Commentary Task ; Orchard Road Facelift

Orchard Road is already one of the world’s premier shopping streets and is known as the heart of Singapore for some people. To maintain and even make it better, The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has worked with various stakeholders. STB has spent S$40 million on it, however many Singaporeans have commented that it is not worth as S$40 million. 40 out of people polled along Orchard Road by LifeStyle did not notice anything different.

For a country like Singaporean, I believe that the government is doing all they can do. Singaporean which is the smallest country in the world can be going this far,becoming one of the most prosperous country, because of the hardworking government. Like what Mr. Andrew Phua, STB's director of tourism shopping and dining, had explained that many Singaporean still had not been recognizing the real function of the change that had been made on Orchard Road. For example, one of the Singaporean said that the flower totems are annoying because they block the view of the pedestrian. However, after clarifying with Mr. Phua, the media found that those flower totems are designed for safety and are heat-strengthened. In addition, when the glass is hit by hard objects, it will not shatter but will remain intact with cracks on the panel to mitigate potential danger to the public. On behalf of that, Mr. Phua also said that it is the rational amount of money to be spent as it is also included the cost of the works which included state-of-the-art lighting, power upgrading, landscaping, repaving works and consultant's fees, etc.

On the other hand however many people said that the amount of money can be used for more useful changes. Many bad comments were coming up such as the amount of money should be only one twentieth of it is needed.