Organising Singapore Day

Ms Faizah Jamal asked the Prime Minister (a) how much is spent on the Singapore Day event held in London in March 2014; (b) how many people are flown from Singapore for the event; and (c) what steps are there to ensure that future Singapore Day events use eco-friendly ware and not disposables, in keeping with green procurement efforts under the Public Sector Taking The Lead in Environmental Sustainability (PSTLES) initiative.

A budget of $4.4 million was committed for Singapore Day 2014, which was attended by over 9,000 participants. As the event has just been completed, the Overseas Singaporean Unit is still finalising the total expenditure, which should be close to the

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budgeted amount.

Singapore Day is put together with the support of our partners from the private, public and people sectors, many of whom volunteer their services. Wherever possible, our public service agency representatives tie in their participation in Singapore Day with other official duties. For example, MOE, Ministry of Health Holdings (MOHH) and Contact Singapore conducted recruitment sessions in and outside of London in the lead-up to Singapore Day 2014. In total, 182 personnel from Singapore were involved. This comprised representatives from public sector agencies, food crew, concert artistes and production crew.

Singapore Days are held in public parks. Many of these parks have stringent environmental regulations that the organiser has to address during the application process and closely abide by during the event. Whenever possible, portable items, such as kitchen equipment used by the hawkers, are recycled for subsequent Singapore Days.