Debated in Parliament on 21 Oct 2013.
Order for Second Reading read.
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Mdm Speaker, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."
The Jurong Town Corporation (Amendment) Bill 2013 comprises three sets of amendments to the Jurong Town Corporation Act (JTC Act).
The first set of amendments provides a new function and powers for JTC Corporation (JTC) to obtain statistical information relating to industrial properties from members of the public, private establishments and selected Government agencies.
Today, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) collects, compiles, analyses and disseminates a wide range of statistics on the residential, commercial and industrial property sectors.
As the industrial property market grows more diverse and complex, we need to channel more dedicated efforts and resources to gathering and analysing statistics in this sector to improve market transparency and stability. As such, JTC, as the main Government agency overseeing the industrial property market, has been tasked to undertake the statistics function for the industrial property sector.
The proposed amendments will bring about two key benefits. First, with access to timely and comprehensive data, JTC will be better able to ensure sufficient supply and stability in the industrial property market.
Second, JTC will be able to release public information on the industrial property market which will be more comprehensive and representative of the various industrial segments, for example, statistics on different industrial zones. Through the REACH website, the public has provided other suggestions to improve the comprehensiveness of the industrial property market data published. The Government appreciates this constructive feedback. JTC will take in these suggestions in coming up with its industrial property market reports.
To minimise the burden on respondents, JTC will continue URA's current practice of using administrative data provided by IRAS in its compilation of statistics, instead of expending duplicative efforts to collect the same information from the public. The amendment will explicitly allow JTC to obtain property tax and stamp duty data from IRAS for such statistical purposes.
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In addition, JTC will obtain additional industrial property data from URA, which will continue to collect data from mixed-use developments that are predominantly commercial but do contain some industrial components.
Mdm Speaker, I will now describe the various safeguards to protect the confidentiality of the data collected and the integrity of the datasets.
Internally, JTC will separate its industrial property developer and statistics collection functions. A Research & Statistics Department (RSD) has been set up in JTC to undertake the statistics collection function. To prevent unauthorised access and misuse of data, the RSD will be physically and electronically ring-fenced from all other JTC departments. Data collected under the Act will be stored and handled within the RSD office and accessible only to RSD officers.
Externally, to both the public and other Government agencies, JTC will only publish data obtained under the JTC Act in the form of aggregated statistics, or share individual data under the exceptions explicitly set out within the Act.
To guard against any leaks, the proposed amendment also includes a maximum fine of $2,000, or imprisonment for a term of up to 12 months, or both, as punishment for unpermitted disclosure.
Consequential amendments to the Urban Redevelopment Authority Act (URA Act) will be made to align the provisions on collection of statistical information in the URA Act with those in the JTC Act.
Mdm Speaker, the remaining two sets of amendments to the JTC Act are administrative in nature.
The maximum membership size of the JTC Board will be increased from 11 to 14, excluding the Chairman, and the quorum, increased correspondingly. In the last 10 years, there have been significant changes to JTC's operating environment. Industrial needs have become more complex and fast-changing. JTC will benefit from the broader and greater expertise that the additional members can bring, in strategic thinking, financial management and property market expertise.
The final amendment is JTC's land acquisition powers will be removed as all land acquisitions are now conducted through SLA under the Land
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Acquisition Act (Cap 152). Mdm Speaker, I beg to move.
Question proposed.
Mdm Speaker, I support the objective of the Bill, which is to provide JTC the function to collect, analyse and publish industrial property statistics.
Madam, I welcome the move with JTC taking over the lead from URA. I would like to find out whether there had been changes in terms of figures and ratio between privately and publicly-owned industrial and commercial properties in the 1970s and now. If there were changes, I would like to ask whether the Ministry will consider a reassessment of the ratio and figures.
I understand that there are currently no restrictions on the purchase of industrial properties by investors. Is there a need to avoid the excessive commoditisation and monetisation of such properties which are meant as productive assets? I would like to urge the Ministry to monitor industrial land prices and rentals closely so as to keep land affordable for SMEs in Singapore.
I hope these suggestions would ensure that the Government continues to play a key role as the authority for land use, whether or not for the purpose of development or lease. Commercial and industrial rentals form a substantial component of business costs, as the landlords will pass on this cost to consumers.
For example, I appreciate HDB's active role in public housing because it ensures stability in the prices of properties. In terms of ratio, HDB flats remain home to over 80% of Singapore's resident population.
Madam, I understand that HDB was aware of my concerns, made during this year's COS, about the rental burden. MND reassured me that HDB's commercial and industrial properties are let out on three-year term tenancies via open bidding, a fair and transparent system. As a result, rent increases for HDB's commercial and industrial properties are at a substantially lower pace, compared to the industry in the early 1970s.
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JTC helped to jumpstart Singapore's industrialisation drive through rapid land development and construction of low-cost factories. Is there a change in JTC's role since it was founded? If yes, why? In terms of changes, I noticed a name change where JTC renamed itself to be called JTC Corp in the year 2000. I am, of course, more concerned whether there is any change in JTC's social role and whether it is still meeting its original social objective. Is there a need for such a review? For example, what is the current availability of JTC space for SMEs to operate their businesses?
I would also like to urge the Ministry to re-assess allowing part of industrial properties to be used by religious organisations or VWOs. I understand that not all religious organisations are able to secure sites designated for places of worship. Hence, they need to conduct their religious activities in spaces not zoned for religious use, such as commercial and industrial buildings.
While I am supportive of such organisations to own or rent the space in industrial estate, it may be advisable to have a standalone commercial building in industrial estates to house such organisations. The aim is so that space meant for business use is freed up to serve its original intent and purpose.
Take Business 1 (B1) zone, for example, where religious use is allowed in industrial premises on a non-exclusive and limited basis. Under this arrangement, religious groups will be able to conduct some religious activities in industrial space, without compromising the primary function and character of industrial developments. As B1 is intended for developments related to software development, distribution services, printing and packing of dried food stuff, it appears to me that the costs would be driven up by space demands.
Another related issue is the Community and Sports Facilities Scheme, which was to help facilitate the integration of community facilities in commercial developments. Under this scheme, landlords are granted additional Gross Floor Area for premises used for community and social services.
To conclude, there should be a clear distinction between investment and industrial/production use. This is to prevent an excessive asset bubble being built up and price distortion at the expense of meeting the needs of real businesses and better control over business cost.
In its public consultation exercise, JTC indicated that the availability of a more comprehensive set of data can help to increase market transparency, as well as enable industrialists, developers and investors to make more informed
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decisions.
In future, I hope that the information and statistics on industrial properties could be as comprehensive as what URA and HDB have done on residential property data. With that, Mdm Speaker, I support the Bill.
Mdm Speaker, first, I am pleased to note that the amendment of this Act will confer on the JTC with a new function, which is to collect, compile and analyse information of a statistical nature relating to industrial properties in Singapore, and to publish and disseminate the results of such a compilation or analysis. This is a step in the right direction for JTC, as this can hopefully make available more comprehensive industrial property data in Singapore to facilitate policy making and planning by our Government on the one hand, and for reference and decision making relating to land by our companies on the other.
While JTC will be conferred with this new function relating to industrial property data, we note that URA remains as our overall national land use planning authority. It is, therefore, important that URA have continued access to comprehensive industrial property data, so that adequate land will always be allocated for industrial use, especially for the SMEs, amongst other diverse and competing land use needs, such as housing, commercial, recreation and other infrastructure developments.
This is important since, apart from manpower, a key challenge faced by our SMEs today relates to business premises, including having affordable industrial space for their business activities. In the event that inadequate industrial land is reflected in URA's national land use plan, there would be a downstream danger that a supply shortage would subsequently further push up industrial land costs which are already high today.
On this note, while we welcome JTC's new data collecting function, I would like to urge that JTC and URA continue to work closely so that the land use needs of our companies, especially our SMEs, will be sufficiently taken into due consideration in our national land use plan. With that, I support the Bill.
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Mdm Speaker, I would like to thank both Mr Gan Thiam Poh and Mr Teo Siong Seng for their support of the amendments of the Bill.
First, I would like to assure Mr Gan Thiam Poh that there is no change in JTC's role. JTC remains committed to supplying sufficient industrial land for the economic development of Singapore. What has changed over the years is the way we go about doing it.
Mr Gan also asked about the ratio of public provision versus private provision. As we all know, in the early years, JTC was the primary or practically the main provider of industrial properties. But in 1992, the Government decided to release industrial land for sale through the Government Land Sales Programme. And this is now 20 years. The private sector has now participated actively in the Industrial Government Land Sales Programme, and their market share is increasingly increased.
There are three segments of industrial properties: first, where manufacturers or owners undertake development of factories on land provided by JTC. That still remains the primary core of JTC's mission.
The second category is warehouse space and, there, the private sector has been very active. And, in fact, today, the bulk of warehousing space is provided by the private sector. JTC is no longer a major player in the warehousing space.
And then in the third area in the multi-purpose, multi-user factories, this is where because of the Industrial Government Land Sales Programme, JTC's share of the market has dropped from 50%-60% in the 1970s and 1980s down to around 20% in 2009. And that is the time when we decide to divest JTC's share because it is no longer providing a level-playing field, because tenants in JTC's premises are getting subsidised rent whereas the other tenants in private multi-user, multi-storey factories have to pay market rent. And that is the reason why we divest: to ensure a level-playing field.
So, today, if we look at the industrial property market, JTC continues to provide land for industrialists to build their own factories. For warehousing, this is entirely provided by the private sector. And, similarly, for the multi-user, multi-storey factory, we are also proceeding towards the stage where the private sector will provide this space in an open and transparent competitive field.
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The job of JTC then will be to collect this data and make the industrial property market more efficient through proper disclosure, transparency of the data and through timely availability of the factory space. Through this, we hope to make the industrial property market more efficient and more competitive.
On the specific point about the use of industrial properties by religious organisations, this is a flexibility that we adopted. Ideally, we all know that we should have dedicated places of worship for religious organisations. But at the same time, to maximise the use of space, we do recognise for some of the religious organisations, they use the premises only for limited periods of the week. Therefore, we think they can co-exist, provided the use of such spaces cannot exceed two days a week, and the use is only part of the industrial premises within the ancillary use quantum of 40% of the total space. In this way, we hope to be able to maximise the use of industrial space and also accommodate the needs of the religious organisations.
These are the key points that Mr Gan Thiam Poh has raised. I want to assure him that our mission, the mission of JTC, remains to make sure that we have a steady supply of industrial property at competitive rates.
*Question put, and agreed to.*
*Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House.*
*The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. – [Mr Lim Hng Kiang].*
*Bill considered in Committee; reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed.*
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