By Shukry Rashid
The National Environment Agency (NEA) announced on 20 December 2016 that it has appointed NTUC Foodfare to manage seven hawker centres. The seven come in a bundle of five existing and two new hawker centres.
This announcement comes as NEA observed that the Bedok Interchange Hawker Centre, currently operated by Foodfare as a pilot since 2014, “has worked well”.
NEA also took into account the positive feedback received from hawkers from the Bedok Interchange Hawker Centre. These included Foodfare’s management approaches, responsiveness to hawker feedback, affordable food and a clean environment.
NEA said in a press release: “NEA believes that the bundle approach would offer the operator economies of scale and greater flexibility to experiment with new ideas and operational processes to further improve the vibrancy and operational efficiency of the hawker centres.”
Continued Work
For the five existing hawker centres, there will be no change to the way rentals are determined after Foodfare takes over the management from 1 July 2017.
Subsidised stallholders will also continue their current rental rates, while non-subsidised stallholders will continue to pay the prevailing market rates as assessed by professional valuers.
Foodfare is expected to take over the other two new hawker centres upon their completion in mid-2017.
Apart from the Bedok Interchange Hawker Centre, Foodfare is also currently managing the Bukit Panjang Hawker Centre and Market, which began operations in late 2015.
Existing Hawker Centres:
New Hawker Centres:
Source: NTUC This Week
