where else in Asia can one find another Frank Gehry work and a robotic wonderland?

This is not only 'magical' but will also appeal to a wider group of people and be more sustainable in the long run than a football school, a cooking school when we are hardly a culinary capital, a marine research institute far away from the ocean, maritime museum or another ultra-large hall.

To attract the tourist numbers the Singapore Tourism Board hopes to achieve, we need more than just the Sentosa IR.

We can have the 'usual' theme park at Marina East, collections of boutique hotels at the Southern Islands, celebrated chefs /restaurants doting the city and perhaps another Request for Proposal for the central promontory.

Let's see the Sentosa bid not as a single commercial decision, but with the perspective of recreating Singapore.

We need to seek for Sentosa what we could not have done in another site in Singapore, and bearing in mind that an offering like Frank Gehry's is available only this time round.

Ong Phui Luong