Transcript of speech by Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the launch of the Ang Mo Kio Town Council Master Plan on 15 March 2025.
各位居民，大家早上好！早安！
今天，宏茂桥市镇理事会将推出我们为宏茂桥所拟订的五年发展蓝图计划。
这几十年来，我们与居民们携手合作，共同为宏茂桥打造优美的生活环境。市镇理事会配合了各政府部门、商会等伙伴，积极地实行了许多项的计划。
过去的五年，也不例外。相信在宏茂桥各处，每个角落你们都已经看到，甚至开始使用了这些新的设施，包括新的汤申-东海岸地铁线和地铁站、新的公园、新的邻里设施， 例如：在2022年新开张的芬维尔民众俱乐部，这是颜添宝先生（做）的好工作。我们在各社区也刚翻新好，好几个巴刹和熟食中心，也建筑了很多连接各处的新的有盖走廊。还有市中心这里的新歇脚处和公民空间，以及孩子们很喜欢的游乐场等等。这个就是去年刚刚做好的。我很高兴看到居民很善用他们。
我们也为了照顾好乐龄人士，为他们增添了不少新的设施。宏茂桥乐龄人士特别多，所以我们必须照顾、体恤他们。这包括在31街的第一个“安心街道”和在哥本峇鲁115座的辅助生活计划。
我们也通过了乐龄易计划(EASE)，逐步改进了乐龄人士的居家设施。这就包括翻新厕所、增设扶手等等，让行动不方便的年长者和坐轮椅的人士，可以更安全、方便地在家中活动，避免摔倒受伤。去年我们推出了升级版的乐龄易计划(EASE 2.0) 。推出之后，在宏茂桥已经有1,300 多所居家受惠。
今天早上，从宏茂桥巴士转换站直接往返宏茂桥综合诊疗所的巴士服务 , 也已开始运行，从转换站绕一个圈子到综合诊疗所，回去转换站。自从新的宏茂桥综合诊疗所开幕之后，很多居民去诊所一趟，还需要走相当长的一段路，还要过宏茂桥六道。过马路去综合诊疗所，相当不方便。我们收到居民的反馈之后，积极与陆交局和巴士公司协商。协商需要一段时间，但是最后我们谈成了，找到一个解决方案。今天很高兴宣布：138M巴士正式开始服务了。
五年以来的多种项目，经过大家的包容和共同努力，现在已经一一落成了。这不仅改善了大家的生活环境和生活素质，也兑现了宏茂桥团队对居民的承诺。这让我感到欣慰。
市镇理事会接下来将把一本小册子计划书派给大家。就是这本小册子。大家可能已经看到了。书里记载了宏茂桥从2020到2025的五年发展成绩。每一个住户都将派发一本。上面还有一个QR Code，如果你扫描了，可以得到网上更方便的小册子。 希望你给朋友、其他的家人，并且给其他选区的居民，跟大家分享一下。我们宏茂桥是旧选区，可能也可以说是老选区了，可是还是焕然一新，还充满生气。明天肯定会更好！
除了过去五年来的发展成绩，这份计划书同时也将介绍宏茂桥接下来几年的发展计划，如：家居改进计划 (Home Improvement Programme) 将继续改进我们的组屋和住家。
社区里的各个邻里设施也将继续获得翻新， 例如：静山-实里达和杨厝港的民众俱乐部现在正在进行重建、改建。再过不久，就要竣工开幕了。杨厝港我看多两个月、三个月就要开幕了。静山-实里达也将不久做好了。
许多新的公共交通设施也正在建造中，例如：南北交通廊道。比如新的跨岛地铁线 (Cross Island Line), 将在宏茂桥增设三个新的地铁站。竣工后，居民就能够乘搭地铁，往东南西北，四通八达。
放眼未来，这许许多多项计划和工程，都会不断提升大家的生活水平，让大家的生活更方便，更美好。
未来的发展蓝图计划是否能够继续落实，将有赖于市镇理事会的领导和成员，以及居民们的通力合作。过去半个世纪，宏茂桥区里多方面的改善，是因为有了选民给予政府的重大委托，才能顺理成章、按部就班地进行。希望宏茂桥市镇理事会的努力，能够继续得到大家的支持。
希望我的团队能够继续得到大家的支持。让我们齐心协力，把宏茂桥打造成更温馨的家园。
接下来，让我用英语发言。
Good morning everybody, residents, friends, grassroots leaders, town council staff!
Thank you all for joining us this morning for the launch of the Ang Mo Kio Town Council Master Plan.
Ang Mo Kio’s improvement over the years
Your MPs − my team and I – we are committed to making Ang Mo Kio an even more vibrant, inclusive, and connected home for all of us.
Every year, we have been improving our town, building on it, and making it better.
When I first became an MP here in Teck Ghee 40 years ago, Ang Mo Kio was still quite a young new town. Many families had only recently moved into newly-built HDB flats − young couples, little kids. There were not so many amenities.
But year by year, we have built up Ang Mo Kio into the bustling town that it is today. Even in the last five years, we have made many improvements. Homes and neighbourhoods have been upgraded. Flats enhanced, lifts made more reliable, more covered walkways between blocks and across roads.
Residents now enjoy much better amenities. Like the new Fernvale CC (Community Centre), along with the Fernvale Hawker Centre and Market, which was opened in 2022. More upgraded markets and food centres − in Cheng San, in Chong Boon, in Teck Ghee, Kebun Baru and Mayflower. And we have more community spaces for families to enjoy, like the new water playground at Buangkok Square Park.
More elderly-friendly facilities. Like the Silver Zones and Friendly Streets – just like the one at Ang Mo Kio St 31 − which make the town safer for the elderly. We have wayfinding projects – like the specially-painted blocks at Yio Chu Kang − big bright colours, big fruits. I think we have got Jambu, Mangosteen, Durian, Banana – so that older people with mild dementia, they will not get lost, and they can find their way around. That is the reason for it, and it is also fun. Assisted-living projects like IDeAL@1151 in Kebun Baru, to allow seniors to live independently and support one another. It has also got nurses, and food support.
Our links have become more convenient. The new Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) now passes through Ang Mo Kio, and it is running in addition to the North-South Line. Mayflower and Lentor stations along the TEL opened last year. Residents, especially those living near the two stations, were long-suffering for five, six years while it was building − hammering, piling, pouring concrete in the middle of the night. Sorry, we had to do the work. But now it is done. Thank you very much.
The town has become greener. We have many more trees and shrubs planted. Last year, we planted 10,000 trees and shrubs. The kids, including the senior citizens – all of us − we chipped in, and we planted 10,000. This year, we hope to plant another 10,000. So year by year, we will make it greener, prettier, happier, healthier. We have new parks and new park connectors built or refreshed, like Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park refreshed; Thomson Park – I think built sometime in the last five years; Luxus Hills Park, just to name a few.
And we have more community gardens in the neighbourhoods. So many residents have green fingers, itchy green fingers. They want to go and plant something, grow something, make something beautiful. Grow some brinjal or papaya or belimbing. Something interesting, good to eat, which they can say, “I planted this myself.” Everytime I ask them, “Did you put insecticide?” They will say, “No, I put tender-loving care.”
So it is the way our community should be.
Here, we are launching the book, at Central Stage. In fact this was an upgrading project also. We did this over the last two or three years. And last year, the Town Council completed this project. This facility is one of them – a space which we can use for activities for events like this, for dancing, for parties. We have an upgraded kids playground nearby. It is very popular. We have a path coming up here, barrier-free. Places for old folks to sit, to rest with a bit of shelter so it is not too hot. And the shop facades are all spruced up, looking much better, and hopefully business also improves.
And it brings residents together too, because it is not just about the physical infrastructure, but also building a community and a home.
So we have in Ang Mo Kio, Active Ageing Centres and Senior Care Centres, running programmes to keep senior citizens active. We have community care initiatives to bring affordable healthcare and donated groceries to those who are needy. We have community celebrations to bring festive joy for all, to draw us together as One Heart, One Home.
So this Master Plan which we are launching today looks back at the many improvements we have made over the last five years. So that when you look through, you see some of the pictures – it reminds you of how our town has changed, and it gives you some idea of how our town will continue to upgrade and improve for many years to come.
We have some panels, some exhibitions to show some of the more salient items which you might be interested in. They are here today and it covers all of our divisions including Kebun Baru and Yio Chu Kang. And we will also be splitting up the panels and they will go around to the different neighbourhood centres and CCs. You will have a chance to bring your friends and family to look at them and give us your ideas – what you would like to see in the new Ang Mo Kio.
So the book is here, there is a QR code, you scan the QR code to get the online version. Please look at the online version, because I think the pictures look better on your phone. Please share it with your friends, family. And as I said in Chinese just now, share it with your neighbours and those who are in neighbouring constituencies. So everybody can see what Ang Mo Kio is like; why in the little red dot that is Singapore, there is an even littler red spot which is Ang Mo Kio.
Upcoming improvements
So what other things which are underway?
We have more improved homes under the Home Improvement Programme which will have elderly-friendly toilet fittings, new grille gates and doors. We will have upgraded electrical loads. So that you can put more equipment if you have more phones, more notebooks, more computers, more appliances at home. If you have aircon, you can use that without maxing out the load.
We will have better shared spaces, where residents can gather and kids can play. Like the upgraded Community Clubs in Cheng San-Seletar and Yio Chu Kang, which we are under renovation. And the new playgrounds and community spaces coming to Lentor Estate and Cactus Sunrise. So the private estates also have some upgrading, also participate in our town development.
We have more sheltered linkways, to make your daily commutes more comfortable.
Senior-friendly facilities and initiatives, like the Silver Upgrading Programme, which we are going to start soon in four precincts on the Chong Boon side which is in Cheng San-Seletar, with active ageing facilities like therapeutic gardens, fitness trails, and barrier-free access.
We have revitalised parks and expanded cycling paths like the new Ang Mo Kio Linear Park, and Lentor Park Connector.
Even shorter commutes, once the North-South Corridor and Cross Island Line are completed in a few years’ time.
Locally too, we have improved our local transport, our commuter services. There will be shorter waiting times for the Sengkang-Punggol LRT for residents in Fernvale and Jalan Kayu, once we expand the depot and new trains come. And this morning, we have just launched the new bus Service 138M, which will make it much easier for residents, especially the elderly and the less mobile, to go from the bus interchange to Ang Mo Kio Polyclinic and back, without having to walk so far and without having to cross Avenue 6, and without having to navigate the North-South Corridor works. Residents have been waiting for this for a long time. We have pushed hard for it, finally we have got it, and I am glad it is here.
Conclusion
So Ang Mo Kio should be a good place, a happy place, a healthy place to live.
We have laid out good plans on how we can continue to achieve this. They are all in the booklet, which I hope you can take some time to look at.
But most of all, we need all of you here to chip in, participate, make good use of all the things we have done – all the facilities we have built, and bring the town alive. Give us your views, your feedback, your suggestions. Help us to take care of Ang Mo Kio, help us to improve this place and work hand-in-hand with us to make Ang Mo Kio a town that we are all proud to call home.
Thank you very much.
https://www.pmo.gov.sg/Newsroom/SM-Lee-Hsien-Loong-at-the-Launch-of-the-Ang-Mo-Kio-Town-Council-Master-Plan-Mar-2025
