THE PUBLIC POLICY OF THE MAINTENANCE AND IMPROVEMENTS OF PARKS IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

Developing Singapore into Asia's "Garden City" started about 40 years ago with the establishment of the large-scale greening programme island wide. It was spearheaded by the former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew who had argued that a green Singapore would be a key competitive factor in attracting immense foreign investments. It remains a key factor not only for investors but also for tourism. The importance of recreation space has been highlighted by the recent Park & Waterbodies Plan and the Rustic Coast Plan, implemented by Urban Redevelopment Authority. The plans are meant to enhance the living environment with the sense of openness, the space to reflect as well as to encourage creativity, innovation and imagination, the sense of rootedness, the sense of diversity, the sense of ownership cum community and lastly, the sense of fun. Hence, this study investigates the park's maintenance and improvement policy of the National Parks Board (Nparks). It also evaluates the effectiveness of the park's maintenance & improvement policy by Nparks inclusive of the intended and unintended impacts of the policy. Finally, the study covers the possibility of outsourcing the park's maintenance & improvement policy to the private sector, with the examples of the "PRIME DSS" and the "STEPS" to investigate the outsourcing possibility. The policy is a major public policy in Singapore as it an on-going and vigilant process to improve and maintain public. So, there is a need to explore areas of improvement such as engaging high technology equipment, upgrading the skills of staff and conduct of exchange programmes at national level as well as international level.