Ms Low Yen Ling, Senior Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth & Ministry of Trade and Industry, at the 6th Singapore-Shanghai Dialogue on Urban Governance on 3 June 2024

谢谢大家不好意思让你们久等，因为其实呢，我在昨天呢，我和陈市长我们就出席了这个世界城市峰会论坛，一起共进午餐，而且在世界城市工会一起互相学习，我们说了今天在这个参加这个大会之前呢，我也希望和他做一个就是加详细的一个分享和交流，所以我带了几位会长和院长。

谢谢大家不好意思让你们久等，因为其实呢，我在昨天呢，我和陈市长我们就出席了这个世界城市峰会论坛，一起共进午餐，而且在世界城市工会一起互相学习，我们说了今天在这个参加这个大会之前呢，我也希望和他做一个就是加详细的一个分享和交流，所以我带了几位会长和院长。

嗯，就是我们刚才三点聊聊聊，聊的有点忘记时间，不好意思。聊到忘记时间的意思是代表着新加坡和上海其实在方方面面都有很多合作的契机，非常尊敬的上海市陈宇建副市长Mr Chen YuJian, vice mayor of shanghai, excellencies, very good afternoon to all of you and we are very happy to join you at the sixth Singapore Shanghai dialogue on urban governance and very warm welcome to all the friends from shanghai and around the world.

不好意思，我们知道大家都非常向往听一听我们城市长和来自上海的演讲嘉宾的分享。有点全场爆满，不太够椅子。那我也代表这个主办方跟大家讲多多包涵一下啊。就是欢迎各位来自上海的，世界各地的朋友们，很高兴可以跟大家相聚在新加坡。

我知道中国总商会会长也是刚刚从海外赶回来，一定要见到我们的陈市长。为什么呢？因为新加坡和上海，有着许许多多的共同点。刚才我们在见面的时候谈了。那作为各自地区的金融中心、经济和创新中心，其实新加坡和上海，在维持开放包容的经济，推动城市绿化和数码化，城市治理，以及环境保护和可持续发展方面，有着共同的发展重点，在许多领域都能够互相的学习、互相的借鉴、分享经验。那新加坡-上海全面合作理事会（SSCCC），自2019年成立以来，不但加强了新加坡和上海，包括长江三角州地区，更多的双边的商业和投资活动，也促进双方在许多领域更深入的合作，以及更紧密的人文交流。那我记得去年四月的时候呢，我陪同唐振辉部长，因为他是联席主席，我是副主席，那我们就接待了龚正市长，而且去年的会议真的是收获满满。

那今年一月份呢，担任新加坡-上海全面合作理事会联席主席的唐振辉部长，和担任联席副主席的我，我们俩非常高兴有机会又到访上海，拜见了龚正市长、华远副市长，也和几位上海工商业界的领袖们见面。那我们非常高兴看到两地的企业携手合作，一起应对共同的挑战，把握新的契机，一起进军未来经济新兴领域。那我们刚才就说到了，我本身非常期待再多一个月后，也就是7月7号的时候呢，到上海出席第五届的新加坡-上海全面合作理事会的会议，一起探讨促进新中两国，也就是新加坡和上海两地之间更紧密、更深入的双边的合作。

那新加坡和上海，有着许许多多能够互相借鉴的领域和机遇。新加坡-上海城市治理高端对话论坛，是一个非常重要的年度对话和交流平台，今天全场爆满就非常好地证明了这点。这让我们新沪两地对城市治理的课题，可以相互分享知识和经验。今年的对话，刚才司仪说到，不过我应该重复一下。今年的对话将集中讨论建设健康城市，以及可再生城市方面的课题。我们希望和上海市，进行富有成果的对话，同时携手合作，共同建设和发展能够适应人口变化，以及可持续发展、又富有韧性的一个城市的未来。那接下来呢请允许我用英文来详细的解说一下。

那接下来，请容许我以英语作更详细的说明。

Ladies and gentlemen

     Our urban infrastructure influences lifestyles and impacts the health and social needs of our people. Like many countries globally, Singaporeans are living longer.

      Longer lifespan is more meaningful if it is spent in good health. A healthy city is not just about having many healthcare infrastructure – yes that is important – but also not just about having a strong and extensive community care systems. We must adjust our urban infrastructure to empower active seniors to age independently and live purposefully.

2    One of the ways Singapore seeks to do this is through our public housing projects, a topic that I discussed with Vice Mayor Chen over the course of yesterday’s World Cities Summit. An example would be the Singapore Kampung Admiralty. Now there is a reason why I am highlighting this. This is the integrated senior housing that Mayor Gong Zheng, Vice Mayor Hua Yuan and I visited in April last year on the sidelines of the fourth SSCCC. We spent about three hours there because it is a huge compound, and there are many interesting components in there.

Because Kampung Admiralty is the first such development in Singapore. It was started in 2017, the apartments are designed and furnished with elderly friendly features. In addition, this special housing development provides our elderly residents with a wide range of facilities, for example, social, healthcare, communal, commercial, and retail facilities, including a hawker centre, all under one roof. And the common areas and facilities at Kampung Admiralty are also purposefully built to promote strong social support and community bonding. Even if the seniors are living alone, they not socially isolated, someone will look after them. In Mandarin we say “yuan qin bu ru jing lin”. This encourages the senior residents there to stay socially engaged and lead meaningful lives. Kampung Admiralty is very popular with Singaporeans, that’s why since then the HDB, the Housing and Development Board, has gone on to build CCA – Community Care Apartments, in different parts of Singapore, to offer housing that comes with senior-friendly features and customisable care services for the senior residents.

3    To create a City for Healthy Living, we need to move upstream, to prioritise preventive care and not just to only look at downstream care facilities – go upstream for preventive care and also to promote healthier lifestyle. Singapore has implemented various initiatives, leveraging on behavioural science and technology to nudge healthier behaviours with conducive physical and social environments.

For example, we established the Ministry of Health Office for Transformation (or MOHT, in short) to lead the efforts to understanding the links between socio-environmental determinants and people’s behaviour as well as health and improved outcomes.

4    I am pleased that we have our MOHT colleague, Dr Tan Meng Wooi, joining us today, who will be sharing their approach to activate the community for better health through the Healthy Precinct Framework. This is part of our overall goal to create a healthier Singapore. I think may of us would know, Minister Ong Ye Kung has been championing Healthy SG, and this is an example of going upstream.

We are also honoured to have Director-General of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Health, Mr Wen Daxiang with us today, and I look forward to hearing from him. I look forward to hearing about Shanghai’s approach to healthy city planning and governance.

5    Now we talk about healthcare, I think it is also important to talk about regenerative concept. Planning for a healthy city is synergistic to our efforts to decarbonise for Singapore’s net-zero future. PM Lawrence Wong announced that we will reach net zero by 2030. In fact we hope to peak before 2030; we need to hit net zero by 2050, and we need to peak before 2030. Earlier I mentioned about going upstream; this is not in conflict with net zero, in fact it can be synergistic. How so?

This green transition is no longer just an option. I think we have a lot of bosses, head honchos, bosses, lao ban men, towkay in the room. It is no longer just an option, but it is a strategic shift necessary for our country’s, our companies’ growth and prosperity.

Now, as we transform, regenerative design has become an important pillar of our green transition. Earlier on, Vice Mayor Chen Yujian talked about how Shanghai has proactively regenerated their precinct and their whole province in Shanghai so that they can achieve more with less and reduce their carbon footprint. We also aim to reduce our carbon footprint through design, adaptive re-use of built environment, built infrastructures and to enable greater resource circularity. 6 Now, regenerative design is not new to Singapore. Our colleagues from the Urban Redevelopment Authority and the National Parks Board have been driving long-term planning and conservation efforts to rejuvenate our city, because as stewards of very scarce land and limited natural resources, they seek to fulfil our vision of being a City in Nature. In addition, government agencies like the Building and Construction Authority, Housing Development Board and Public Utilities Board have specific sectoral policies and programmes to restore nature in buildings, urban spaces and industrial estates. This includes the Green Mark Certification Scheme, Biophilic Town Framework, and the Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters programme, also known as the ABC Waters programme, just to name a few.

7     So, I think Shanghai has many other similar programmes and we look forward to learning from Shanghai as well. To accelerate our green transformation, we will continue to forge closer collaborations and links across our cities towards more sustainable future, because our whole-of-society approach really sees the private and public sectors working closely together, as well as community and individuals coming together to change the way we live, work, and play in order to create a lower carbon state.

Like Singapore, cities around the world are actively fighting climate change. To that end, I am pleased to welcome Deputy Director-General of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Housing, Urban-Rural Development and Management, Mr Zhang Yong Gang to share with us about Shanghai’s low carbon city renewal and infrastructure rejuvenation. He shared with us earlier, it is very exciting, you must hear from him firsthand.

Envisioned as a “people’s city”, Shanghai has, through urban renewal and governance, implemented place-based approaches to foster low-carbon and promote a healthy lifestyle amongst young residents.

8     Low-carbon urban renewal is integral to achieving better public health and lower carbon emissions. Most create new community spaces and retrofit existing buildings; these are some of the green efforts we see today to achieve healthy and sustainable city living.

We are pleased to have Mr Patrick Yap representing the Singapore Green Construction Development Alliance to share about Singapore Healthcare: Sustainable Design Strategies

9     In closing, Vice Mayor Chen and our friends from Shanghai, ladies and gentlemen, I think we are in for a very interesting discussion. Please do not leave Suntec after the programme is over; the real business happens after that. Please scan your wei xin or digital card, make friends. I think we have a lot of friends from Shanghai, do spend some time getting to know each other. I think that’s the reason why we organise the 6th Singapore Shanghai Dialogue for you. I wish everyone a fruitful discussion. May you gain fresh and valuable insights from today’s dialogue. I hope many new partnerships be forged as we seek to make Singapore and Shanghai healthier and regenerative cities with a better future.