Singapore to Share Urban Governance and Management Partnership Programme with the Government of Kerala
Joint News Release •
Singapore will be sharing its experience in Urban Governance and Management with the Government of Kerala. The programme will be supported by Temasek Foundation, Singapore (TF) with a grant amount of about SGD $870,000 and co-funded by the Government of Kerala with an amount of SGD $124,450. Singapore Cooperation Enterprise (SCE) will be the implementing agency for the programme.
A Collaboration Agreement was signed today between Mr. Rajesh Kumar Singh, Secretary to Government, Local Self Government Department, Government of Kerala and Mr. Alphonsus Chia, Chief Executive Officer of Singapore Cooperation Enterprise. It was witnessed by Mr. Tsewang Namgyal, Deputy High Commissioner of India in Singapore and Dr. Law Song Seng, Board Member of Temasek Foundation, Singapore.
Kerala, a state in the south-west of India is interested to understand Singapore’s experience in promoting sustainable urban infrastructure governance and management. Led by Mr. Singh, the delegation of 15 senior government officials from Kerala is in Singapore from 3 – 7 May 2010 to kick-start the programme with a policy roundtable on the Strategy and Implementation for Urban Governance and Management.
The five-day policy roundtable will enable the officials from Kerala to interact and exchange knowledge and information with a team consisting of experts from the Public Utilities Board (PUB), National Environment Agency (NEA) and private sector companies like Surbana International Consultants, Surbana Technologies, CH2M HILL and MWH. Specifically, they will cover areas such as:
a) Urban and Waterfront Planning;
b) Facilities Management;
c) Water Management; and
d) Solid Waste Management
Following the roundtable, 8 training workshops will be conducted in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala and the city of Calicut. The programme will benefit a total of 120 officials from Kerala.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Mr. Alphonsus Chia, CEO of SCE said,
This is the first partnership between SCE, Temasek Foundation and the State Government of Kerala. We are happy to share Singapore’s public sector expertise in Urban Governance and Management with Kerala. We hope that through this collaboration, we can pave the way for other Singaporean parties to better understand the developments in Kerala and also to find new cooperation opportunities.
Temasek Foundation is pleased to support this programme as it is aligned with our focus on capacity and capability-building of communities in Asia. We hope our support of expertise-sharing between policy makers and officials in Singapore and the State of Kerala on urban infrastructure governance and management will benefit the people of the State of Kerala,
said Mr Goh Geok Khim, Chairman of Temasek Foundation, Singapore.
Jointly Issued by Temasek Foundation and Singapore Cooperation Enterprise
