City Marketing > Reinventing Singapore The Marina Bay Project
Reinventing Singapore The Marina Bay Project
WAIKEEN NG
Director of Cities Hub Fundación Metrópoli
Singapore celebrated 42 years of independence in August with a spectacular National Day Parade, held for the first time on a floating stadium in Marina Bay. The location is significant: Marina Bay is Singapore’s answer to increasing competition from cities for the global pool of financial and human capital, and differentiating Sin ga - pore from other major cities.
After growing at a rate of 7.7% annually during the 1990s, and re bounding from a slump in the early 2000s, Singapore is once again experiencing consistent economic growth rates of 5-to- 7%. However, the city-state is cons cious that it must reinvent itself and the Singapore brand in order to continue attracting in - vest ments and talent to remain relevant in the competitive global reality:
• the Asian “tigers” of Hong Kong and South Korea,
• the Asian “giants” China and India,
• the new competitors such as Dubai that have set their sights on beating Singapore.
Singapore is one of the best managed cities in the world. For example, in the 2006 City Governance Survey conducted by Jones Lang LaSalle assessing 33 cities, Singapore came out top for city management. However, in the same survey, Singapore only came in fourth in the area of city marketing, behind New York, Shanghai and Barcelona.
Since the 1960s, through public agencies such as the Economic Development Board (EDB), IE Singapore (formerly Trade De - ve lopment Board) and SPRING, Singapore has been very successful in attracting economic investments, promoting trade and industry, and improving productivity and the business environment. Urban planning was important – considered to be an instrument for economic development, and the island of Singapore was meth odically endowed with so me of the best infrastructure and facilities in the world: airport, metro, highways, etc. The efforts of the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) during the same period also have been successful in promoting the country as a tourism destination.
The transformation that the citystate has embarked upon to market itself better is a holistic one: that Singapore is a great city to live, work and visit. STB now stresses the “uniqueness” of Singapore, while the other agencies work closely together and with different government ministries to reduce bureaucratic barriers to living and working in Singapore.
A key element in Singapore’s strategy to re-brand itself is the reinvention of its urban landscape. The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is leading this charge to go from quality of life to quality of place issues. As competition between cities intensifies, the importance of place (urban design, quality, civic identity) becomes ever more crucial.
The redevelopment of Marina Bay is the showcase project for Singapore’s new brand. It is an artificial bay near Singapore’s Central Business District that was created when land was reclaimed in the late 1980s (a “greenfield” site). The vision for Marina Bay, conceived and refined over a decade, is for it to become a waterfront city in a garden – a place for work and play for 40,000 residents. So far, the project has attracted over €2 billion in investment.
This strategic development is a “total lifestyle product” and is centred on the “Three E’s”: explore, exchange and entertain. On one hand, the physical buildings are important, and Marina Bay aspires to be the iconic symbol for Singapore with the most innovative facilities and infrastructure such as the underground “common services tunnel”. At the same time, it is about the in-between spaces and the activities that take place. This brings us back to the floating stadium and activities such as the National Day Parade and F1 Powerboat racing. The inaugural 2008 Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix will take place in the streets around Marina Bay.
Marina Bay will be developed in phases over a 10-15 year period. It will house world-class facilities such as the Business and Financial Centre (BFC), an Integrated Resort (with a Ca sino), a new Botanic Gardens and the Marina Barrage, which turns Marina Bay into a reservoir. It will also include prime residential buildings and office buildings.
WAIKEEN NG
Director of Cities Hub Fundación Metrópoli
Singapore celebrated 42 years of independence in August with a spectacular National Day Parade, held for the first time on a floating stadium in Marina Bay. The location is significant: Marina Bay is Singapore’s answer to increasing competition from cities for the global pool of financial and human capital, and differentiating Sin ga - pore from other major cities.
After growing at a rate of 7.7% annually during the 1990s, and re bounding from a slump in the early 2000s, Singapore is once again experiencing consistent economic growth rates of 5-to- 7%. However, the city-state is cons cious that it must reinvent itself and the Singapore brand in order to continue attracting in - vest ments and talent to remain relevant in the competitive global reality:
• the Asian “tigers” of Hong Kong and South Korea,
• the Asian “giants” China and India,
• the new competitors such as Dubai that have set their sights on beating Singapore.
Singapore is one of the best managed cities in the world. For example, in the 2006 City Governance Survey conducted by Jones Lang LaSalle assessing 33 cities, Singapore came out top for city management. However, in the same survey, Singapore only came in fourth in the area of city marketing, behind New York, Shanghai and Barcelona.
Since the 1960s, through public agencies such as the Economic Development Board (EDB), IE Singapore (formerly Trade De - ve lopment Board) and SPRING, Singapore has been very successful in attracting economic investments, promoting trade and industry, and improving productivity and the business environment. Urban planning was important – considered to be an instrument for economic development, and the island of Singapore was meth odically endowed with so me of the best infrastructure and facilities in the world: airport, metro, highways, etc. The efforts of the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) during the same period also have been successful in promoting the country as a tourism destination.
The transformation that the citystate has embarked upon to market itself better is a holistic one: that Singapore is a great city to live, work and visit. STB now stresses the “uniqueness” of Singapore, while the other agencies work closely together and with different government ministries to reduce bureaucratic barriers to living and working in Singapore.
A key element in Singapore’s strategy to re-brand itself is the reinvention of its urban landscape. The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is leading this charge to go from quality of life to quality of place issues. As competition between cities intensifies, the importance of place (urban design, quality, civic identity) becomes ever more crucial.
The redevelopment of Marina Bay is the showcase project for Singapore’s new brand. It is an artificial bay near Singapore’s Central Business District that was created when land was reclaimed in the late 1980s (a “greenfield” site). The vision for Marina Bay, conceived and refined over a decade, is for it to become a waterfront city in a garden – a place for work and play for 40,000 residents. So far, the project has attracted over €2 billion in investment.
This strategic development is a “total lifestyle product” and is centred on the “Three E’s”: explore, exchange and entertain. On one hand, the physical buildings are important, and Marina Bay aspires to be the iconic symbol for Singapore with the most innovative facilities and infrastructure such as the underground “common services tunnel”. At the same time, it is about the in-between spaces and the activities that take place. This brings us back to the floating stadium and activities such as the National Day Parade and F1 Powerboat racing. The inaugural 2008 Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix will take place in the streets around Marina Bay.
Marina Bay will be developed in phases over a 10-15 year period. It will house world-class facilities such as the Business and Financial Centre (BFC), an Integrated Resort (with a Ca sino), a new Botanic Gardens and the Marina Barrage, which turns Marina Bay into a reservoir. It will also include prime residential buildings and office buildings.
The importance of place... reinvention of the urban landscape
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