WITH more certificates of entitlement (COEs) available, the government expects to collect an additional S$76 million in car taxes and COE premiums over 12 months from April.

In the Budget for FY2017, it is estimated that a total of S$9.247 billion in motor vehicle taxes and vehicle quota premiums will be forthcoming - up 0.8 per cent from S$9.171 billion in FY2016, which closes at the end of next month.

Taxes and COE will account for 13.31 per cent of FY2017's estimated total operating revenue of S$69.45 billion; taxes and COE accounted for 13.36 per cent of FY2016's total operating revenue of S$68.667 billion.

For FY2017, motor vehicle taxes are estimated to amount to S$2.729 billion, up 18.2 per cent from the previous financial year's S$2.308 billion, thanks to steadily expanding COE quotas.

This comes about as more cars approach their 10th year, which is when their COEs expire; this leads to increased vehicle deregistrations, from which new COEs are recycled.

Read also: COE tender postponement sparks speculation of major car tax changes

As the biggest dollar increase in funding source, motor vehicle taxes will boost FY2017's operating revenue by 1.1 per cent, together with higher contributions from customs and excise taxes and GST, for example.

Custom and excise taxes, which are also incurred when registering a vehicle, are estimated to jump 13.9 per cent to S$3.134 billion in FY2017.

But the government does not see revenue from COE premiums going up. Vehicle quota premiums of S$6.518 billion look set to fall 5 per cent from S$6.863 billion.

Read also: Isn't a decline in vehicle population a good thing?

The government says the decrease is partly due to higher collections from increased COE quotas being offset by lower collections from fewer renewals expected.

Last year, a record 44,303 COEs were revalidated; this was a 70.1 per cent spike from 2015's 26,052, said the Land Transport Authority. The jump in renewals came from car owners who extended their COEs beyond 10 years instead of scrapping their vehicles.

In calendar year 2016, a bumper crop of 89,913 car COEs became available, up nearly 48 per cent from 60,888 COEs in 2015.

This year, some motor distributors say the number could be about the same, even without the contribution from the motorcycle COE quota to the open category COE quota.

Read also: COE premiums down for cars

This article was first published on Feb 22 , 2017.
Get The Business Times for more stories.

SIM University student Abdul Fareed Mustakin went on a six- month internship last year and impressed his bosses so much that he was asked to continue working, in a permanent position.

The 25-year-old decided to seize the offer after UniSIM dons told him he could work and study at the same time, because the university's flexible curriculum allows students to switch to evening classes.

The marketing degree student, who now works as a business development associate in ServisHero, a platform that connects cleaners, electricians, handymen and other household service providers to customers, felt the job was too good an opportunity to pass up.

He said: "I picked up a lot of skills, especially people skills, and gained a lot of confidence. And when my boss offered me a permanent position, I felt it was a good opportunity to continue learning."

UniSIM president Cheong Hee Kiat said the university is able to allow this flexibility as it runs part-time degree courses for working adults in parallel with its full-time degree courses.

"If a student gets a lucrative job offer or a job that he is really interested in midway through his course, then we are able to allow him to switch to evening classes."

He said UniSIM was also looking at awarding credits to knowledge and skills gained at work.

"If a student takes up a course while working, then we are looking at whether we can evaluate the course and grant him credits which will count towards his degree.

"Alternatively, if the student takes on a work project, the university will see if it can be converted into his final-year project."

The university has made internship a requirement for its full-time degree students, and close to 200 of them, from the accountancy, finance and marketing courses, have gone on six-month internships.

Students must also complete a project based on a work-related issue in their final year.

Professor Cheong said: "We must not think of university education as being separate from work, but try and combine it as much as possible. Work attachments enable students to apply what they have learnt in the classroom and see the relevance of it."

He added that alternating semesters of work and study is good preparation for the future. "Increasingly, workers will have to alternate between periods of work and study."

Employers welcomed the longer internships.

Mr Daniel Thong, the country manager of ServisHero, said the six-month period enabled him to try Mr Abdul Fareed in different roles. "The usual two, three months' internships are too short. Six months is a good amount of time for firms to assess students' strengths and see how they can use them well," he said.

Another student, Mr Joseph Yap, 25, took up a part-time job with business solutions company Getz Group, which he interned with.

"I felt that continuing to work will be useful as it will expose me to other aspects of the business and I will pick up valuable skills," said the third-year marketing student, who helps clients with their website development and installation.

UniSIM, set to be Singapore's sixth autonomous university, will add two new full-time degree programmes in early childhood education and business analytics, and raise its intake to 580 this year.

The unique feature of the early childhood education course is the extensive field requirement for students, amounting to a whole year.

Students will have to do a six- month attachment at a kindergarten or childcare centre, and for the other stints, they can be attached to places that offer children's programmes, such as museums, children's theatre groups and zoos.

sandra@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on February 22, 2017.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

ALMOST two weeks after the ouster of all but one director on the board of Natural Cool Holdings, its shares have gained heat, muscling their way to the active list on Tuesday, amid an unfolding drama over the proposed divestment of a stake in oil exploration firm HMK Energy.

The stock surged almost 6 per cent to an intraday high of S$0.16, before cooling off to end the session at S$0.153, up 0.2 cent or 1.3 per cent. More than 37 million shares changed hands, against a three-month average of 13.41 million.

On Feb 8, the entire board, save chief executive officer Tsng Joo Peng, was ousted at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of the Catalist-listed air-conditioning specialist.

Read also: Natural Cool stock is very hot

Disgruntled shareholders had then voted for the immediate removal of executive chairman Joseph Ang, 52, along with his brother and fellow director Eric Ang, 53. Other directors removed were Lim Siang Kai, who was chairman of the audit committee, Wu Chiaw Ching and William da Silva. They were replaced with new directors Lau Lee Hua, Ronnie Tan Siew Bin, Goh Teck Sia and Wong Leon Keat.

It was the second attempt in two months to boot out chairman Ang and most of the board members.

Shareholders Ong Mun Wah and Edi Ng, who together held more than 10 per cent of the company and were behind the second ouster attempt, had called for an EGM on Dec 22 to revoke the board's share issuance mandate. They were unhappy about the board's decision to place out 27 million new shares to incoming chief corporate officer (CCO) Ng Quek Peng. Mr Ng ceased to be CCO on Feb 15. The stated reason was "misalignment of interest with that of the company".

The board - except for Mr Tsng - had reiterated that the two shareholders who called for the EGM were connected to HMK Energy.

Natural Cool's drama started in late October when its single-largest shareholder Lim Teck Chuan first sought to remove Mr Ang from his position. Mr Ang survived this ouster attempt by a fairly narrow margin of votes at an EGM held on Dec 12.

The developments have also raised questions, particularly those surrounding the new directors' relationship with the shareholders who called for the EGMs.

This article was first published on Feb 22 , 2017.
Get The Business Times for more stories.

At an outing for low-income beneficiaries, social worker Mohamed Fareez noticed a father paying about $20 for a balloon for his son.

It was a sizeable sum for the father but he did not want to disappoint his son, noted Mr Fareez, who is centre head of Cheng San Family Service Centre.

"But it made me think about whether he knows how he can save money so that his son can have a better future," he added.

Soon, social workers such as Mr Fareez will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to help low-income families better manage their finances.

A new Financial Capability and Asset Building curriculum is being developed by the Next Age Institute - a partnership between the National University of Singapore and Washington University in St Louis in the United States.

The topics covered could include managing household finances and debts, as well as planning for retirement and children's education.

The curriculum has been used in the US and the institute is working to adapt it to Singapore, where there has been no formal training in this area.

This comes amid recent studies showing that economic stress taxes the brain such that people are less able to make good decisions, think ahead or be self-disciplined.

Associate Professor Corinne Ghoh, co-director of the institute, said: "While more families are receiving financial help from the Government, poor decisions made on financial matters have, in some cases, rendered families homeless.

"Many low-income families may find it a challenge to navigate through the plethora of financial resources, loans and products."

Dr Faishal Ibrahim, Parliamentary Secretary for Social and Family Development, said at an event yesterday to introduce the curriculum: "Social workers can play a pivotal role... integrating financial planning in their interventions with vulnerable families and, in the long term, helping them to realise their aspirations."

A panel was formed last month to offer ideas on the curriculum.

It includes people from the Ministry of Social and Family Development, the Singapore Association of Social Workers and the Institute for Financial Literacy.

The curriculum will be piloted with social work undergraduates and about 100 social workers next year.

The organisers aim to eventually include it as part of the ongoing professional education for social workers here.

Citi Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Citigroup, has pledged US$130,000 (S$185,000) to the development of the curriculum.

goyshiyi@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on February 22, 2017.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

SINGAPORE - A childcare centre here has denied allegations that it had neglected children and fed them rotten fruit.

Photos of the centre were circulated on Chinese social media platform Wechat last Tuesday (Feb 14).

Read also: Viral online post alleges that toddler eats own faeces, children fed rotten fruits at childcare centre

In a statement to the media on Wednesday (Feb 22), Sam's Early Learning Centre in Jalan Mutiara, off River Valley Road, said it believes the photos were posted by an unhappy former employee who has since returned to China.

Mrs Samia El-Ibiary, the centre's director, said that the photos were taken last year and they "do not represent an accurate picture" of its operations.

One picture showed children lying on the floor without mattresses, to which the centre clarified that the students were doing "stretching and breathing exercises" after lunch.

A second photo claimed that rotten fruit was served to the children. But Mrs El-Ibiary said that rotten fruit are disposed of. She also added that the fruits are purchased twice a week.

Another photo accused the centre of throwing away milk powder purchased by parents.

Mrs El-Ibiary clarified that the milk powder had spilt onto the kitchen counter and was being discarded for hygiene reasons.

The picture of a child smeared in faeces was accompanied by an allegation that the child had eaten his own excrement.

In response, the director explained that the toddler had a habit of pulling his diapers off while having bowel movement during his nap time.

"On this particular day that the photo was taken, the teacher had called upon the cleaner to assist in the cleaning up of the child. The cleaner was asked to help wash the toddler while the teacher held him and distracted him," she said.

A spokesperson from the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) said that the centre is currently being investigated.

Read also: Case of abuse at Teck Whye Lane childcare centre being investigated

It added that "under the Child Care Centres Act, all childcare centres are required to meet the stipulated regulatory requirements to protect the safety, wellbeing and welfare of children in centres".

debwong@sph.com.sg

SINGAPORE - A car parked near Block 717, Clementi West Street 2 was crushed after bags of cement fell on it.

Lianhe Wanbao reported that the incident took place around 10am on Tuesday (Feb 21).

An eye witness told the Chinese evening daily that there were at least 40 bags of cement, which would add up to 1,600kg.

A video sent to AsiaOne revealed that the fallen load was attached to the crane boom of a lorry. The bags had smashed the roof of the car.

Fortunately, no one was in the vehicle when the incident happened.

The witness added that the owner of the car arrived at the scene around noon while the car was only towed away at 2pm.

debwong@sph.com.sg

When it comes to urban tree density, Singapore wears the crown.

The City in a Garden trumped 16 cities around the world, in a study by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the World Economic Forum.

Almost 30 per cent of the Republic's urban areas are covered by greenery.

This puts Singapore ahead of Sydney, Australia, and Vancouver, Canada, which are tied for second place with 25.9 per cent.

The US city of Sacramento, capital of California state, follows closely with 23.6 per cent.

Of the 17 cities, Paris has the smallest percentage of greened urban areas at 8.8 per cent.

More cities will gradually be added to the database, the researchers said in December, when the list was uploaded on a website known as Treepedia.

It was again highlighted by news site Business Insider earlier this week.

Researchers use data from Google Street View to measure trees and vegetation in cities around the world to form the Green View Index (GVI), presented on a scale of 0 to 100.

It shows the percentage of canopy cover for a particular location. The researchers determine this by obtaining Google Street View images in each city, then extracting green areas using computer vision techniques, which is processed to obtain the GVI.

As Google Street View shows panoramic photographs of streets and buildings, it allows the study to capture data such as vertical gardens.

ROADS

But as the images are taken by cameras perched atop cars, only areas with roads are covered in the study, said Mr So Wonyoung, a data visualisation specialist from the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, which is involved in the project.

Professor Carlo Ratti, the director of the MIT Senseable City Lab and head of the project, said the goal of Treepedia is to get people to take action to improve urban tree cover in their cities, by campaigning for the authorities to plant more trees in a certain area, for instance.

Plant scientist Lahiru Wijedasa, who is pursuing a doctorate at the National University of Singapore, said the study showed the success of Singapore's long-term planning.

Indeed, the amount of high-rise greenery in Singapore, which includes gardens on roofs and building facades, is a good indicator. This had grown from 61ha in 2013 to 72ha in 2015, which far exceeded the 2009 target of 50ha the government had hoped to hit by 2030.

The most recent figures from the authorities show it has hit 100ha. The new target is now 200ha of building greenery by the same deadline.

But Mr Lahiru said climate change poses a new threat for roadside trees here, which already grapple with stressors such as having to share space with electrical cables and drainage systems.

"I have concerns about whether our greenery as it is today can survive. We have seen healthy trees die standing up during droughts in the recent years," he said.

The answer to this could lie in greater research on developing more resilient roadside trees, and developing better soil conditions, he said.

This article was first published on Feb 23, 2017.
Get The New Paper for more stories.

PETALING JAYA - An American performing arts lecturer who had apparently taught at a few universities in Malaysia has been exposed as a sexual predator by a US school he worked at more than 30 years ago.

According to his LinkedIn profile, the lecturer is now based in Thailand, and attempts to contact him have been unsuccessful.

The lecturer, who taught at the prestigious Milton Academy in Boston from 1973 to 1987, was found to have engaged in sexual misconduct with students during his time there.

This came to light following a recently concluded investigation commissioned by the academy.

In a letter sent out to the Milton community on Tuesday, school officials said that a nine-month investigation by a New York security firm it hired yielded the shocking findings - the lecturer sexually abused at least 12 male students, all minors at the time.

Three other former employees, who were not named in the letter, were also found to have engaged in similar misconduct.

The lecturer was sacked in 1987 after admitting to molesting a student, but the extent of his crimes is only coming to light now following the investigation.

The probe was launched following a 2016 news report on sexual misconduct in US private schools.

The report prompted a fact-finding mission on whether any transgressions had occurred in the past.

They hired T&M Protection Resources, a private consulting firm, to conduct the investigation that began in May 2016.

The firm discovered that the school's management at the time had allowed the lecturer to continue working despite being aware of his misconduct.

The letter mentioned that then headmaster of Milton Academy Jerome A. Pieh, "had some knowledge" of his misconduct in 1982, "but allowed him to continue working there for five more years before he was sacked in 1987".

Since then, he has worked in Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia and is well-known in the theatre and performing arts scene.

According to his LinkedIn profile, he has worked as a theatre director, acting coach and performing arts educator for nearly 30 years in South-East Asia.

Milton Academy's board of trustees on Tuesday expressed "deep regret" for not protecting its students all those years ago, and failing to investigate him at the time.

"On behalf of Milton Academy and its board of trustees, we want to acknowledge and deeply apologise for those failures," said the current head of school Todd Bland, and board of trustees president Lisa Donohue.

The academy also said that it has contacted Immigration authorities about the findings of its investigation as well as the employers he worked for after leaving the school.

These, apparently, number about 18 schools and theatre organisations.

Yesterday was Ms Nur Aizza's 36th birthday.

And she started the day by getting trapped in her car after it overturned while on her way to work.

Her husband, Mr Shawal Latib, 35, was driving their blue Honda Fit at 7.05am when they were involved in a collision with a black Toyota Corolla outside Khatib Camp along Sembawang Road.

When The New Paper arrived at the scene at about 9.15am, Mr Shawal, an engineering specialist, was still there waiting for his car to be towed away.

Mr Shawal, who drives his wife to work every day, said: "After the car had flipped over, I could smell the metal and the road. I crawled out of my window, but my wife was stuck, so I went over and pulled her out."

He said Ms Nur Aizza, a teacher, had bruises on her head and was dizzy but could still walk.

A police spokesman told TNP she was taken conscious to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital. She has since been discharged.

The couple, who have been married for 10 years and have no children, live about five minutes away from Khatib Camp.

Miss Parveen Banu was on her way to work when she drove past the scene at about 8.10am.

She told TNP she saw one car on the kerb and the overturned Honda, and that several vehicles had stopped nearby.

"Luckily, only two cars were involved in the collision, and no one was badly hurt," she said.

TNP understands that the driver of the Toyota was an Uber driver.

Another accident happened in a car park next to Block 727, Clementi West Street 2 at 10am on Tuesday.

Lianhe Wanbao reported yesterday that a lorry crane carrying about 1,600kg of cement dropped its cargo on a Toyota Camry, crushing its roof.

No one was hurt.

hmang@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Feb 23, 2017.
Get The New Paper for more stories.

A huge fire with thick columns of smoke broke out Thursday morning at a waste management plant in the western part of Singapore, local authorities said.

The Singapore Police Force and the Singapore Civil Defence Force, in statements posted on their Facebook pages, identified the location as 23 Tuas View Circuit - the address of ECO Special Waste Management.

According to the company's website, it handles waste from industries such petrochemical, pharmaceutical and energy.

SINGAPORE - Singapore, a keen early adopter of the sharing economy, has fired a warning shot across the bow of Airbnb and Uber with tighter rules that could shake up their business models and growth ambitions in Asia.

The rules, some say, are a sign that even governments sympathetic to companies that allow citizens to rent out their expertise or property have a hard time striking the right balance between encouraging disruptive technologies and keeping them in line.

"I know a lot of people will give back their keys, that's for sure," said Lionel Ong, 33, an Uber driver, who wants to look for a less demanding part time job.

As its traditional manufacturing industry has hollowed out in the past decade or so, the affluent city-state has been quick to embrace opportunities in the digital economy, hosting the Asian headquarters of Airbnb and Uber, inviting its executives to conferences and investing in Uber's regional rival Grab through a unit of its investment arm for Temasek.

It's too early to say what impact the new rules would have on Uber and Airbnb, but they highlight increasing scrutiny by regulators globally and growth challenges facing these new economy businesses.

Read also: Singapore's sharing economy: Why are we not doing more?

357811

2015-10-19 18:23:05

Photo Gallery

More to go around in a sharing economy

Source:

April Rinne, an expert on the sharing economy who has advised companies and governments, including Singapore, says the city state's case mirrors other early adopter countries like Denmark, where legislators are mulling laws which would require taxis to have seat sensors, video surveillance and taxi meters.

"It's a watershed that should also sound warning bells," Rinne said.

Singapore's new rules, passed this month, will be implemented in stages from the second half of this year. They allow officials to suspend a ride-sharing company for up to a month after three or more instances of their drivers getting caught without a proper licence or insurance. The drivers themselves face fines and jail.

In the case of Airbnb, officials will have the right to force their way into homes to check whether residents were renting them out illegally, adding teeth to a rarely enforced law which bans the renting out of private property for less than six months.

HIGH GROWTH MARKET, HURDLES

The sharing economy business is billed for explosive growth, estimated by PricewaterhouseCoopers to reach $335 billion by 2025, from around $15 billion in 2016.

So there's a lot at stake for companies. And the worry, says Adrian Lee, who runs a car-sharing service called Tribecar in Singapore, is that other markets might ape the city state's stance.

"I'm afraid other legislators may take a leaf from our play book without allowing these services to get to critical mass."

Singapore had been one of the few bright spots in Asia for Uber, which has been facing legal scrutiny in many markets across the region. Uber has suspended its service in Taiwan and has withdrawn from China after selling its business there. And in South Korea and Japan, authorities have limited its operations.

Read also: Regulations needed to keep sharing economy safe

358012

2016-03-22 19:01:59

Photo Gallery

Airbnb's new Singapore office offers "trip around the world in minutes"

Source:

Jean Chia, a Singapore-based academic who studies the sharing economy, says since short-term renters "were previously operating in a grey area", the tighter regulations raise some immediate questions around the business model of Airbnb.

Airbnb's director of public policy in Asia Pacific, Mike Orgill, echoed those concerns, saying there are "thousands of people earning supplemental income … so the lack of clarity is of concern for hosts."

Drivers of Uber and Grab said a requirement for all drivers to obtain a vocational licence would force out a lot of part-time drivers, while the threat of fines and even jail would deter others.

There is no comparable measure in "the more than 450 cities we operate in," Uber's Singapore general manager Warren Tseng said of the rule change, warning it would affect tens of thousands of drivers and "hundreds of thousands of commuters." Uber's strong regional rival Grab, which is planning to invest $700 million in Indonesia, one of Asia's biggest markets, is more sanguine about the new laws.

Grab's country head Kell Jay Lim said though the company expects some drop-off after the regulations kick in, the rules showed that Singapore was now absorbing the sharing economy into the mainstream. "It's a stamp of approval of what we're trying to do."

Read also: Home sharing still up in the Airbnb

A motorcyclist died after crashing into a car door which was opened without warning at Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3 at about 9.30pm on Wednesday, police said.

Mr Ridzuan Abdul Latiff, 27, was unconscious when he was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The car had stopped at a traffic light and, for reasons unknown, a passenger in the front seat of the car allegedly opened the door twice, Lianhe Wanbao reported.

The motorcyclist, who was riding towards Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1, crashed into the open door. The impact threw him into the air and he landed some distance away, said Wanbao.

The passenger, a 34-year-old man, was arrested for causing death by a negligent act, the police said.

Passers-by stopped to help, some directing traffic while a former medic tried to resuscitate the rider.

Police investigations are ongoing.

This article was first published on Feb 24, 2017.
Get The New Paper for more stories.

A video of an explosion that allegedly which happened during a fire at a Tuas waste management plant on Thursday (Feb 23) has been revealed to be circulating online since at least 2015.

The video has been shared by many on social media users who captioned that it happened during the blaze in Tuas.

But other eagle-eyed netizens realised that the location shown in the video does not look like Tuas.

The huge fire that broke out at ECO Special Waste Management at 6am today was put out after four hours.

Explosion-like sounds were heard as firefighters battled the blaze at 23 Tuas View Circuit.

But these were not the enormous blasts shown in the video now being circulated online and on WhatsApp.

A longer version of the same video was posted on YouTube by a user known as Ahmed Treiban in November 2015, titled "Chinese gas plant explosion".

But other YouTube users commented that the video looked more like a controlled explosion.

One user known as Antero Vipunen said that it was a film set, and highlighted that a camera crane can be seen near the explosion.

Visit STOMP for more stories.

SINGAPORE - Mr Chai Tong Seng shouted himself hoarse for more than six hours on Wednesday (Feb 22).

The 67-year-old man had bellowed for help after his right hand was trapped in a water pipe, Lianhe Wanbao reported.

He had wanted to clean out the water pipe around noon, as it had not been washed thoroughly in two years. Unfortunately, he overestimated the girth of the pipe and was unable to retrieve his hand.

The Chinese daily reported that Mr Chai had endured 30 minutes of pulling before deciding to shout for help.

He was alone at his Hougang Road home at that time, as his wife had left for work.

It was only at around 7 pm when neighbours finally heard Mr Chai's cries for help.

Read also: 

Man's hand stuck in toilet drainage trap for 9 hours

Man, 82, has arm stuck in toilet drain for 12 hours

A woman who lives on the same floor as Mr Chai had left the house to buy dinner for her family when she heard faint groaning sounds. She was surprised to hear the same noise when she returned home.

After alerting her father, the pair peered into Mr Chai's home and discovered that he was in distress.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) arrived at his home on the seventh floor shortly after and spent more than three hours attempting to free Mr Chai's arm.

Officers had to request entry to a sixth-floor unit to cut off the conjoining water pipe with an electric drill.

Mr Chai was finally freed at around 10.40pm.

When Lianhe Wanbao visited Mr Chai at the hospital, reporters observed that the man's right arm was bandaged, while his shoulder was red.

Mr Chai explained that he had manually cleaned out his water pipe for the past 20 years without any incident.

He added that he suffered from high blood cholesterol and felt dizzy during the ordeal.

SINGAPORE - The Sungei Road flea market's last day of operation is on July 10 but the hawkers are hoping to be given an alternative or temporary site that will allow them to continue their business.

Yesterday, Mr Koh Ah Koon, 76, the president of the Association for the Recycling of Second Hand Goods, unfurled a banner at Sungei Road calling for the site to be conserved.

Speaking to The Straits Times later, Mr Koh said he was saddened but hopes an alternative site can be allocated for the hawkers.

"We don't need a permanent location and can move. We hope the government can give us a temporary site so that our lifestyle and this aspect of local heritage can be retained."

He said he has printed 10 banners and plans to collect signatures till July to support calls for the site to be "conserved" or retained. By 7pm on Feb 23, he had collected about 200 signatures.

The Government said the free hawking zone has to make way for future residential developments in a multi-agency statement last Tuesday.

Mr Koh's association, which represents about 70 of 200 vendors at the flea market, had previously proposed four alternative sites - next to Rochor River, at Kampong Bugis along Kallang River, behind Sim Lim Tower and a roadside near Jalan Kubor Malay cemetery.

But the authorities said the four sites had been zoned for parks and residential use under Master Plan 2014.

After the Government announcement, the association submitted a fresh appeal to extend the deadline until the end of the year. If that fails, it hopes to secure a temporary site in Jalan Besar behind a hawker centre.

The Association for the Recycling of Second Hand Goods was established in 2012 after the Sungei Road Free Hawking Zone was reduced in size the previous year to make way for the construction of Sungei Road MRT station.

Mr Kalay V., 45, a businessman who signed the petition said: "This provides the elderly hawkers a legitimate source of income and can be seen as an engagement programme for seniors - not that different from those run by community centres."

This article was first published on Feb 23, 2017.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

SINGAPORE - He left his dormitory in Tuas South at about 5.30am yesterday to catch the 6.15am bus to work.

As he reached the bus stop behind ECO Special Waste Management at about 5.50am, safety coordinator Periyasamy Manikandam, 34, saw thick clouds of smoke and flames engulfing the premises at 23 Tuas View Circuit.

He said: "The explosions were so loud. It sounded like an air-strike and I thought there were bombs. I've worked in Singapore for 14 years and I've never seen something like this before."

379793

2017-02-23 12:29:11

Photo Gallery

Fire breaks out at waste management plant in Tuas

Source:

Facebook/Singapore Civil Defence Force

The Straits Times

Facebook/Tin Min

Mr Manikandam said there were some 25 people waiting at the bus stop, and they were taking photos and videos of the fire.

He added: "I didn't dare stand with them. After I realised there was a fire, I crossed the road to get further away.

"The bus arrived, and the driver shouted at us to quickly get on."

The fire also affected other companies in the area.

Read also: Video of explosion in Tuas? No, this clip has been around since 2015

A Malaysian, who wanted to be known only as Mr Zam, works at Container Connections across the road. He wakes up at 6am every day to ride his motorcycle down from Malaysia, and has friends at ECO Special Waste Management.

Mr Zam said: "My supervisor told me we couldn't work and they were all waiting at the canteen for the road to clear."

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) was alerted at 6.15am and sent 200 personnel to the scene along with 38 emergency vehicles, including three unmanned firefighting machines.

SCDF said the premises, which measure about 200m by 200m, were fully engulfed in flames. Explosions rocked the area and SCDF also applied foam to suppress the fire in the drains nearby.

Tuas South Avenue 3 and Tuas View Crescent were closed, and police advised the public to stay away because of hazardous fumes.

The fire was extinguished after four hours and one firefighter was taken to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital with heat exhaustion.

There were no other casualties.

In a Facebook post last night, Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam praised the SCDF officers for doing "extremely well, in fighting and controlling the fire".

In 2012, waste materials at an incinerator plant in Tuas View Crescent owned by ECO Special Waste Management caught fire, but that fire was contained in half an hour.

The home-grown company is licensed by the National Environment Agency as a toxic industrial waste collector, a general waste collector and an asbestos removal contractor.

Its Tuas sludge incineration plant is a first in Singapore and also in South-east Asia. It provides services to industrial and commercial customers from the petrochemical, pharmaceutical, oil and gas, semiconductor and other industries, and has more than 2,000 customers, its website said.

Its chief executive officer Rick Reidinger told The Straits Times that 20 workers at the plant were evacuated and no one was hurt.

He said: "We are still doing an investigation as to the exact source, but the important thing is that nobody is hurt."

This article was first published on Feb 24, 2017.
Get The New Paper for more stories.

SINGAPORE - Yesterday's fire at ECO Special Waste Management at 23 Tuas View Circuit was the largest industrial fire this year.

Workplace safety consultant Lee Wee Kiat said asbestos, which the company handles, is highly toxic and carcinogenic in the long term.

Read also: Monster blaze put out in 4 hours

Mr Lee said: "If it was burnt in the fire, it would create a dangerous atmospheric hazard for the people around it."

379793

2017-02-23 12:29:11

Photo Gallery

Fire breaks out at waste management plant in Tuas

Source:

Facebook/Singapore Civil Defence Force

The Straits Times

Facebook/Tin Min

There were 159 industrial fires last year, according to the latest Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) Fire Incident Statistics Report. That represents 31.4 per cent of the total fires in non-residential premises. There were 158 industrial fires in 2015.

JURONG ISLAND FIRE

One of the biggest fires last year was at a petrochemical facility on Jurong Island when an oil tank caught fire in April.

There were no casualties but the fire raged on for five hours before it was put out by 150 SCDF personnel.

Read also: Video of explosion in Tuas? No, this clip has been around since 2015

In Oct 2015, Leeden National Oxygen chemist Krysten Lim Siaw Chian, 30, died in a blaze at the gas manufacturing firm in Tanjong Kling Road in Jurong.

229349

2015-10-12 12:27:27

Photo Gallery

Family bids farewell to Jurong fire victim in Johor wake

Source: Twitter, Lianhe Wanbao, Shin Min Daily News, The New Paper, SCDF, Nicole Fong, The Straits Times, Lim Siaw Chian's Facebook

This article by The Straits Times was published in The New Paper, a free newspaper published by Singapore Press Holdings.

Singapore is expanding its rail network and engineers will be needed to maintain the trains and keep them running smoothly.

The 15,000 figure is an increase of about 60 per cent from the current 9,300 engineers employed by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and the two rail operators, SMRT and SBS Transit.

Mr Khaw was speaking at the launch of the Singapore Rail Academy (SGRA) at the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) at Dover Drive.

He spoke about the challenges faced by engineers in building Singapore's rail network.

Read also: More fires caused by charging e-bikes, power banks: 4 such incidents

By 2030, the network will be 360km long, reaching a rail density that is similar to London and New York today. But the two cities built their rail networks over 100 years while Singapore is building its network in less than half the time.

Mr Khaw said that even as the network expands, the operators are working hard to improve the reliability of the rail system to become among the best in the world. To reach the two goals of rail expansion and rail reliability, Singapore has to grow the pool of engineering expertise, he noted.

368126

2017-01-12 16:49:32

Photo Gallery

Fashion faux pas to avoid at job interviews

Source:

The Straits Times

StockUnlimited

pixabay

Mr Khaw added: "This makes the rail industry a growth industry, whose employment prospects are almost guaranteed in the next decade."

He noted that the role of rail engineers has become more complex over the years, and the academy will help train a new generation of rail engineers.

The academy will allow aspiring engineers and technicians to upgrade and re-skill themselves to join the rail industry. It will also serve as a research and development centre for rail engineering.

Read also: 2017's most and least stressful jobs

To facilitate the academy's work, the LTA signed two agreements yesterday.

The first, with the Employment and Employability Institute, aims to attract, develop and retain the local rail industry workforce.

The second, with SIT and the International Council on Systems Engineering, aims to provide pre-employment training as well as continuing education and training programmes in systems engineering.

The academy has also started to develop a programme to help new and mid-career entrants to the industry develop their technical skills and expose them to functional areas such as design and planning.

This article was first published on Feb 24 , 2017.
Get The New Paper for more stories.

This happened a month into Runnan Wang's first year as a University of Connecticut marketing major.

With only his father's support, the 21-year-old American applied to the institute in November 2014 and received an acceptance letter two weeks later.

Three years on, Mr Wang will graduate from the institute with a Bachelor of Food Business Management degree this December.

The New Yorker and nine course mates are now the third batch to be in Singapore for 15 weeks as part of their Asian Specialisation Programme.

APPRECIATION

Together with Temasek Polytechnic's Centre for Transcultural Studies, the students cooked a nine-dish buffet meal on Wednesday at the polytechnic's Culinary Academy.

They did this as a show of appreciation for 45 of the polytechnic's elderly cleaners.

It was part of the polytechnic's Project BECAUS (Befriending Elderly Cleaning Aunties & Uncles of Singapore).

Read also: Final-year poly student interns at his own company

The manager of the Centre for Transcultural Studies, Ms Amy Daga, 46, said she got the idea for Project BECAUS in 2010 after talking to an elderly cleaner at a food court in a shopping mall here.

Ms Daga recalled: "She had little to eat even though she was working in a food court.

"I realised she didn't need legal representation or lobbyists, just people to show appreciation."

367320

2017-01-05 18:17:36

Photo Gallery

Temasek Poly students devise diabetes-friendly dishes

Source:

The Straits Times

The project was launched last July.

The cleaners were served grilled chicken with nam prik, pandan crepe cake, lamb satay with peanut sauce and tom yum goong.

Madam Low Hwee Thiang, 66, has been a cleaner at the polytechnic for 21 years.

The mother of two and grandmother of three cleans the offices of Block 26B.

Read also: Temasek Poly alumnus made it to Forbes list

She said: "The students are friendly and polite. I even received thank-you cards and ointments from them at times."

Ms Camille Dawson, 43, Counsellor for Public Affairs, from the US Embassy here, attended the event.

She conversed fluently in Mandarin with an elderly cleaner seated next to her and enjoyed the potatoes made with a lime and fish sauce vinaigrette.

Ms Dawson said: "It's such a meaningful and creative way of showing appreciation to these elderly cleaners who have done so much for them."

This article was first published on Feb 24 , 2017.
Get The New Paper for more stories.

Even news of a fatal accident in Johor Baru, where eight young cyclists were killed last Saturday, failed to deter him.

Mr Lim will join 77 cyclists from the Epic Cyclist group, who will clock 1,000km for the fourth KDF Millennium Ride from March 3. With the aim of raising $350,000, they will ride through Kuala Lumpur and Muar in Johor, cycling at least 10 hours a day, before finishing at the Singapore Island Country Club on March 6.

The former aquarium shop owner had participated in all three previous rides. He will be the oldest participant this year.

Read also: Charity helped her to lead normal life

Organiser Clifford Lee, 46, said: "Even for a pro-cyclist, it is a tough challenge to overcome. But these ordinary people are willing to commit themselves to perform such a daunting task."

Mr Lim said: "What the KDF patients go through is much tougher, so this is really nothing in comparison."

First-time participant Gary Lee has been preparing for the arduous terrain by training on slopes at Cameron Highlands and Fraser's Hill. He has covered about 300km already.

The 45-year-old vice-president and deputy general manager of Tee Yih Jia Food Manufacturing Pte Ltd cycles thrice weekly, about 150km each time.

MOTIVATION

His source of motivation is his late father, who died of diabetes last year.

He said: "I feel like I can do a triathlon every day now."

Mr Lim, who has two teenage daughters, said his family was concerned.

Last Saturday, a 22-year-old female driver slammed into a group of cyclists in Johor, killing eight of them aged between 13 and 17. Eight others were in critical condition.

Read also: Charity duo give love, find it with each other

However, Mr Lim managed to convince his family, as the group has taken several safety precautions.

Directing the cyclists around the road bends with neon flags will be six passenger cars.

Following the convoy will be four vans carrying supplies. They double up as transport vehicles when the need arises.

There will also be about 20 first aid-trained volunteers and a doctor cycling among them.

Read also: Retiree, 75, treks 800km in Spain for charity

KDF donor relations and communications manager Jemin Chua said the funds raised from the ride will help defray patients' dialysis fees, medication costs and provide transport subsidies to those with mobility issues.

She added that the beneficiaries include more than 300 low-income patients.

Last year's ride, which raised $590,000, funded nearly 4,000 dialysis sessions.

The public can donate online via giving.sg at tinyurl.com/Mride17. For details, call the KDF at 6559-2630.

This article was first published on Feb 24 , 2017.
Get The New Paper for more stories.