News

To manage traffic congestion on the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE) during peak hours, new ERP gantries will be built to prevent traffic conditions from worsening. These gantries will be built before the Clementi Avenue 6 exit, the slip road into AYE (City) from Clementi Avenue 6, and Clementi Avenue 2, as well as on AYE (Tuas) before the Clementi Road. Construction of the ERP gantries will start in the later part of 2013, and are expected to be completed and activated in mid-2014.

Total trade increased by 2% in Apr 2013 as compared to last year, with increases in both total exports by 1.6% and imports by 2.5% in Apr. However, non-oil domestic exports (NODX) saw a decline by 1% in Apr on a y-o-y basis, due to a decrease in electronic exports. The decrease was largely due to a decline in exports of PC parts and disk media products. On a y-o-y basis, NODX to all of the top 10 NODX markets, except China, Taiwan, the US, Thailand and Hong Kong, decreased in Apr 2013.

The Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) will hold a public consultation exercise from 15 May to 5 June 2013 to seek views on the proposed business operations of the Do Not Call Registry, under the Personal Data Protection Act. The registry will come into effect on 2 Jan 2014 while the personal data protection requirements provisions will come into effect on 2 July 2014 to allow organisations time to get their operations ready.

Singapore saw a decrease of 7.4% in retail sales in March 2013 as compared to March last year. This was mostly due to a decrease of 32.7% in sales for motor vehicles, as well as a decline in sales of telecommunications apparatus & computers, furniture & household equipment and petrol service stations. In contrast, sales of food & beverage services increased 3.6% in March 2013 as compared to 2012, mainly due to a growth in the turnover of eating places by 2.1% - 4.8%.

Application for tickets for the National Day Parade 2013 and the NDP preview on 3 August will close on 20 May. Members of the public can apply via the NDP 2013 mobile application, the official website at www.ndp.org, or through the SMS text application to 9060 0199. Successful applicants in the NDP 2012 ticketing eBalloting exercise will not be eligible for the NDP 2013 eBalloting exercise. Successful applicants will be notified from 31 May to 4 June 2013.