Singapore is special to each and every one of us; whether it is our shared love for food or our common use of Singlish. Singapore has a culture and heritage that is all our own. But we want to improve on that and continue to build a fun and endearing home that combines the best of our past, the present and future. Through the recommendations of the Economic Strategies Committee in 2010, we aim to create Asia’s most liveable city.
We want to be Asia’s lifestyle and leisure hub and provide a diverse range of quality sports, leisure, arts, entertainment, media, retail and food offerings. We also want to be Asia’s thought and practice leader for sustainable urban development with distinctive districts that are economically and socially vibrant. The goal is for Singapore to be an inclusive home for everyone, regardless of interest or choices. We want you to be able to look to Singapore and say “This is my home”.
A community with personality
First, we need to get our basics right. We will develop the infrastructure to provide the highest quality of life in Asia. We will do so by rejuvenating our mature HDB towns and private estates to bring colour and vibrancy back to our homes. To inject personality, we will also expand the range of lifestyle options. We will see new regions with their own unique characters such as Marina Bay, Jurong Lake, Punggol, Paya Lebar, Tanjong Pagar and Changi.
In time to come, residents will enjoy the largest mall in northern Singapore with over 500 retail and dining outlets connected to an integrated, air-conditioned transport hub that will bring the MRT, bus network and cycling paths under one roof. The new mall will also boast a Town Plaza the size of 10 basketball courts for large-scale celebrations and the first Community Club located in a shopping mall. When completed, the new Northpoint City will be an icon in the North.
A community with compassion
Beyond infrastructure, Nee Soon must be a home with a heart.
Within the GRC, we have initiated many public-private sector partnerships to bring services to the people. We have worked with national agencies, grassroots leaders, healthcare organisations, welfare organisations, and volunteers to come up with the Chong Pang Social Service Hub to provide wellness, medical, leisure and other productive activities to the elderly. At Nee Soon South, National Healthcare Group Polyclinics promote elderly wellness.
Our GRC is currently working with various agencies and partners to bring at least seven senior activity and wellness centres to reach out to the elderly. Highly subsidised health screenings will also be carried out on a regular basis throughout Nee Soon GRC for our elderly.
Every week at the Meet-the-People session, we give out welfare assistance directly to those in need. Most of these money are raised by our own grassroots.
Working with the Fandi Ahmad Academy, we also reach out to our kids in schools, to help promote sports, discipline and education. We will harness the resources of the Government and the energies of our people to bring benefits and welfare to those who truly need them.
All these projects are carried out in partnership with the community. We are home to over 20 Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs) throughout Nee Soon. Through our networks and partners, we reach out to offer support to those who need a helping hand in life. From family support, youth counselling, shelters, safe havens and nursing homes, Nee Soon has been and will always be a community with heart.
A fun community
We want Yishun to be a place where you can have fun. And we have many facilities which promote that. From the fishing community who are at Lower Seletar Reservoir and Yishun Dam even before sunrise, to the skateboarders and street soccer players who hang out at the Nee Soon South Active Park and Street Soccer Courts.
The new Family Bay and Rowers’ Bay water channel at Lower Seletar Reservoir offers plentiful opportunities for competitive rowing events or cultural performances from the terraced amphitheatre.
The three-storey lookout tower, The Spiral@Yishun, has become a favourite spot for photography enthusiasts hoping to capture a bird’s eye view of Nee Soon, or the great views across the waters from dusk till dawn.
For the nature lover, Bah Soon Pah Road offers nurseries, vegetable farms, plants and landscape supplies wholesalers. It is also a favourite haunt for nature photographers keen to capture stunning images of butterflies, dragonflies and other insects.
Nee Soon is also a proud home to a multitude of community gardens and green spaces including Ground-Up Initiative – a community-driven enterprise of nature-inspired individuals looking to foster a 21st Century kampung culture. Spread over 26,000 square meters of land, GUI will recreate “Kampung Kampus” – a modern day kampong, where man, nature and community continue to inspire one another and to promote a more joyful and holistic environment.
All these initiatives bring the beauty of nature back into the city, our homes and our lives. Building a fun and endearing home doesn’t stop here. We continually aspire to build a city of societies and ecosystems, intimately connected to sustainability and liveability. It will be a city that looks towards resource, energy and ecological balance. And you, have a say in how it will look like for the future.