Question No. 353 for Oral Answer

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Mdm Ho Geok Choo, Member for West Coast GRC

Question

To ask the Minister for Trade and Industry if he will provide an update on the latest position on the Integrated Resort project, in light of the recent withdrawals by some bidders.

Answer

The Request for Proposals (RFP) for the Integrated Resort (IR) at MarinaBay was launched on 15 November 2005 and will close on 29 March 2006. Companies that had submitted concept proposals during the Request for Concepts (RFC) exercise earlier last year were invited to participate in the RFP.

During the course of the RFP process, a number of the invited companies have decided not to participate in the bid. This is not unexpected. As with any other major investment, potential investors must assess the potential returns of the project, our requirements, and their chances of success before deciding whether to spend up to several million dollars to prepare for the bid. These are business decisions that each company has to make.

I wish to assure Members that the best IR proposal for Singapore will be amongst those that we receive at the end of the RFP process.