Keppel CEO discloses ambition to build a floating city in Singapore

A floating city in Singapore may well become a reality, with Keppel Corporation exploring such nearshore urban developments.

Keppel chief executive officer Loh Chin Hua disclosed this at the World Cities Summit yesterday during a panel discussion about how cities can take the lead in responding to climate, social and technological change.

Speaking on how the private sector can work with governments to address issues like climate change, Mr Loh said: "We have the technology and capabilities to build floating cities which can address both land scarcity as well as the threat of rising sea levels in coastal areas. We are currently exploring how such nearshore developments can be built in Singapore."

He did not give any details.

Floating cities were among the examples cited by panellists on how cities build with an eye on the future and prepare for disruptions from pandemics and climate change.

Already, cities around the world have been building in anticipation of future problems, said the panellists at the dialogue moderated by Ambassador-at-Large Chan Heng Chee.

In China, for instance, the government has built a network of sponge cities to tackle urban flooding and water scarcity issues that may result from climate change, said the chief economist of China's Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Mr Yang Baojin.

A project is under way in the Spanish city of Bilbao to fit buildings with technology that will allow them to generate energy, and share unused energy with neighbouring buildings, said its mayor, Mr Juan Mari Aburto.

While the Covid-19 pandemic has hit cities hard and changed their look, it has also provided a chance for them to reinvent themselves, said Fukuoka City Mayor Soichiro Takashima and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank vice-president of policy and strategy Joachim von Amsberg.

Mr Takashima said adaptations to prepare cities for future pandemics can become a "new selling point" for them, such as the infectious diseases city plan put in place in Fukuoka, on the northern shore of Japan's Kyushu island.

The plan lays out how buildings can revamp ventilation systems and use touchless technology so that people can enter and leave a building, including using restrooms, without having to touch any fittings, he said.

In West Java, Indonesia, the pandemic has been a "game changer" as it has forced people to do things differently, said the province's governor, Mr Mochamad Ridwan Kamil.

He cited how fish farmers, who used to have to manually transport fish food daily, are now able to feed their fish remotely, with containers of food hooked to sensors, linked up on the Internet and controlled through a mobile phone. He added that cities should harness the momentum created by the pandemic.

Mr Chintan Raveshia from planning, design and engineering consultancy Arup said city planners and designers should remember to make cities feel like home even as they plan for them to be "fit for many futures".

Building social resilience and empowering people are what will make cities more resilient and ready to handle future disruptions, he added.

Mr Raveshia, who is Arup's leader of cities in South-east Asia, believes ensuring equity, such as equal access to housing, food and other resources, is key.

Another critical factor is how cities can ameliorate the injustice and social unrest sometimes caused by migration, through better city design, he added. "It's about bringing people together on the journey... and that is only possible when there is enough trust in the system."