Debated in Parliament on 6 Aug 2018.
Mr Desmond Choo asked the Minister for National Development (a) if he can provide an update on the Revitalisation of Shops (ROS) scheme in rejuvenating HDB neighbourhood shops; (b) whether there are plans to get these shops to go digital and, if so, what is the progress in doing so; and (c) what are the Government's plans to help these retailers overcome challenges as more residents shop online and at larger shopping malls.
Housing and Development Board (HDB) heartland shops play an important role in serving the needs of residents, and HDB has put in place several measures to ensure that our neighbourhood centres remain relevant and vibrant places.
First, new neighbourhood centres come with well-designed plazas and gardens to draw residents to these community spaces. Second, HDB curates the trade-mix to improve the vibrancy of the neighbourhood centres. Third, HDB has extended the enhanced Friendly Faces, Lively Places grant to HDB retailers and Merchant Associations (MAs) so that they can organise community and volunteer events to attract footfall. Fourth, HDB introduced the Revitalisation of Shops (ROS) Scheme in 2007 to help retailers and MAs enhance the vibrancy and competitiveness of HDB shops, through co-funding the upgrading of common areas and promotional events, and granting rent-free periods for tenants to renovate their shops.
The subsidies provided under ROS were recently enhanced in May 2016. Since then, 17 sites have been announced under the seventh batch of the ROS. These include (a) 13 sites which have applied for co-funding for upgrading of the common areas, of which, upgrading works at three sites have either commenced or will be commencing by October 2018; and (b) 11 sites which have applied for co-funding for promotional events have successfully organised events at the respective centres.
In addition, to help our heartland businesses deal with the rising competition from e-commerce retailers and private shopping malls, the Retail Industry Transformation Map (ITM) was launched in 2016. A key strategy is to help local retailers integrate their e-commerce and digital marketing capabilities into their business models to reach out to more customers.
Some assistance available to local retailers include: (a) the 12 small and medium enterprises (SME) Centres located islandwide, where advisors can guide SMEs in the use of digital technology to boost their productivity; (b) the Retail Industry Digital Plan (IDP), launched by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) in partnership with Enterprise Singapore (ESG), provides SMEs step-by-step guidance on the use of digital technology at each stage of their growth; (c) HDB and ESG are also working to encourage HDB retailers to become more competitive via the Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG), which supports the adoption of pre-scoped information technology solutions in areas, such as customer management, inventory tracking and e-commerce. To date, more than 300 retail SMEs have applied for PSG support, and this number is expected to increase in future; and (d) IMDA will expand the list of pre-approved solutions in e-commerce to help SME retailers develop and strengthen their online presence. HDB retailers can also establish an online presence at no cost on HDB’s Where2Shop (W2S) website.
To support these digitalisation efforts, HDB will be separately trialling free wireless Internet service under Wireless@SG and a shopper traffic monitoring system at some of the HDB shopping complexes. The latter will allow HDB to collect data to gain insights on customer footfall and customer profiles to help heartland retailers tweak their programmes and promotional deals to better meet the needs of shoppers. Kampung Admiralty and Oasis Terraces will be benefiting from these initiatives. In addition, MAs in our town and neighbourhood centres can tap on ROS to implement digital initiatives, including the installation of digital directories, wireless routers and footfall sensors.
PAPERCUTS