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The government is drafting plans to potentially transform Singapore’s iconic Orchard Road shopping belt into an innovation district or a “green oasis in the city centre”, reported Channel NewsAsia.
“Orchard Road can go beyond a road, to be an orchard in the city,” said Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Chee Hong Tat on Wednesday (17 Oct).
“It can be more than a shopping district to include a range of exciting activities and unique attractions that appeal to visitors, both tourists and locals.”
These plans could include transforming the famed shopping street into an innovation district, where social entrepreneurs and start-ups can make use of Orchard Road as a live laboratory to pilot their ideas for urban logistics, novel retail concepts and eco-friendly endeavours.
The blueprints are currently being formulated with the help of different government agencies, business owners and other industry players.
“When these plans are ready, we will present them in greater detail and invite further views from stakeholders,” he noted.
Moreover, Chee revealed that there are plans to create more exciting attractions on Sentosa Island, which is visited by around 19 million locals and tourists per annum. Aside from hosting the Trump-Kim summit earlier this year, the island also houses Universal Studios Singapore and Resorts World Sentosa.
“We are currently developing a comprehensive set of plans to reshape the entire island and provide more scope for new attractions and investments on Sentosa,” he explained.
Furthermore, the authorities are mulling development plans for the Greater Southern Waterfront and Pulau Brani, given the relocation of the Tanjong Pagar container ports over the next ten years.
“This expanded canvas, which is as large as Sentosa Island itself, provides exciting opportunities for us to develop new tourism attractions and anchor this precinct as the Southern Gateway of Asia,” Chee added.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
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