Impact of Tightened Foreign Worker Inflow on Pace of Public Infrastructure Developments

Mr Christopher de Souza asked the Minister for National Development if he will give an update on the pace of public infrastructure developments, including housing, transport and healthcare, in light of the recent management of foreign manpower inflow, and whether public infrastructure development will keep pace with Singapore's growth as a regional hub.

The Government is committed to improve public infrastructure and, where possible, build them ahead of demand. Above all, we want to ensure that Singapore remains an endearing and liveable home, where Singaporeans can have good jobs.

For public housing, HDB is on track to complete and deliver 13,600 new flats this year. Next year, HDB's target is to complete more than 28,000 new flats, double this year's number. For private housing, including executive condominiums, around 17,800 units will be completed this year and about 21,200 units are expected to be completed next year. By 2016, some 200,000 new housing units will be constructed. This is equivalent to four Ang Mo Kio towns.

Similarly, our road and rail network development plans are progressing well. Our plans to intensify our MRT network, from 178 km today to about 360 km by 2030, and increase the capacity of existing rail lines by buying more trains and improving the signalling system are continuing apace. The Downtown Line will be opened in stages over the next few years, while the Thomson Line and the Eastern Region Line will be completed in stages over the next 10 years. Major road projects, such as the Marina Coastal Expressway and upcoming

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ones, such as the North South Expressway, are proceeding as planned.

We are also undertaking developments to increase our airport and port capacities to augment our position as a regional hub. For civil aviation, Terminal 4 and Project Jewel are expected to be operational by 2018. Terminal 5 and a three-runway system will likewise be operational around 2020 and mid-2020s respectively. On the maritime front, Pasir Panjang Terminal Phases 3 and 4 are expected to be completed by 2020. For the port at Tuas, we expect the first set of berths to be operational in about 10 years' time.

We are also ramping up our healthcare infrastructure to serve the needs of our ageing population and allow Singaporeans to have better and more convenient access to healthcare. By 2020, we would have added about 4,100 hospital beds, comprising around 2,200 acute hospital beds, a 30% increase from today; and about 1,900 community hospital beds, more than triple the beds we have today. Major developments include the new Ng Teng Fong General Hospital and Jurong Community Hospital which will open in late 2014 and 2015 respectively; and Sengkang General Hospital and Sengkang Community Hospital in 2018.

We will also be enhancing our existing polyclinics and building new ones. Six new polyclinics are planned to be built by 2020, starting with Jurong West and Punggol by 2017. In the intermediate and long-term care sector, we are building various eldercare facilities, including 17 new and replacement nursing homes by 2016. Three of these nursing homes have been completed and another new nursing home at Buangkok will be ready by the end of this year.

With the foreign worker tightening policy measures, such as the reduction in the man-year-entitlement (MYE) quota for new projects and the increase in foreign worker levy, in place to help steer the industry to improve productivity and reduce its reliance on foreign workers, there could be some impact on construction time and costs during this period of adjustment. We are closely monitoring the industry's ability to cope. While some contractors have requested for more workers, we will continue to press on firmly with improving productivity of our construction sector.

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