At the National Day Rally, Prime
Minister Lawrence Wong made an unusual but important point
about land planning.
Of the
additional land to be created on
Pulau Tekong, about 500ha will be reserved for future civilian use - even though the Government has not decided what it will
eventually be used for.
The proposed western island
reflects the same logic. Rather
than committing the reclaimed
land to a single predetermined
use, Singapore would create space
that could support different
combinations of industry, power
generation and defence as future
needs evolve.
Its value therefore
lies not only in the additional land created, but also in the
choices it preserves. This is what PM Wong meant by planning 50, 70 or even 100 years ahead for generations not yet born.
But what does it mean to "create options" through land-use
planning, and why should leaving a use undecided be considered valuable rather than evidence of indecision?
Economists have a term for this:
option value. When future needs
are uncertain and present
decisions are difficult to reverse,
retaining the ability to choose later has value in itself.
The goal is not to postpone development
indefinitely, but to prevent
today's choices from unnecessarily closing off tomorrow's possibilities.
For further reading, please visit The Straits Times here where this article was first published on 27 August 2026.