Wong Siew Ying

Temasek Holdings-owned Surbana Jurong has teamed up with a renowned architecture firm to fur-ther deepen its design capabilities and take on “iconic projects” in the Asia-Pacific.

It is partnering Safdie Architects to form Safdie Surbana Jurong (SSJ) to jointly pursue major residential, commercial and institutional

projects that require special plan-ning and design expertise.

Surbana Jurong, an urban devel-opment and infrastructure consul-tancy, told The Straits Times that SSJ’s first project would be an inte-grated resort in Vietnam.

The design effort will be led by Safdie Architects’ Boston office, with architect Moshe Safdie provid-ing design leadership for all projects undertaken by SSJ, the two firms said in a joint statement yesterday.

Mr Safdie is behind what is ar-guably one of Singapore’s most recognisable landmarks – the Ma-rina Bay Sands integrated resort.

“Through this collaboration, we

will be able to provide world-class design and expert project delivery to a broad array of clients in Asia,” said Mr Wong Heang Fine, group chief executive of Surbana Jurong.

A dedicated team at Surbana Ju-rong will work directly with Safdie Architects to produce detailed engi-

neering and architectural designs, provide overall project manage-ment, and lead the construction doc-umentation and administration.

The firm said this will allow its younger architects and designers to learn directly from Mr Safdie and his team.

Surbana Jurong aims to be Asia’s consultancy powerhouse on the back of the region’s growing needs in infrastructure, and is involved in a range of public- and private-sec-tor projects. They included Biopolis Phase 1 and Health City Novena here and MKH World in Kuala Lumpur. The firm has also been ap-pointed to draw up a masterplan to develop Chongqing into western China’s logistics hub.

Mr Wong noted that Mr Safdie’s works have become “architectural icons and national landmarks”.

Apart from Marina Bay Sands, Mr Safdie has had a hand in several high-profile projects here, such as the upcoming Jewel at Changi Air-port and CapitaLand’s condo devel-opment Sky Habitat in Bishan.

Mr Safdie’s other notable projects include the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Habitat ’67 in Montreal, Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem and the Crys-tal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas.

On the tie-up with Surbana Ju-rong, Mr Safdie said: “Our teams have unique, complementary capa-bilities. Together we can expand the realisation of significant pro-jects, embracing our design princi-ples across Asia.”

wongsy@sph.com

Surbana-Safdie Architects tie-up eyes big projects

Wong Wei Han

Most Singapore employees want to work for companies with good ethics but they are concerned that compliance policies are too vague and inconsistent, a survey has found. It noted that this concern has resulted partly in a lack of un-derstanding of ethics among some millennial employees.

While 92 per cent of Singapore re-spondents said they want to work for a company with a strong compli-ance culture, 40 per cent believed their firms’ code of conduct had lit-tle impact on how people behaved and 42 per cent thought their se-

nior management would ignore un-ethical behaviour to achieve rev-enue targets.

This mismatch is more apparent among millennials – those aged 25 to 34 – noted the survey, which polled 1,698 employees of all age groups in 14 Asia-Pacific countries or areas, including 105 here, be-tween November and February.

“In the Asia-Pacific, 83 per cent of millennials – 69 per cent of mil-lennials in Singapore – said they were unwilling to work for, or would leave an organisation in-volved in bribery or corruption,” said Ms Belinda Tan, EY’s partner for fraud investigation and dispute services. “Yet they do not fully un-

derstand what constitutes unethi-cal behaviour.”

The biennial survey by financial consultancy firm EY found that mil-lennial respondents (45 per cent) in Singapore are more likely than any other age group (21 per cent) to be prepared to offer cash payments to win or retain business – an act of bribery. This is higher than the 38 per cent average for millennials across the region.

The figures suggest that, despite years of investment into compli-ance policies, ethical standards in the corporate sector may have not improved accordingly. “That’s basi-cally due to a lack of clarity of poli-cies, and inconsistency of their im-

plementation. This causes confu-sion and frustration among employ-ees,” said Mr Reuben Khoo, EY’s Asean leader for fraud investiga-tion and dispute services.

Mixed messages sent out by the management, including promoting unethical employees, have even created distrust, he warned.

About 80 per cent of all respon-dents in Singapore said their firms had a whistle-blowing hotline, but 22 per cent said they would rather report misconduct to law enforce-ment hotlines or on social media.

There is now a “wake-up call” for employers to revisit their compli-ance programmes, invest more in education and lead by example, Ms Tan said.

Another area that requires atten-tion is cyber security, with around half of regional and Singapore re-spondents saying their firms had no policies against using personal de-vices for work-related activities.

whwong@sph.com.sg

A group of central banks yesterday welcomed the publication of the FX Global Code, a single global code of conduct for the wholesale foreign exchange market.

The code was launched yesterday after it was endorsed at the Global Foreign Exchange Committee meeting in London on Wednesday.

The code has been developed through a collaborative process be-tween the Bank for International Settlements’ Foreign Exchange Working Group and private-sector market participants.

The code sets out principles that promote a robust, fair, liquid, open and transparent market, under-pinned by high ethical standards. The code is voluntary and applies to wholesale FX market participants.

The Bank of Korea, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Reserve Bank of India said in a statement that they strongly sup-port the principles of good prac-tices within the code and will be en-gaging local market participants to promote adherence to it.

Given the rising volume of FX ac-tivity taking place in Asia, they en-courage all market participants to adhere to the principles of the code.

Market participants can show their commitment to stick to the code through the Statement of Commitment published as part of the code. The code and informa-tion related to adherence can be found at www.globalfxc.org.

WASHINGTON • US central bank-ers say it will “soon” be time to raise the key lending rate again, ac-cording to minutes from the last Federal Reserve meeting released on Wednesday.

Monetary policymakers say they may wait, however, to see if weak growth recorded earlier this year was only temporary, which seems to open the possibility that the next rate increase could be delayed until after next month.

Fed officials said planned spend-ing by President Donald Trump’s administration could boost the economy more than currently

forecast, although details and tim-ing of the projects “remain highly uncertain”.

Some central bankers also “ex-pressed concerns” over the adminis-tration’s plans to ease bank regula-tions, which “could increase risks to financial stability”, according to the minutes.

At the meeting from May 2 to 3, the Fed’s policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted unanimously to keep the federal funds rate in a range of 0.75 per cent to 1 per cent, justas most analysts had expected,and downplayed the tepid gross

domestic product growth in the first quarter as mostly due to “tran-sitory factors”.

Assuming the economy continues to perform as expected, with contin-ued job and wage growth leading to a rebound in consumer spending and business investment, “most par-ticipants judged... it would soon be appropriate” to raise rates again, the minutes stated.

The central bank raised rates in March and December, amid a wave of optimism in the early days of Mr Trump’s term with his promises of tax cuts, deregulation and big infra-structure spending.

Most analysts expect two more rate increases this year, likely at the next meeting from June 13 to 14, and again in September. However, the minutes surprisingly cast some doubt on that schedule.

“Members generally judged that it would be prudent to await addi-tional evidence indicating that the recent slowing in the pace of eco-nomic activity had been transitory before taking another step” to in-crease the benchmark interest rate.

“The May FOMC minutes con-firm that most members view the re-ported slowdown in Q1 GDP growth... as likely to be ‘transitory’

so they saw no need to shift their view that ‘gradual’ rate hikes likely will continue,” said Pantheon Macroeconomics’ Ian Shepherdson in a research note.

The first chance to look at one key piece of data will be on Mon-day, when the Commerce Depart-ment releases the personal income and spending report for last month.

Fed officials say the economy also is expected to see a boost from overseas demand for US exports, as “the risks stemming from global economic and financial develop-ments” have “receded further”, the minutes said. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Mr Moshe Safdie and Mr Wong Heang Fine at a signing ceremony yesterday for the partnership between Surbana and Safdie Architects. PHOTO: SURBANA JURONG

Man behind Marina Bay Sandsto provide design leadership

Ralph Lauren’s flagship store in Fifth Avenue in New York. If the US economy continues to perform as expected, with continued job and wage growth leading to a rebound in consumer spending and business investment, “most participants judged... it would soon be appropriate” to raise the key lending rate again, the minutes from the last Federal Reserve meeting stated. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

Employees value ethics but find policies confusing: Survey

US Fed: New rate hike likely coming soon

Central banks welcome new global FX code of conduct

C2 BUSINESS | THE STRAITS TIMES | FRIDAY, MAY 26, 2017 |