Pro-Enterprise Initiative Award

To reduce carbon emissions from land transport in Singapore, the adoption of EVs and development of associated / related charging infrastructure is a key initiative for Singapore. Previously, premise owners who want to install EV charging stations are required to engage a QP to submit their plans to SCDF and ensure that their EV charging stations meet the requirements stipulated in the Fire Code.

As part of SCDF’s pro-enterprise efforts to reduce compliance costs to the industry, SCDF reviewed the submission requirements for installation of EV charging stations together with the Ministry of Transport (MOT) and Land Transport Authority (LTA). SCDF simplified regulations to exempt premise owners from the need to engage a QP to submit plans to SCDF for installation of EV charging stations that are outside petrol stations, with premise owners only needing to ensure that their EV charging stations meet prevailing Fire Code requirements,. This exemption is expected to lower compliance costs for projects involving installation of EV charging stations, particularly for existing premise owners looking to retrofit their carparks with EV charging stations. The review also streamlined the administrative process for the installation of EV charging stations. With less “red tape”, various stakeholders in the industry such as EV charging operators and premise owners can expect to enjoy a leaner and faster administrative process in the submission process to Government agencies.

The COVID-19 pandemic and border restrictions have had significant impact on the revenue of Tour operators (TOs) and Arts Practitioners (APs). To encourage the development of commercial tours incorporating performing arts elements and drive tourism outcomes through art, STB and the National Arts Council (NAC) decided to establish a cross-agency partnership to develop the STB-NAC Performing Arts Tours Pilot Grant (PATPG).

The PATPG aims to facilitate cross sectoral collaborations and capability building between APs and TOs, tapping on APs’ expertise in storytelling and performance, as well as the TOs’ experience in content curation, tour development and delivery in order to curate and offer a compelling and unique tour experience for audiences. This enriched the diversity of tour offerings and created new revenue streams for APs, allowing both sectors to collaborate, test prevailing consumer demands and commercial viability of such tours. In addition, PATPG also facilitated a testbed for innovative performing arts tours through a regulatory sandbox. This allowed APs under PATPG to be exempted from the requirement of holding a tourist guide licence while conducting these tours.

5 tours were launched as a result of the pilot: Voices: Memories of Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Somewhere in Time – A Journey Through Tanjong Pagar, The Secret Life of Haw Par Villa, re:walk Telok Ayer,  and Katong Dreaming: A Musical Tour.

Businesses generally faced challenges meeting MUIS’ Halal certification requirements, particularly among the smaller businesses as well as brands with multiple chain outlets. This resulted in poor Halal certification compliance and late certification renewal. Without their Halal certification, businesses lost a significant portion of their customers which worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To support businesses and build the Halal food sector, the MUIS Halal team engaged Halal certificate holders to understand businesses’ pain points and sought feedback on how MUIS can better facilitate the process for Halal Certification. The inputs from the engagements led to the revision of the Halal Certification Conditions which saw simplified Halal certification requirements especially for the smaller businesses. MUIS also launched an enhanced backend system to incorporate new features such as the auto-renewal submission which allows businesses to prepare early for their certification renewal, helping businesses save time and effort.

LinkFM is a one-stop digital platform for the management and maintenance of HDB’s residential buildings, commercial properties and car parks. Through data analytics, LinkFM improves the maintenance regime by eliminating manually intensive and time-consuming processes.

To manage our properties more efficiently and improve service delivery, HDB developed LinkFM to interface more than 30 internal systems and unified 55 separate processes into one workflow. With the LinkFM platform:

• Officers no longer have to toggle between multiple platforms to glean relevant info
  to facilitate maintenance;
• Managing agents need not submit manual reports anymore as the platform is able
  to auto-generate inspection reports;
• Contractors are able to plan their resources and receive payment promptly

In developing LinkFM, HDB regularly engaged its stakeholders, including managing agents, and contractors to better understand their challenges and create a suitable platform that adequately addresses the pain points. LinkFM enables HDB to improve the timely maintenance of HDB properties, so that we can deliver a quality environment for Singaporeans to live, work and play.

To support businesses with rental expenses during the two Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) periods and the Stabilisation Phase (including its extension to 21 Nov 2021), the Government provided rental support to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and eligible Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs).

The rental support was provided via cash payouts disbursed by IRAS under the Rental Support Scheme (RSS). This was the first time that rental support was given directly to qualifying tenants without involving the landlords. There were three RSS payouts, for each of the COVID-19 Safe Management Measures. In addition, to help businesses receive their cash payout as soon as possible, the third payout was disbursed automatically to tenants and owner-occupiers who received the second payout, saving them the time and effort to apply to IRAS again.

To support the construction industry to press on with transformation efforts and achieve higher productivity improvements while being more manpower-lean, BCA collaborated with the National University of Singapore (NUS) and industry stakeholders to enhance the Eurocode 4 by developing a design guide that would capitalise on the use of high strength steel and concrete material in composite columns. Composite (steel-concrete) columns, with the concrete either encasing the steel section or confined by the steel tube, have been used in various applications, including building structures and infrastructures.

The use of high strength concrete and steel materials for composite columns will reduce the member size required to resist the design load, and therefore reducing the construction materials and self-weight of structures. It is especially ideal for high-rise construction where composite columns with high strength materials can offer optimal structural framings and thus free up more usable floor space. Furthermore, the use of smaller steel section sizes and reduction in the use of concrete/rebars/formwork would also enable significant gains in construction productivity both at site and also off site (e.g. lighter lifting work, less welding work and less manpower required).