ST : Relocation of govt agencies: Good move or not?

Mar 14, 2010

Relocation of govt agencies: Good move or not?

By Goh Chin Lian

More government offices are moving out of their city centre locations, becoming more dispersed as a result.

But this move, by agencies that do not need to remain in the Central Business District, frees up prime office space for the private sector.

The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, whose offices are in Suntec City and Hill Street, will move to Pasir Panjang next year. Going to Bendemeer in 2012 is the Manpower Ministry's Foreign Manpower Management Division, now in Kim Seng Road.

And more will be moving away from the city centre over the next five years, the Government announced last week.

While the Workforce Development Agency (WDA) will move to Paya Lebar, two ministries - National Development (MND) and Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) - and four of their statutory boards will move to Jurong.

Three statutory boards have already moved out since the Finance Ministry directed two years ago that government agencies be more cost-efficient, including finding cheaper offices to rent.

The trio are: the Media Development Authority which headed west to Fusionopolis in Buona Vista, the Singapore Land Authority which went north to Newton, and the Energy Market Authority which relocated to Alexandra Road.

MP Lee Bee Wah, deputy chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for National Development and the Environment, supports the move out of the city centre. But she said offices that deal with the public should be sited as close as possible to MRT and bus services.

The Manpower Ministry, by choosing to move its Foreign Manpower Management Division to a new $73 million office in Bendemeer, emphasises consolidation.

The ministry's headquarters in Havelock Road, and its offices in Kim Seng and Tanjong Pagar, will then have consolidated counter services at the Bendemeer site.

The result: a one-stop customer service centre for issues related to foreign manpower, workplace relations and standards, as well as occupational safety and health.

Also, Potong Pasir MRT station is near Bendemeer.

Another concern raised is the loss of 'synergy' that comes from people needing to travel far for meetings. But urban planning analyst Wong Tai Chee felt this can be addressed by teleconferencing. Also, much paperwork is now done online, reducing the need for face-to-face interaction.

Some countries have the space to centralise government services outside the city centre. Malaysia has done this with a federal administrative centre in Putrajaya.

But land-scarce Singapore does not have this option, said Associate Professor Wong, who is from the National Institute of Education.

In any case, the very act of moving government offices to areas earmarked for development has spin-off benefits, said property consultancies Colliers International and Savills Singapore. It will give the mass needed for services, from food to banking, to be provided there, and attract developers and the private sector, they said.

Agreeing, Prof Wong added that this will also speed up the decentralisation of office jobs, which he felt has lagged behind the decentralisation of city centre inhabitants in the last 50 years as new towns and regional malls were built.

In Jurong, the MND and MEWR are studying the options of building a new government complex or renting office space from the private sector, a Finance Ministry spokesman told The Sunday Times.

She said both sides will together require an estimated gross floor

area of 60,000sqm, which property consultants estimate to be 1.3 times the size of an office tower in Suntec City.

The city sites now occupied by the MND and MEWR could either be redeveloped as part of the Government Land Sales scheme, or the buildings there could be leased for office use, the spokesman added.

She said this was also the case for the former Raffles Institution site in Grange Road, now used by the Education Ministry for teacher development.

Ms Chua Chor Hoon, head of South-east Asia research at property consultancy DTZ Debenham Tie Leung (SEA), thinks there is no hurry to develop such prime spots as the market is not lacking in them.

'It's good to save some land for the future,' she said.

Now that the WDA is moving out of One Marina Boulevard, near Raffles Place, observers have asked if the National Trades Union Congress - which occupies eight floors in the prime property owned by the Singapore Labour Foundation - will do likewise.

NTUC director Shona Tan said it had no immediate plans to do so.

She said the Government had developed the NTUC office space as a gift to the labour movement to recognise its contributions to Singapore's economic and social development.

chinlian@sph.com.sg


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Where they are

Moving soon

· Infocomm Development Authority (next year), from Suntec City to Mapletree Business City, Pasir Panjang Road, spread over six floors in an 18-storey office tower

· Manpower Ministry's Foreign Manpower Management Division (by 2012), from Kim Seng Road to Bendemeer Road

· Singapore Workforce Development Agency (by 2013), from One Marina Boulevard to Paya Lebar Central

· Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, Public Utilities Board and National Environment Agency (by 2015), from Scotts Road to Jurong Gateway

· Ministry of National Development, Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority and Building and Construction Authority (by 2015), from Maxwell Road to Jurong Gateway

Moved

· Media Development Authority (2008), from four places - Mica Building in Hill Street, The Adelphi in Coleman Street, URA Centre in Maxwell Road and Novena Square - to Fusionopolis, Buona Vista

· Singapore Land Authority (2008), from Shenton Way to Revenue House, Newton Road

· Energy Market Authority (last year), from Somerset Road to Alexandra Road

No plans to move

· Ministry of Finance (The Treasury, High Street)

· Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Tanglin)

· Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (Hill Street)

· Ministry of Law (The Treasury, with some departments in Maxwell Road)

· Ministry of Manpower (Havelock Road)

· Ministry of Trade & Industry (The Treasury)

· Prime Minister's Office (Istana; with Public Service Division at The Treasury; Elections Department in Prinsep Link)

· Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (International Plaza, Anson Road)

· Central Provident Fund Board (Robinson Road)

· Competition Commission of Singapore (Maxwell Road)

· Economic Development Board (Raffles City Tower, North Bridge Road)

· Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (Plaza by the Park, Bras Basah Road)

· International Enterprise Singapore (Bugis Junction Office Tower, Victoria Street)

· Monetary Authority of Singapore (Shenton Way)

· National Arts Council (Hill Street)

· National Heritage Board (Hill Street)

· Singapore Tourism Board (Orchard Spring Lane)

· Urban Redevelopment Authority (Maxwell Road)



NTUC, at One Marina Boulevard, has no plans to move yet. -- BT FILE PHOTO