Monday, December 31, 2007

Red Cross to stop tsunami funding

The Singapore Red Cross Society, which established the Tidal Waves Asia Fund to help victims of the 2004 tsunami has decided to end the funding programme for various reconstruction projects.

A total of $88 million was raised and, so far, $83 million has been committed to rebuilding homes, schools and hospitals in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Maldives.

Society chairman Winston Choo said: "We will stop taking in more projects because I feel that we need $5 million to be set aside in the event that there is cost overrun."

He said the society has found that inflation has crept up "by leaps and bounds", as Today had reported two months ago.

New DBSS site launched in Bishan

The Housing and Development Board will launch the fourth site under the Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS) today. The 15,000-sq-m plot of land at Bishan Street 24 has a maximum allowable gross floor area of about 53,000 sq m, and the building height is restricted to 153m.

The site is a few streets away from Bishan MRT station and next to schools such as Catholic High, Raffles Institution and Raffles College.

The tender closes on Feb 19 and the successful bidder has 48 months from the date of the award to complete the project. Flats sold under the DBSS come with a 99-year lease and will be offered to buyers under similar HDB eligibility conditions as flats developed by HDB.

New contract for SIA CEO

Singapore Airlines CEO Chew Choon Seng (picture) is getting a new service contract, which supersedes his current one due to expire in June 2009.

The SIA board announced yesterday that his new three-year contract would run from next month to December 2010, and thanked the CEO and his management team for SIA's "excellent performance" the past four years and its record profits in the 2006-07 financial year.

The company also announced two new management appointments.

Mr Mak Swee Wah is promoted from senior vice-president (planning) to executive vice-president for operations and services, while Mr Ng Chin Hwee joins as executive vice-president for human resource and planning from listed subsidiary Sats, where he was CEO.

Source: Today Online

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