Singapore's landscape sector to get $5.6m funding boost over the next four years

It includes a $3m equipment subsidy.

Singapore’s landscape industry is set to benefit from a funding boost of $5.6 million over the next four years, and other supporting measures to further drive productivity, and raise capabilities and professionalism of the sector. 

The Landscape Productivity Roadmap - first announced in 2011 with a pool of $12 million - has received a second tranche of $5.6 million which includes $3 million for the Landscape Productivity Grant (LPG) to help landscape companies and nurseries defray the cost of purchasing equipment.

The remaining funding of $2.6 million will go towards supply chain and skills studies, as well as manpower and industry surveys to prepare the sector for the future.

The announcement was made by Mr Desmond Lee, Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs and National Development, at Green Thumbs 2016, held at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park.

Speaking at the event, Mr Lee said, “As we strengthen the professionalism and capability of our landscaping workforce, we also need to evolve and transform the way we green. The world is going to be quite different in the next 50 years. New technologies are on the market; new business models and innovative ideas will change how things are done. So the challenge for us is how to green more productively - that is, do more with less and maximise the use of smaller spaces.”

Mr Lee also shared that land will be set aside for new nursery plots. To reduce start-up costs for the companies, NParks will develop the land parcels and provide connections to utilities such as potable water, electricity and tele-communications cables, sewage pipes and roadways.

These plots will be released progressively in phases from mid-2018. The leases of nurseries in Sungei Tengah will be extended until the first quarter of 2019. This extension will also be granted to the nurseries in Neo Tiew Crescent.