Speech by Minister Chee Hong Tat at the Draft Masterplan 2025 Exhibition Launch
Jun 25, 2025
INTRODUCTION
A very good morning to all of you. I am delighted to join you for the launch of the Draft Master Plan 2025 exhibition.
Over the past six decades, we have transformed our small island into a thriving city in nature, despite our limited land and natural resources. This did not happen by chance. With bold vision and judicious planning, our pioneers made wise decisions to plan for the long term, provided options for future generations and made Singapore a vibrant city-state and an endearing home for all of us.
As we continue to chart out long-term plans to build a brighter future for Singapore, we must also remain agile and continually refine our land use plans to deal with new challenges – adjusting to a more uncertain global environment where business activities and supply chains could undergo further shifts, preparing for the effects of climate change, meeting stronger demand for housing from our people, and rejuvenating older towns and estates to provide a high-quality living environment for residents of all ages.
Tackling these challenges will require a concerted effort by government, stakeholders and all Singaporeans. We need to work together to shape our collective future. Along the way, there will be difficult tradeoffs we need to discuss and find ways to strike a careful balance. We will also come across new technologies, new design ideas and new approaches, which can open up more opportunities to achieve our goals.
SHAPING A COLLECTIVE FUTURE WITH SINGAPOREANS
Every five years, URA reviews the Master Plan. It is a nationwide effort involving many stakeholders, as we come together to plan our shared future for Singapore.
We embarked on the public engagement for the Draft Master Plan 2025 two years ago. We have engaged close to 220,000 Singaporeans through surveys, exhibitions, dialogues and workshops. This is the most extensive engagement that URA has conducted to date.
I want to thank the participants; Singaporeans, who have shared with us a wide range of ideas. The exhibition you see today brings these ideas together into a shared vision for the next 10 to 15 years. I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has contributed to this effort. We appreciate your inputs or suggestions and ideas, and hope to continue working with all of you to shape our future plans together.
Let me now share some of the key proposals, organised around four themes that reflect our shared priorities to make Singapore a more liveable, inclusive and endearing home.
SHAPING A HAPPY, HEALTHY CITY
More inclusive and accessible homes
First, we are developing more inclusive and accessible homes, and neighbourhoods that cater to different life stages and aspirations. We earlier shared plans for new homes in more central locations such as Pearl’s Hill and Bukit Timah Turf City. We will be adding more public and private residential units in areas such as:
- The former Singapore Racecourse site at Kranji, which will be developed into a housing estate close to nature;
- The Dover-Medway area, where we will bring more people closer to jobs in the Greater one-north area; and
- Around Newton, where new homes will be developed in a vibrant, mixed-use precinct.
Looking further ahead, we are studying more areas to meet our future housing needs, including new towns at where Sembawang Shipyard and Paya Lebar Air Base are currently located. When the Paya Lebar Air Base relocates from the 2030s, it will also free up height restrictions in the surrounding towns, which will allow for more land intensification to meet demand for different land uses.
As our population ages, we are supporting seniors to age in place. Through Age Well SG, we are rolling out more Active Ageing Centres and Community Care Apartments in our neighbourhoods. MND will work closely with MOH and other agencies to flesh out the plans for this important area of work. And in my capacity as Member of Parliament for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC, which has a higher proportion of senior residents, I will be happy to support the implementation of these ideas within our GRC to benefit my residents. I’m sure my colleagues MOS Baey Yam Keng and Mayor Denise Phua feel the same way.
Recreation and amenities closer to home
We are also bringing recreation and amenities closer to home. We are proposing new integrated community hubs in Woodlands, Yio Chu Kang and Sengkang. Located near public transport nodes, these hubs will bring together sports facilities, healthcare, and community spaces in one convenient location.
This is a good concept, it benefits residents and is also a productive use of our limited land. My residents in Toa Payoh are looking forward to the 4-in-1 Toa Payoh Integrated Development Hub, which comprises sports facilities, polyclinic, library and a revitalised Toa Payoh town park. We will continue to study where more of such integrated hubs can be implemented, to bring various services under one roof and optimise our limited land.
In parallel, we are activating underutilised spaces like viaducts and carpark rooftops– such as the upcoming Sport-In-Precinct facility atop the multi-storey carpark at Dover Crescent.
Improving accessibility for efficient commutes
To improve accessibility, we remain on track for 8 in 10 households to be within a 10-minute walk of an MRT station by the 2030s, as part of our national objective to enhance connectivity.
By 2030, our cycling network will be expanded to around 1,300km, connecting homes to transport nodes, amenities and recreational spaces. A new pedestrian bridge connecting Marina Centre and Bay East Garden will be completed by 2029, allowing a more direct connection between the city and the East Coast along the Round Island Route.
ENABLING SUSTAINABLE GROWTH
To support the Singapore Economy 2030 vision, we must continue to drive sustainable economic growth and create quality jobs and opportunities for Singaporeans. One example is the Punggol Digital District (PDD), which is managed by JTC. It leverages integrated infrastructure and smart technologies to attract digital economy firms. It is expected to generate around 28,000 jobs in sectors like AI, cybersecurity and fintech, while enabling close collaboration between industry and academia. The district will be well-served by public transport options, with Punggol Coast MRT station located at its heart and a new integrated bus interchange opening on 29 June.
We are enhancing our city centre as a global financial hub and vibrant 24/7 destination. The Central Business District (CBD) remains our dynamic global hub, and we have recently updated the CBD Incentive Scheme to better support the continued growth and evolution of the CBD into a vibrant 24/7 mixed-use district. URA’s pilot Business Improvement Districts (BID) programme at Raffles Place and Marina Central has brought together businesses and the community to foster vibrant precincts in the city centre. We will explore how to support more of such partnerships and ground-up efforts in more areas, to benefit businesses and make our city even more lively.
We are working closely with industry players to revitalise the Orchard Road and our Downtown areas. For example, when the redevelopment of Faber House is completed, it will provide new retail offerings and enhance pedestrian connectivity from Orchard Road to Emerald Hill. We are also exploring having a new 500-metre pedestrian-friendly walking route merged with Istana Park and Dhoby Ghaut Green, and linking it further to Fort Canning Park via a new elevated link bridge. Around Marina Bay, a planned wellness attraction and the expansion of Marina Bay Sands will boost our capacity to host major conferences and events.
Beyond the city centre, we are strengthening our three economic gateways to bring jobs and amenities closer to homes:
In the North, Woodlands Regional Centre will benefit from the Johor Bahru–Singapore Rapid Transit System Link and Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone, offering businesses and consumers convenient access to cross-border opportunities.
In the East, the Changi Region will be anchored by the upcoming Terminal 5, reinforcing our position as a global aviation hub.
In the West, Tuas Port which will be the world’s largest automated container terminal when completed in the 2040s, will be further enhanced by PSA’s upcoming Supply Chain Hub in 2027. We will also proceed with the development of Jurong Lake District as Singapore’s largest mixed-use business district outside the city centre.
These economic gateways will be supported by a network of Regional and Sub-Regional Centres that bring jobs and amenities even closer to homes. For example, we plan to transform Bishan Town Centre into a vibrant Sub-Regional Centre. We are studying the introduction of new office space that could match the scale of Paya Lebar Central, along with new community amenities such as a new Bishan polyclinic, a new Bishan hawker centre and a revamped Bishan bus interchange with air-conditioned waiting areas.
We are also evolving how we plan our economic areas – moving from mono-use zones to mixed-use districts that offer flexibility for businesses and better amenities for workers. URA is working with JTC to review the industrial land use zoning guidelines to better respond to evolving business needs, by providing greater flexibility in allowable uses on industrial land. These moves will benefit businesses and enhance Singapore’s economic competitiveness. We will share more details when ready.
STRENGTHENING URBAN RESILIENCE
As an island city-state, we must prioritise building resilience against climate change through long-term planning, and look at implementing integrated solutions ahead of time. For example, along the low-lying East Coast area, the ‘Long Island’ project will help protect against sea level rise, while enhancing water security and creating new land for future generations. Over 3,000 people have shared their ideas for ‘Long Island’ so far, and we will continue to work closely with our stakeholders while we proceed with the technical studies.
We are also using more of our underground space. As land is limited, we try to maximise and optimise any possible space that we have. From the Jurong Rock Caverns to the Deep Tunnel Sewerage System, we have built key infrastructure to free up surface land. When I was at Ministry of Transport, the upcoming building opposite my office at Alexandra Road has an underground electrical sub-station below it– this is the first large-scale underground facility of its kind in Singapore. There is scope to move more of such facilities underground, and free up valuable surface land for other uses.
Looking ahead, we are exploring underground uses in places like Gali Batu for construction materials storage, and supporting more research and development to unlock new possibilities for future underground developments.
As we seek to optimise space, we are also looking upwards. The recent announcement on the relaxation of building height limits near airports opens new possibilities for future intensification, which we will study carefully in tandem with infrastructure capacity and urban design considerations.
STEWARDING NATURE AND HERITAGE
We will continue to incorporate greenery and heritage considerations into our planning processes, and balance these carefully with development needs.
Our City in Nature is still growing. Since 2021, we have added 130 hectares of new parks, and our Park Connector Network has grown to nearly 400km. Over the next five years, we aim to add more than 25 new parks and over 50km of park connectors.
The new Kranji Nature Corridor will connect Mandai Mangrove and Mudflat Nature Park to the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, allowing visitors to explore nature trails. It will also cater to the recreational needs of residents in the North, including existing estates at Marsiling and the new estate at the former Singapore Racecourse at Kranji, which will come in the years ahead.
We will continue to take a highly selective approach towards conserving our built heritage, while ensuring that Singapore’s development needs are met. It requires us to strike a careful balance.
Beyond conservation, our work on Identity Corridors – which is part of this exhibition, that work will continue. These corridors are well-loved places that anchor community activity and connect neighbourhoods to the city centre. Based on feedback from over 2,300 residents and stakeholders, URA has identified three new identity nodes along the Corridors at Siglap, Moonstone Lane Estate and Newton.
We are also planning new community spaces along the corridors such as a new pedestrian mall at Katong, and a new waterfront park at Potong Pasir–St Andrew’s.
We will continue to work closely with the industry and community, including emerging local architects under the “20 Under 45” initiative, to shape these corridors in meaningful ways.
MANDARIN SEGMENT
Now please allow me to say a few words in Mandarin.
在过去两年里，我们向将近22万名公众收集反馈并交流意见；这是市区重建局 (URA) 至今规模最大的公众咨询活动。
在我们新加坡独立以来的六十年内，正是这共同愿景以及合作精神，让新加坡能够在国土和自然资源有限的情况下能够的持续发展，从第三世界国家蜕变成为一个繁荣都市。发展总蓝图草案 2025将延续这个旅程，展现我们如何把局限转变为创造和创新的动力，将挑战转化为新的机遇。
我们的优先事项包括： 打造更具包容性和可及性的住宅，以及配有休闲娱乐设施的邻里社区, 更好的能够满足国人在不同人生阶段的需求。我们将继续规划工业和商业区，增强我们的竞争力，并通过长期规划和智慧城市解决方案，增强我国应对气候变化的韧性。
发展总蓝图草案 2025 体现了我们始终如一的信念，就是通过长期的规划把目光放的长远、精心管理和全民的参与，为每一代新加坡人打造一个更有活力，更温馨的美好家园。
CONCLUSION
Ladies and gentlemen, let me conclude my speech. Singapore has never had the luxury of taking land for granted. Land is one of our key constraint, but over the years, over the generations, we have managed to turn these challenges into opportunities. The Draft Master Plan 2025 shows how constraints can drive creativity and innovation, and turn challenges into opportunities if we work together as one united people, manage the trade-offs carefully and have the bold vision to look ahead, dream big and work together to implement our plans. It reflects our steadfast belief that, through long term planning, careful stewardship and collective citizenship, we can shape a Singapore that embraces the hopes and dreams of all who call it home.
As you explore the exhibition today, I encourage you to imagine our future together and share your views with us. This is just the beginning of the conversation – URA will continue to bring the exhibition to our heartlands, so that more Singaporeans can view the plans and participate in the process to co-create our future together.
I would like to end by expressing my thanks to the URA team for their hard work over the past few years, working very closely with our industry and community partners to put together this Draft Master Plan 2025. Let us continue to build a Singapore we are proud to call home – for this generation, and for many more generations to come. Thank you very much.