UOB to invest $500m in smart-tech business district in Punggol

SINGAPORE – UOB is the first local bank to invest in the 5.4 million sq ft smart-tech-focused business park in Punggol, to the tune of $500 million.

By end-2026, the bank will take up one of five initial tower blocks that will be built in

Punggol Digital District (PDD), near Punggol Point, under JTC Corporation’s masterplan.

A further three towers totalling 1.2 million sq ft will be added to the site due to good interest from potential tenants, both locally and from abroad.

When it is completed, in phases starting from next year, PDD will create some 28,000 jobs, while also housing the almost 12,000 students and staff at Singapore Institute of Technology’s (SIT) new campus there.

In the district, which radiates outwards from Punggol Coast MRT station, slated to be ready in 2024, SIT and other smart-tech businesses will be able to take advantage of the synergies afforded by their proximity to one another.

Apart from UOB, there are two other new tenants – Target Media Culcreative (TMCC), which has 15,000 digital advertising display panels installed across the island, and Delteq, one of the first local system integrators, set up in 1992. Essentially, system integrators provide clients with all their information technology needs, from network and security to hardware and maintenance.

Collaborations between the business park’s tenants are already under way before any of them move in, with several more new initiatives announced by Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong on Tuesday when he introduced the second batch of PDD tenants at an event called Punggol Digital District: Connecting Smartness 2023.

These initiatives include the setting up of a fintech innovation lab between UOB and SIT that aims to foster joint innovation, training and development, and applied research.

Separately, there is also an agreement between TMCC and SIT to inculcate entrepreneurship through ideation challenges where students come up with digital advertising solutions.

In addition, both UOB and TMCC have internship programmes that will benefit SIT undergraduates through what Mr Gan described as a “full-fledged applied learning environment”.

Mr Gan said Singapore remains an attractive place for technology businesses due to initiatives such as PDD, as the country continues to enhance its value proposition through investment in both infrastructure and the development of human capital.

He noted that even with the recent wave of tech layoffs, “our digital economy continues to offer tremendous growth potential and Singapore remains well positioned to weather the current challenges”.

For UOB chief executive officer Wee Ee Cheong, the investment in PDD reinforces “our commitment to grow our Singapore core and support our customers” at home and across Asean.

When the bank’s 300,000 sq ft tower is ready, some 3,000 staff in technology, innovation and digital roles will move in.

In another initiative, UOB and JTC agreed to collaborate in a decarbonisation drive that combines JTC’s strengths and UOB’s sustainability capabilities. They will jointly conduct outreach capacity-building workshops for local industrialists in PDD and beyond.

Meanwhile, both TMCC and Delteq are expected to move their operations into the business park by mid-2024 and 2025 respectively.

TMCC chief commercial officer Henry Goh said that he is looking forward to working with SIT students on real-world problems through hackathons that will generate fresh ideas to drive the business.