Speech by Minister Chee Hong Tat at Canberra Day's Charity Walk

Mr Gabriel Lam, Grassroots Adviser for Canberra, Sembawang GRC
Residents of Canberra
Ladies and Gentlemen

A very good afternoon to everyone. I am delighted to join all of you at this year's Canberra Charity Walk.

This Charity Walk is an annual event that brings the Canberra community together for a meaningful cause, to support organisations such as Sunshine Welfare Action Mission (SWAMI) Home and Singapore Christian Home, which care for our seniors and foster a strong sense of community.

This is very much in line with what we want to achieve through the Age Well SG initiative. This initiative is a nationwide effort to enhance housing, transport and healthcare, so that our seniors can age well within the community.

Many of us have elderly family members, neighbours and friends whom we care deeply about. We want them to keep healthy, stay active, and remain connected to the community and their loved ones. Beyond supporting partners like SWAMI Home and Singapore Christian Home, we are also enhancing the living environment in different neighbourhoods across Singapore, to enable our seniors to live independently and actively. We do this by listening to feedback from residents to understand your needs and your preferences. We will work with our residents to see how we can shape our neighbourhoods together, along with our community leaders.

Neighbourhood Renewal Programme

One way we are doing this is through the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme, or NRP. This is a programme that was introduced in 2007 and is now coming to almost 20 years. The NRP helps to refresh our HDB blocks and neighbourhood spaces, making them more pleasant and functional for residents. To date, a total of 246 projects has been selected across 16 batches.

Since last year, HDB has included more senior-friendly enhancements under the NRP. This is because we have an ageing population and we want to ensure our NRP also evolve with times. These include wellness gardens, seating areas and dementia-friendly wayfinding features. These provide communal spaces for our seniors to interact and bond with their neighbours. Elements within these spaces have also been designed and planned to help our seniors move around safely and navigate confidently around their neighbourhoods.

HDB and other partner agencies work closely with residents to shape these improvements throughout the NRP process. The Town Councils engage residents through various platforms, including exhibitions and surveys, to seek your views on what are the improvements that you would like to see. Where feasible, the ideas from residents will be incorporated into the final design proposals.

This afternoon, I am very happy to announce that we are rolling out a new batch of NRP projects with a total budget of over $130 million. This will cover 14 Town Councils, 17 projects and benefit close to 20,000 households. One of the projects is right here in Canberra, covering Blocks 300, 302 to 311 Canberra Road and Blocks 312 to 318 Sembawang Vista.

Silver Upgrading Programme

For estates that have benefited from past upgrading programmes and therefore will not be going through NRP, we introduced the Silver Upgrading Programme, or SUP. This was done in 2024 with the purpose to ensure that these estates will also benefit from senior-friendly enhancements. Since its launch, about 14,400 households have benefited from the SUP.

Last year, we announced the second batch of SUP in several precincts in Ang Mo Kio, Toa Payoh and Bukit Merah. The third batch of SUP will be progressively rolled out to an additional 10 precincts in Ang Mo Kio, Bukit Merah and Queenstown later this year. This will benefit another 9,000 households.

In selecting precincts for SUP, we prioritise those with a higher proportion of soon-to-be seniors aged 55 and above and seniors aged 65 and above. HDB is looking to expand the SUP to other precincts in more towns including Bedok, Clementi and Kallang-Whampoa in the next batch. We will share more details when ready.

Like the NRP, the SUP is also guided by residents' feedback, to ensure that the enhancements will meet the needs of the community. We encourage our seniors and our residents to share feedback on what are some of the senior-friendly enhancements that you would like to see, and to participate together with us in the Community Improvement Walks that are organised for your estates. I recently did one for my residents in Toa Payoh. During these walks, seniors can highlight what enhancements they would like to see - whether it is more spaces to keep active, opportunities to interact with their neighbours or safer pathways with barrier-free access. For precincts in Ang Mo Kio, Toa Payoh, Jalan Besar and Kebun Baru, common suggestions have included elderly fitness stations, community gardens and sheltered ramps. These are also some of the ideas that you can bring up if you would like to see them under NRP for Canberra.

Conclusion

These efforts reflect our commitment to building inclusive, senior-friendly neighbourhoods for everyone. Achieving this outcome requires all of us - community partners, grassroots leaders and residents, to play a part and work together. What we are all doing here this afternoon, coming together to support our seniors, this is the kind of kampung spirit that will bring us closer together as one community. As Adviser Gabriel Lam mentioned earlier, especially when times are tough, when the external world is more uncertain and volatile, we must remain more united and cohesive, and look after one another.

Please allow me to say a few words in Mandarin.

各位居民，非常高兴能和大家一起出席这个活动。我们之前推出了乐龄SG计划，协助年长者在熟悉的社区里，能够健康活跃地原地养老。建屋局也对邻区更新计划 (NRP) 做出了相应的调整，在进行翻新的时候，增设亲乐龄设施。

我今天很高兴宣布，政府将拨款超过1亿3千万元，资助邻区更新计划下的新一批组屋。这些组屋分布在14个市镇，预计会惠及近2万户家庭。我们今天所在的坎贝拉邻里社区也是受惠的项目之一。

之前已经翻新的组屋，它们不会有NRP，可是它们会有另外一个项目，那就是乐龄翻新计划 (SUP)，目的是要确保居住在这些组屋的年长者也能够享有亲乐龄设施。建屋局在规划下一批受惠的邻里社区，其中包括勿洛，金文泰和加冷-黄埔。我们之后会公布更多细节。

我们在制定这些计划的时候，重点是要以居民的需要为中心，所以我鼓励大家和我们分享你们的宝贵意见和反馈，让我们知道你们觉得哪些设施可以更好地改善你们的居住环境。

我们会继续和大家一起携手打造一个具有包容性的邻里社区。所谓远亲不如近邻，我也希望大家能够继续发挥守望相助的甘榜精神，一起创造一个温暖宜居的居住环境。

现在外面的世界动荡不安，大家可能会觉得担心。但外面的世界越乱，我们新加坡国内就越要保持团结，上下一心。只有这样，我们才能够一起照顾好所有的国人。虽然大家现在看天色感觉好像快要下雨了，但大家不用怕，因为阳光总在风雨后。不管风多大、雨多大，政府会和大家风雨同舟。大家记得去年黄循财总理在国庆群众大会演讲时，提到一首福建歌《一支小雨伞》。歌曲的前面一段唱出了我们要互相照顾的重要理念。碰到风风雨雨的时候，我们必须互相照顾，我们必须团结一致，我们必须万众一心，这样才能更好地照顾我们的居民，为我们国家接下来的发展铺好路。

谢谢大家。