The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) is implementing a pilot project to tap the creativity, expertise and experience of a new managing agent to improve the management of vacant State land. This project is in line with the Government's best-sourcing initiative which aims to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery of public services.

Towards this end, SLA is calling for a public tender which opens tomorrow (30 June 2004). Interested parties are invited to tender for the management of vacant State land. The scope of the tender specifies a total of 24 plots of vacant State land within the city area with a total area of about 45 ha. The plots of vacant State land include prominent sites such as the vacant land at Marina Bayfront and Beach Road (next to Parkview Square) and those near Orchard MRT and Tanjong Pagar MRT stations. The full list is at Annex A.

The terms of appointment for the new managing agent will incorporate an incentive-based fee component tied to the increase in revenue generated from increased and better use of the land through the agent's efforts. The successful managing agent will have to put land to interim uses which will benefit not only businesses and entrepreneurs but also the community.

SLA has hitherto used the services of statutory boards such as the Housing and Development Board (HDB) and Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to manage State land. SLA has also engaged private managing agents such as Premas, DTZ Debenham Tie Leung and EM Services to manage and market State buildings in our continuing efforts to best-source the provision of such services. Other initiatives undertaken by SLA include the best-sourcing of sale and marketing consultancy service through a public tender to DTZ during SLA's maiden sale of a land parcel in Tiong Bahru (February 2003) as well as the recent appointment of CKS Property Consultants Pte Ltd as a consultant for the Sengkang Central/Buangkok Drive residential site, which was placed on the reserve list this month.

"In line with the Government's efforts to best-source those public services that could potentially be better provided by other public or private agencies, SLA has identified the management of State land as a suitable service that can be market-tested under the best-sourcing framework. Apart from the potential value-add, this project will also serve as a benchmark by which the existing service providers can be assessed. Our experience with previous best-sourcing initiatives has been positive. We are planning more similar initiatives," said Mr Vincent Hoong, Acting Chief Executive of SLA.

The tender opens tomorrow and will close on 28 July 2004 at 12 noon.

Issued by:
Singapore Land Authority
29 June 2004