Surbana Jurong helping Philippine govt design smart city
Singapore consulting firm Surbana Jurong is helping the Philippine government prepare detailed design standards and guidelines for a 9,450ha "smart, green city" being developed north of Manila.
Surbana Jurong will refine the New Clark City's design, review agreements for providing water and power, and devise a framework for its long-term operation, according to the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA).
New Clark City, known as Clark Green City when it broke ground in April 2016, is in Capas town, 108km from Manila.
The BCDA is developing it into the Philippines' first "smart, green, disaster-resilient city", in partnership with the Japan Overseas Infrastructure Investment Corporation.
New Clark City will be bigger than Manhattan in New York by the time it is fully developed in 30 to 40 years with a population of about two million.
It is expected to contribute about 1.57 trillion pesos (S$40 billion) a year to the national economy.
It sits between two former US military compounds: Clark air base, now a thriving free port; and Subic naval base, now a trading hub and economic zone north of Manila.
President Rodrigo Duterte's administration has been backing private efforts to develop new urban centres across the Philippines to better disperse economic opportunities and de-clog Manila, an already overcrowded city with an overstretched infrastructure that causes massive traffic jams and experiences frequent breakdowns of public services.
Manila is the densest city in the world, with 18,000 people per sq km, twice New York's level.
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