The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) announced today the launch of an Ideas Competition titled “Journey of Possibilities” for the Rail Corridor. The Ideas Competition is intended to draw innovative and fresh new ideas from the public in addressing some of the key challenges and issues in planning for the future use of the Rail Corridor.

Since the return of the former railway land to Singapore on 1 July 2011, the Rail Corridor project has garnered widespread public interest. From the feedback we received, it is clear that there are many more people out there who would like to make tangible contributions towards the envisioning of the Rail Corridor’s future. In order to create the window of opportunity for all to participate in this project, the URA is conducting the Ideas Competition from 30 November 2011 to 9 March 2012.

About the Ideas Competition
The Ideas Competition covers a 25.3km stretch from Kranji coastal mudflats in the north to Tanjong Pagar district in the south of Singapore, as well as a 1.9km stretch of former Jurong Line which spurs off from the main line near Bukit Timah Railway Station to Ulu Pandan Canal.

We welcome participants to be bold and creative in envisioning the “possibilities” for the transformation of the Rail Corridor into a truly extraordinary trail with multiple landscapes and experiences that can be enjoyed by all. The challenge is to develop visionary and compelling ideas for the Rail Corridor in response to five key issues that we have identified over the course of our extensive public engagement process.

Useful ideas and concepts from the competition may be distilled into design principles as part of the brief for the Rail Corridor Design Competition that is being considered currently.

An exhibition which features a selection of entries including all award-winners will be held after the competition.

Two Categories – Open and Youth Challenge
There are two categories for the Ideas Competition, namely the “Open” Category and the “Youth Challenge” (secondary school students). While the “Open” Category is open to all interested participants, the “Youth Challenge” is a youth-centric competition which is targeted at secondary school students.

Under the “Open” Category, the public is invited to choose the issue that they would like to address and to propose innovative solutions and ideas in response to the issue. The five key issues are:

1. Bio-diversity and sensitive development
2. Inclusiveness, accessibility and resolving conflicts
3. Community ownership, pride and sense of well-being
4. Heritage
5. Great Ideas for a Public Space

Under the “Youth Challenge”, we encourage young participants in secondary schools to come up with exciting new ideas and proposals that will surprise and excite Singaporeans. The ideas, concepts and proposals need not be limited to the five key issues. They could be wide-ranging reflecting the interests and aspirations of the younger generation, and how the Rail Corridor could be especially meaningful to them. We welcome secondary school students to join us on this exciting journey, to dream up possibilities that could eventually be turned into reality.

Judging and awards
Judging panels, comprising subject matter experts, representatives from the public and private sectors, as well as Rail Corridor Consultation Group members, will be formed for each of the five issues and “Youth Challenge”.

For the Open Category, three top prizes will be awarded for each issue, with cash values of S$2,000, S$1,000 and $500 respectively. Three top prizes will also be awarded for the Youth Challenge comprising cash values of S$1,000, S$500 and S$250 respectively.

For more details, please visit Urban Redevelopment Authority website.

Jones Lang LaSalle has appointed Susan Lim as the new Head of Strategic Workplace Services for its Corporate Solutions business in Asia Pacific.

Susan is widely recognized as the leading workplace expert in Asia Pacific and joins the Firm from DEGW where she was formerly the Asia Pacific Regional Managing Director.

She has over 18 years’ experience in workplace briefing, strategy, space planning, design and change management, working with a diverse range of corporate, government, healthcare and learning environment clients throughout Australia and Asia.

John Forres, CEO of Corporate Solutions for Jones Lang LaSalle in Asia Pacific, said that “This appointment is in response to the rising demand for workplace strategies as ongoing economic uncertainty intensifies the focus on cost control and business performance. Companies worldwide are focused on increasing competitive advantage and growing their revenue in Asia and are looking to their workplaces to help them drive greater business productivity.”

“Many of our clients are asking us to help them not only design but also implement workplace change as they recognize that change management is critical to delivering successful workplace programs; something that wasn’t part of the corporate real estate discussion five years ago. Susan’s expertise and experience in workplace strategies will complement our existing workplace capabilities to deliver tailored solutions to our clients in the region,” said Mr Forrest.

Susan Lim said, “Jones Lang LaSalle is a pioneer in Asia Pacific with deep experience in how people, process and place can drive business productivity. Bringing my experience to an organization that has such an extensive regional platform makes this a very exciting opportunity for me and enables me to think about the workplace proposition from the ground up.”

“I am also excited by the opportunity to provide the first truly end-to-end workplace solution in Asia and to help companies to implement workplace strategies successfully across multiple locations worldwide,” said Ms Lim.

“Successful implementation of workplace change is not just about space; it is necessary to align all the components that touch employees when they work. This means coordinating across the environment, processes, technology, behavior and protocols and developing leadership and training that will help people learn how to work more effectively,” she said.

Jones Lang LaSalle’s Global Corporate Real Estate (CRE) Survey 2011 revealed that 66 percent of respondent companies had workplace mobility programs implemented or underway. A further 20 percent are planning or have proposed to introduce workplace mobility programs. Respondents cited management and/or employee engagement and resistance/fear of change as the two greatest constraints to adoption.

Hong Kong and Australia are leading destinations for locating a data centre according to a unique study just released by international consultancies Cushman & Wakefield and hurleypalmerflatt.

The Data Centre Risk Index (DCRI) evaluates the top risks likely to affect the successful operation of a data centre in the 20 most important global markets.

“The underlying value of a data centre lies in its infrastructure. Data centre owners can mitigate risk by ensuring their facilities have the capacity to meet current demand for services as well as the flexibility to meet future demand, in terms of technological advances and changing operational requirements,” said Cushman & Wakefield Executive Director – Occupier Services Tom Pullinen.

“If an appropriate balance of capacity and flexibility is achieved at the development stage the data centre asset can be effectively future-proofed,” he added.

The ranking focuses on three key parameters of energy cost, international bandwidth and ease of doing business, which carry a 60% weight in the analysis. Five other factors – corporation tax, cost of labour, political stability, sustainability and natural disasters – account for a further 35% and GDP (per capita), inflation and water availability account for the remaining 5% weight.

The demand for data storage capacity, accelerated by recent advances such as cloud computing, means that more companies are now investing in data centres internationally. The DCRI allows companies to not only identify and mitigate risks across each of the 11 parameters as they move into less familiar locations but the weightings can also be tailored to reflect the relative importance of each key parameter for a specific company. Thereby providing a personalized assessment.

In the overall rankings the US comes out as the lowest risk country, primarily owing to relatively lower energy costs and a favourable business environment.  It is followed by Canada and Germany.

Six countries from Asia Pacific (excluding Qatar) are evaluated, with Hong Kong ranking 4th, Australia 10th and Singapore 11th.

In the overall rankings Hong Kong came out on top in the Asia Pacific region, scoring highly on international bandwidth, ease of doing business, corporation tax and cost of labor. Australia also performs well on most aspects with relative strength in GDP per capita, political stability, water availability and energy costs. Singapore, placed 11th in the composite ranking, is the topmost country for ease of doing business and also scores well on corporate tax, cost of labor and GDP per capita.

While the economic powerhouses of China and India placed lower in the rankings (18th and 20th respectively) they score ahead of most others countries on sustainability and cost of labor. Their lower ranking reflects relatively weaker performance on the three high-focus parameters of energy cost, international bandwidth and ease of doing business. Similarly, Japan is placed high for political stability and inflation but its overall ranking of 19th is a result of relatively higher energy costs and historically greater exposure to natural disasters.

Stephen Whatling, Global Services Director at hurleypalmerflatt, said: “Despite their status as engines of global growth, China and India score poorly as a result of strict foreign ownership regulations and other barriers to investment.”

Arvind Nandan, leader of the Data Centre Practice Group for Asia Pacific at Cushman & Wakefield further commented: “As the world’s leading emerging markets both China and India are destinations of choice for international business and locating a data centre in or near these countries is a commercial necessity for many companies. While China and India ranked lower they scored highly in areas of increasing importance to business, such as sustainability. With significant infrastructure investments being made by governments to support each country’s rapid development and with continual progress being made to ease strict foreign ownership regulations, it is expected both countries will fast track up the rankings in future years over more developed countries, leading to real commercial opportunities now as the investment climate becomes more favourable.”

By creating more partnerships for government and private investment in bandwidth and power infrastructure, it is expected that China and India will witness a higher demand for international data centre space, geared to meet data storage and cloud computing models.

Data Centre Risk Index risk categories:
-    Energy (cost per kWh)
-    International bandwidth (megabyte per capita)
-    Ease of doing business
-    Corporation tax
-    Labour
-    Political stability
-    Sustainability
-    Natural disasters
-    GDP per capita
-    Inflation
-    Water (availability per capita)

Source: Cushman & Wakefield