Recognising the importance of family planning to national development, the government organised Singapore’s first national family planning campaign in 1960. The campaign aimed to raise public awareness on the need for family planning and the disadvantages of having ...

The State Development Plan, also referred to as the First Development Plan, was the first official blueprint for the economic development of Singapore after it attained self-government in 1959. Produced by the Ministry of Finance, the plan aimed to solve the pressing ...

The Raffles Town Plan, also known as the Jackson Plan, refers to Stamford Raffles’s plan for the town of Singapore formulated in late 1822. Lieutenant Philip Jackson drew up a plan according to Raffles’s vision and the resultant plan was published in 1828. The ...

Urban planning in Singapore began in the 1820s when Stamford Raffles implemented a land-use plan later known as the Raffles Town Plan. However, for most of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, Singapore’s physical growth was haphazard and largely ...

The Singapore Green Plan (SGP) is Singapore's first environmental blueprint. Released in 1992 by the then Ministry of the Environment (now known as the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources or MEWR), its objective is to ensure that Singapore could develop ...

Urban planning in Singapore aims to optimise the use of the country’s scarce land resources for the diverse needs of both current and future generations of residents. It involves allocating land for competing uses such as housing, commerce, industry, parks, transport, ...

Development guide plans (DGPs) are detailed short- to medium-term land-use plans completed between 1993 and 1998 as part of a comprehensive review of the Master Plan 1985. The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), the national land-use planning agency, divided Singapore ...

The Next Lap is a plan for Singapore’s long-term development. It includes ideas and proposals to make Singapore a nation of distinction. The term has also been used to refer to the period of time when Goh Chok Tong took over the premiership from Lee Kuan Yew in ...

Woodlands is a planning area in the north of Singapore. During the early colonial period, Woodlands was an agricultural area with plantation estates. It then became a major transport link between Singapore and Johor, and in the 1970s, the area was developed as ...

Located in the northwestern part of Singapore, Bukit Panjang is considered a planning area under the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s Master Plan 2014. It comprises seven subzones: Senja, Saujana, Fajar, Bangkit, Jelebu, Dairy Farm and Nature Reserve. The area is ...

Ulu Pandan is an area situated in the central region of Singapore. As a subzone within the Bukit Timah planning area, Ulu Pandan is bounded by Ulu Pandan Road and Holland Road in the north, Ulu Pandan River in the south, and North Buona Vista Road in the east. ...

Simei is one of the five subzones of the Tampines planning area located in the eastern region of Singapore. It is bounded by the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE), Upper Changi Road East and Bedok Park Connector. Measuring 225 ha in size, Simei makes up 11 percent of ...

Tan Beng Swee (b. 1828, Singapore–d. 4 November 1884, Singapore) was a wealthy Straits Chinese merchant and philanthropist. As the second-generation patriarch of the prominent Tan family, he served as a leader of the Chinese communities in both Malacca and Sin ...

Song Hoot Kiam (b. 1830, Malacca–d. 7 October 1900, Singapore), after whom Hoot Kiam Road is named, is reputedly the forefather of the oldest Straits Chinese Christian family in Singapore. Influenced by sinologist and missionary James Legge, Song travelled to England ...

Joseph Aaron Elias (b. 1881, Calcutta, India–d. 16 July 1949, Singapore), also known as Joe Elias, was a successful entrepreneur and well-known personality in Singapore’s Jewish community. He held offices as a justice of peace and municipal commissioner of Singapore. ...

The Church of the Holy Family, which is located at the junction of East Coast and Chapel roads in Katong, has been a centre of activity for the Roman Catholic community in the East Coast area since it was built in 1932. The church's beginnings were humble, starting ...

The two-child policy was a population control measure introduced by the Singapore government during the 1970s to encourage couples to have no more than two children. It was part of the second Five-Year National Family Planning Programme (1972–75) that was unveiled ...

George Lien Ying Chow (b. 2 August 1906, Guangdong, China–d. 6 August 2004, Singapore) was an entrepreneur, banker and philanthropist. He is best known as the founder of Overseas Union Bank (OUB), one of Southeast Asia’s largest banks before it was acquired by ...

Franklin Charles Gimson (Sir) (b. 10 September 1890, Barrow-upon-Soar, Leicestershire, England–d. 13 February 1975, Yorkshire, England) was Singapore's first postwar governor and commander-in-chief from 1946 to 1952. He was often associated with the rehabilitation ...

G. D. (George Dromgold) Coleman (b. 1795, Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland–d. 27 March 1844, Singapore) was Singapore’s pioneer colonial architect. He became the first Government Superintendent of Public Works when he was appointed in 1833. Coleman planned, surveyed ...