To stay ahead of competition, Jurong Point Shopping Centre on Wednesday announced new initiatives to refresh parts of the mall and beef up customer service.

The largest suburban mall here, which turns 18 this year, will renovate its premises and change the line-up of its tenants to create eight new precincts within the mall that will cater to different types of shoppers.

They include areas designed for children, tech geeks and sports enthusiasts.

A section styled after the bustling streets of Mongkok in Hong Kong, will be up first, by the middle of next year. It will feature emporiums, medical halls and stalls selling street food. The rest will be rolled out in phases over the next two years.

Ms Lynette Lee, senior marketing communications manager for Jurong Point, noted that the nearby Jurong Gateway area, which boasts commercial and retail spaces as well as upcoming housing developments, is "heating up".

She said: "Customers are exposed to more brands and choices.

"We felt that there is a need to keep pace with competition."

The mall will also tie up with Singapore Polytechnic to offer a joint service training programme for retail and food & beverage staff next year. Courses will include lessons on how staff can tap on social media to promote their businesses.

This is the first such collaboration of its kind here, and the mall aims to extend this to all its 2,500 staff within the next five years.

The mall now handles 5.5 million visitors a month and hopes to raise this by up to 20 per cent in two years.