KALLANG SPORTS HUB

KALLANG SPORTS HUB:

(Assistance for consortium given project delay):

* 4. *Mdm Ho Geok Choo asked the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports given the strategic aim of the Kallang Sports Hub project to broaden future growth and employment opportunities for Singaporeans, whether the Government will prevent any further project delays and make credit more readily available to the Singapore Sports Hub Consortium.

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The Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports (Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon) (for the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports): Mr Speaker, Sir, the Sports Hub Project is a public-private-partnership (PPP) project, where the consortium that has been awarded the project would tap on the financial markets to provide the necessary funds to build the infrastructure and carry out the programming.

The Government would, in turn, pay the consortium for delivering and operating the facilities, through annual payments over a five-year period. Given the current conditions in the financial markets, the consortium has found it difficult to raise the necessary amount of funds to start the project.

The Government is in active discussion with the consortium to address this and options on how to move the project forward. Discussions are still on-going. When ready, we would make an announcement on how we intend to proceed with the project.

Mdm Ho Geok Choo: Just two supplementary questions. One, does the Government have any final deadline beyond which the Sports Hub Project cannot be further postponed? And if so, when that would be?

The second question: can the Ministry provide an analysis of the potential lost revenue from deferred or lost sporting events because of these delays, which currently total two years, from the original completion date of 2010, to 2012?

The Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (Dr Vivian Balakrishnan): Mr Speaker, Sir, may I answer the supplementary questions?

Mr Speaker: Yes.

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Dr Vivian Balakrishnan: Sir, I hope Members will appreciate that the negotiations are still ongoing, and I do not want to make any public announcement on deadlines or on analysis of losses, because that will compromise our negotiating position.