More than 6,000 residents in Bukit Panjang will be among the first in Singapore to benefit from the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme (NRP). Announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the National Day Rally last year, it is a new programme that focuses on neighbourhood improvements. Flats that have been built before or in 1989 are eligible for NRP if they have not undergone any kind of main or interim...
General
Riding it out involves open and frank cooperation AMERICA'S unfolding financial woes continue to surprise. The impact on Asia has been limited thus far, and some think that Asia's rise is irresistible. But connections in finance, trade and investment can still bring the storm to Asia. Indeed, regional bourses and currencies have already felt shocks. After all, Asia's boom has coincided and benefited...
The market and hawker centre at Block 159 Mei Chin Road will be closed for upgrading from May to the second quarter of 2009. This makeover comes under the National Environment Agency's (NEA) Hawker Centres Upgrading Programme (HUP). The S$4 million upgrading programme will make the two-storey market and hawker centre more accessible for the elderly and handicapped. The centre will feature improved...
Jurong Town Corporation (JTC) had won an appeal in a civil suit brought against it by a former sub-contractor and was awarded $8.1 million in damages. But in the latest twist to the four-year legal wrangle between JTC and sub-contractor Wishing Star, JTC will receive only $339,823. The saga began in Nov 2003 when Hong Kong-based Wishing Star cried foul over the way JTC terminated its services after it was...
Property developers CapitaLand and Hotel Properties Limited (HPL) have secured financing facilities worth nearly S$2 billion for their collective purchase of Farrer Court estate in prime district 10. CapitaLand and HPL, along with their partners, had bought Farrer Court for S$1.34 billion last June. The financing facilities will be used to refinance the acquisition costs of the purchase, as well as to...
Monetary authority acts to curb inflation The Singapore dollar climbed to a record high yesterday after a surprise tightening in monetary policy aimed at combating inflation. The currency jumped 1.7 per cent in Asian trade to touch a high of $1.3567 in afternoon trade - its largest single-day gain since October 1998. While a rising Singapore dollar can provide consumers some respite from spiralling...
Singapore’s economy has not only averted a technical recession but bounced back with a vengeance in the first quarter of this year. Flash estimates show GDP grew 7.2 per cent year-on-year, thanks largely to a big swing in pharmaceutical exports. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the economy grew a surprising 16.9 per cent. However, experts warn about getting too excited. This flash estimate may not give...
Three-year wait likely, so couples in a hurry will have to resort to resale market AS MORE flats come on stream under the Housing and Development Board’s (HDB) build-to-order (BTO) scheme, the board says such units will be its main source of supply in future, and would-be home buyers would have to factor in a three-year wait. This is because construction work on a project under the scheme will only...
The Housing and Development Board (HDB) said build-to-order (BTO) flats will constitute the main supply of new flats going forward. HDB also plans to build another 5,000 units under this scheme, between now and September 2008. The move comes as HDB’s stock of unsold flats is progressively being taken up. During the days of excess supply of HDB flats, there were over 25,000 ready-built flats waiting...
Singapore’s economy grew an annual 7.2 per cent in the first quarter, faster than the 5.4 per cent expansion recorded in the previous three months, the government said on Thursday. Last quarter’s performance was also better than economists’ average growth forecast of a 6.4 per cent expansion. On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted annualised basis, real gross domestic product for the first...