JB-Singapore RTS Link: Singaporeans will spend $1bn more in JB

Will the Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link sound the death knell for smaller, home-grown businesses when it opens in a few months?

A new study, which was released on July 16, highlighted how Singaporeans are slated to spend $1.05 billion more across the Causeway in 2027. But visitors from the other side aren’t expected to send as much business our way. JB visitors are projected to spend about $756 million more.

The Singapore Business Federation (SBF), the Restaurant Association of Singapore and the Singapore Retailers Association jointly commissioned the study to look at how the RTS Link could reshape consumer spending, tourism flows and business competitiveness in Singapore’s retail and food and beverage sectors.

Can local retail and F&B businesses, which are already struggling with rent and manpower costs, cope with the added pressure?

In this episode, I speak with:

• Musa Fazal, the chief policy and operating officer at the SBF, and

• Ang Yuit, president of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, who moved to JB 18 months ago.

We discuss whether expanding the eligibility and amount of the CDC Vouchers Scheme is just a Band-Aid, and if the Government will step in to control rents.

Highlights (click/tap above):

2:35 Are SG businesses excited about the RTS Link?

6:28 How will S’pore’s consumer spending change?

10:34 Is it too late for retail, F&B?

17:24 You can’t risk making a mistake here: Yuit

19:42 CDC vouchers: A band-aid but still useful

23:15 Topline statistics might not give us the actual picture

27:05 Can we move events to the heartlands?

28:41 Why hasn’t the west built its own Katong?

32:43 Why we need spaces for businesses to try - and fail cheaply

39:53 Why S’pore needs a “nighttime mayor”

Host: Natasha Ann Zachariah (natashaz@sph.com.sg)