New It Security Authority to safeguard Singapore against cyber threats

New IT Security Authority to safeguard Singapore against cyber threats

By S Ramesh,

SINGAPORE: Singapore is taking steps to harden its national IT infrastructure against cyber-terrorism and cyber-espionage.

A new unit called the Singapore Infocomm Technology Security Authority or SITSA will be set up from October 1 to oversee efforts to safeguard the nation against infocomm technology security threats.

SITSA will be a division within the Internal Security Department (ISD) and be headed by Mr Ng Hoo Ming. This is the first time ISD is revealing the name of its officer.

It’s a volatile landscape out there for the IT industry. Industry figures show nearly 12 million computers were hacked by cyber criminals last year and close to 23,500 new infected web pages are discovered daily.

Michelle Dennedy, chief governance office, Sun Microsystems Inc, said: “The same distributive computing which facilitates commerce can also damage it. There are different types of attacks and attackers.

“It is easier than ever to be an anonymous person trying to cause havoc. At the same time we need to be strategic in planning what are our vulnerabilities”

For Singapore, Minister K.Shanmugam said the country needs to adopt a more proactive strategy to anticipate and neutralise emerging threats.

Mr Shanmugam said: “We have decided there needs to be a national level organisation that really looks at it holistically and brings all the different public sector areas together and focus intensely on key infrastructure like power, water supplies, communication. These are areas prone to attack.

“The people in charge of promoting these services will definitely look at security but it is good to have an agency that is solely focused on the security aspects and looks across sectors.”

The new government agency will also enhance Singapore’s planning, preparedness and response against any major external cyber attack.

The Singapore government will not be working alone in the area of enhancing the national IT infrastructure security.

It will also be working closely with the private sector in organising cyber security briefings and exercises so that both sides can exchange ideas to further enhance the cyber defence capabilities.

Mr Shanmugam continued: “Let’s take a scenario where you actually have an attack. Many of the infrastructure are controlled by the private sector and you will need the private sector professionals to come and help. You can’t be doing it for the first time when you are under attack.

“You need to bring them earlier, prepare your lines, harden the targets and then make sure you are able to react in case an attack comes about. So we need to work together.”

So from next year, the Singapore Infocomm Technology Security Authority will conduct cyber security exercises on a regular basis so that gaps can be identified and the response to recover from such attacks can be improved. - CNA/vm

Source : Channel NewsAsia - 01 October 2009

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Nearly 1.2m sq ft of new office space added in Q3, says DTZ

Nearly 1.2m sq ft of new office space added in Q3, says DTZ
By Jonathan Peeris, 938LIVE

SINGAPORE: An estimated record 1.19 million square feet of new office space was added in the third quarter of this year, according to the latest Singapore Property Market Report by consultant DTZ.

This increased the overall office stock by two per cent. The new supply in the third quarter was more than last year’s total new supply of 1.14 million square feet.

Newly completed offices included Mapletree Anson, 2HR, 71 Robinson Road and two transitional offices at Scotts Road.

The new supply resulted in an islandwide average office occupancy easing by 1.3 percentage points to 91.5 per cent in the third quarter.

The fall in office rents has also moderated in the quarter. Average monthly gross rents of prime offices in Raffles Place fell by 12.4 per cent to S$8.50 per square foot per month in the third quarter. This was a smaller decline than the 19.2 per cent drop recorded in the second quarter.

Private industrial rents also saw their rate of decline easing. Rent for first-storey private conventional industrial space fell just 2.4 per cent to S$2 per square foot per month in contrast to the 6.8 per cent decline in Q2.

Rents in other industrial spaces, including business and science parks, continued to fall but moderated from the previous quarter. - 938LIVE

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Source : Channel NewsAsia - 01 October 2009

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Industrial property rents fall for 4th straight quarter

Industrial property rents fall for 4th straight quarter

But Q3 drop is smaller than Q2’s; gap with office rentals narrows

By KALPANA RASHIWALA

PRIVATE industrial property rents fell for the fourth consecutive quarter in the three months ended September, although the pace of declines eased.

Data from DTZ Research shows that the average gross monthly rental value for first-storey private conventional industrial space fell 2.4 per cent to $2 per square foot in Q3 from $2.05 psf in Q2.

The drop was smaller than the 6.8 per cent slide seen in Q2. Similarly, the average rent for upper-storey space slipped 5.9 per cent to $1.60 psf in the latest quarter, smaller than Q2’s 8.1 per cent.

DTZ noted that the rental slide for high-tech industrial properties, which include business park and science park space, also moderated in the third quarter. After a 12.8 per cent drop in Q2, the average monthly rent for such space declined 5.9 per cent to $3.20 psf in Q3.

From their peak in Q3 last year, average monthly rents of first-storey and upper-storey private conventional industrial space have slipped 14.9 per cent and 22 per cent respectively. The average high-tech industrial rental value has lost 28.9 per cent over the same period.

However, office rentals have fallen even more substantially than that and as a result, the gap between high-tech and office rents in suburban locations narrowed significantly in Q3.

Data from DTZ shows that the average monthly high-tech industrial rental value of $3.20 psf in Q3 was just 8.6 per cent lower than the $3.50 psf monthly average rent for offices in Tampines Finance Park.

‘Despite the narrower rental gap, many occupiers are unlikely to relocate from high-tech industrial space back to office space. The relative rental stability of high-tech industrial space compared to the volatility in office rents is a consideration for occupiers taking a long-term perspective,’ DTZ said.

Chua Chor Hoon, head of South-east Asia Research, said: ‘Rents for industrial space are likely to remain weak going into 2010, due to the large incoming supply and weak demand.’

About 27.1 million square foot of private industrial space are in the pipeline, due to be completed by 2013. Of this, an estimated 10.4 million sq ft is expected to enter the market in the current half, including major projects such as Northstar@AMK, The Kendall and DBS Asia Hub.

Source : Business Times - 01 October 2009

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From ‘fractions of condo’ to a new tack

From ‘fractions of condo’ to a new tack

Primespace is now trying to sell 2 other properties by tender

By EMILYN YAP

(SINGAPORE) A company which was marketing ’shares’ in condominium units just a few weeks back has adopted a new tack, and is now putting apart-ments up for tender.

Following a model similar to that of an unlisted property trust, Primespace Investments Pte Ltd initially promoted ‘fractional ownership’ in two studio apartments, one at One-North Residences and another at One Shenton.

As BT reported on Monday, the apartments would be bought and held by other private limited companies, and investors would pay for shares in those vehicles. This is an unusual way of selling residential property in Singapore.

Each of the vehicles’ share capital would be split into 15 lots. A lot in the company holding the One-North unit would cost US$62,000; a lot in that which owns the One Shenton unit would cost US$110,000.

Primespace has since revamped its website, which is no longer marketing ‘fractional ownership’ in condominium units. It is now trying to sell two other apartments through tender. This is again an uncommon sale method.

One apartment is a two-bedder at One Shenton and the other is a three-bedder at Treasure Place off South Buona Vista Road. Interested bidders can obtain the tender documents or find out more about the units only by sending Primespace an email message.

Bidders will have to mail the tender documents and deposits back to the company.

Primespace is also inviting property owners to register their units for sale via tender. An interested seller has to set a reserve price, and the unit would be considered sold at the end of the tender exercise once the highest bid exceeds this price.

The company claims that properties can be ’sold faster and at a better price’ through this route, as compared with the usual way of getting property agents to market units.

Primespace will charge a commission fee of 0.8-1 per cent of the final sale price. Property agents can charge anything from 0.5-2 per cent depending on the home’s popularity and sale price.

The claim that properties sell faster and better through tenders is debatable, says a property market insider. A lot depends on how actively the company promotes the apartments, and how attractive the units are to draw bids, he says.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic real estate lecturer Nicholas Mak adds that the speed of sale also depends on the duration of the tender. He points out that companies conducting tender exercises will have to make sure that they can enforce the bids which come in.

Nevertheless, selling apartments through tender would seem less complicated than selling ‘fractional ownership’ in them, he says.

Source : Business Times - 01 October 2009

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Jurong Island weighs options as land runs out

Jurong Island weighs options as land runs out

Choice between floating facilities, land reclamation to be made soon

By RONNIE LIM

(SINGAPORE) Jurong Island is running out of land and Singapore will decide early next year on how to augment space at the oil and petrochemicals hub that houses biggies such as ExxonMobil and Shell. One option is to build large floating facilities there to store oil, while further land reclamation is another possibility.

As it is, 75 per cent of the island’s 3,000 hectares has been taken up or reserved by oil and petrochemical investors, a JTC Corporation spokeswoman told BT yesterday, adding that ‘JTC is in discussions with companies for the remaining 25 per cent’.

It was only last Friday that JTC celebrated the completion of Phases 3 and 4 of reclamation, which added 1,500ha and doubled the total land available at the highly integrated island complex. And so far, 95 investors have ploughed in more than S$31 billion there so far.

But already, some companies which had earlier postponed investments because of the global downturn will be resuming their projects soon, JTC chairman Cedric Foo said last week, without citing names.

Germany’s Lanxess recently indicated that it expects to start building its over S$800 million synthetic rubber plant around mid-2011. India’s GMR also hopes to restart the long-stalled S$1.2 billion Island Power cogeneration project once it secures gas feedstock, while Jurong Aromatics Corporation’s US$2 billion petrochemical complex should be underway, once it completes its financing.

Meantime, oil trader Hin Leong is still in discussions with JTC on its expansion plans for the S$650 million Universal Terminal, while Tuas Power and Sembcorp Cogen plan to build more cogeneration capacity to provide utilities like steam and power.

Mr Foo said that to optimise land use there, JTC has gone underground to build the S$890 million first phase of the Jurong Rock Cavern to store oil and ‘will soon be going out to sea’ as it is exploring building very large floating structures (VLFS) also for oil storage.

JTC’s Phase 1 studies, completed in late 2007, showed such floating storage to be technically feasible and comparable in cost to land-based oil storage.

And it will now decide whether to build the VLFS depending on the outcome of the Phase 2 study which will be completed next March, the JTC spokeswoman said yesterday.

Phase 2 covers possible sites, environmental impact, engineering design, business model and security of the VLFS - each of which would store as much oil as a very large crude carrier (VLCC).

‘We will continue to explore various options,’ the spokeswoman said, when asked what JTC intends next, should the floating storage idea prove a no-go.

While she declined to elaborate, one option is understood to include further land reclamation - as petrochemical investors would still want to be located on Jurong Island to enjoy all the synergies like raw materials and infrastructure available from the integration there.

As for floating oil storage, JTC’s Phase 1 studies showed that for a VLFS to be viable, it should have a minimum storage of 300,000 cubic metres - equivalent to the capacity of a big tanker. A VLFS would comprise two rectangular modules, each measuring 180m by 15m and with 150,000 cu m of storage. Preliminary cost estimates came to at least S$180 million.

Meanwhile, construction proper of the first phase of Jurong Rock Cavern is starting this year, with the first two caverns providing 480,000 cu m expected to be ready in the first half of 2013. The entire Phase 1, comprising five caverns, will provide 1.47 million cu m of storage when completed in 2014.

Source : Channel NewsAsia - 01 October 2009

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