Research Report on Trends in Environmental Considerations related to Overseas Activities of Japanese Companies FY 2002

How to Use This Book

This book consists of two chapters and appendices.Chapter 1 describes the enviThis book consists of two chapters and appendices.Chapter 1 describes environmental issues the country now faces, and summarizes environmental laws and regulations in Singapore.Chapter 2 introduces examples where Japanese companies operating in Singapore are taking practical environmental measures.The appendices contain reference materials that help the reader to get a deeper understanding of Chapters 1 and 2.The term, Japanese companies, as used in this book refers to member companies of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Singapore, without regard to equity percentage invested from Japan or any other particular conditions.It should also be noted that since many of the Japanese companies who willingly responded to the on-site survey in this research are in the manufacturing sector, this book focuses on environmental measures seen in the manufacturing sector.

This book is so designed that each chapter, as well as each section under a chapter, is independent of the rest so as to allow the reader to access necessary environmental information according to the current state of the environmental measures being taken by the individual company.It should be noted that the names of the laws, regulations, and organizations cited in the text are tentative translations by the Forum.

More specifically, this book is organized as follows.

Chapter 1 provides the latest information on current environmental issues Singapore now faces and trends in its environmental laws and regulations.This chapter is divided into following seven sections.

• Section 1: Singapore and Japanese Companies
• Section 2: Current Environmental Issues in Singapore
• Section 3: Environmental Policies and Legislation in Singapore
• Section 4: Water Pollution Management
• Section 5: Air Pollution Management
• Section 6: Hazardous Industrial Waste Management
• Section 7: Other Industrial Environmental Management

Section 1 introduces the relationship between Japan and Singapore and the history of the business activities by Japanese companies in Singapore, while Section 2 summarizes current environmental issues in Singapore in such areas as water pollution, air pollution, and wastes.The part of Section 3 through Section 7 precisely describes Singapore's environmental policies and legislation, administrative organizations, and information about the country's environmental laws and regulations in various fields.These are the information indispensable when Japanese companies are implementing environmental measures in Singapore.

To be more specific, Section 3 introduces the most important points in Singapore's environmental policies, governmental organizations for environmental administration, legislative systems related to industrial pollution, and environment-related procedures necessary for companies to go through when starting businesses in Singapore.

Sections 4 through 6 describe the structures of the laws and regulations and details of control levels in the three areas of water pollution, air pollution, and industrial waste.At the end of Chapter 1, Section 7 devotes pages to introducing other industrial environmental measures unique to Singapore.

The information given in Chapter 1 mainly represents the results of hearings conducted at the Environmental Protection Division of the National Environment Agency (NEA) under the Singaporean Ministry of the Environment (ENV).

In Chapter 2, Section 1 summarizes the features of the environmental measures implemented by Japanese companies operating in Singapore.It is followed by the introduction of 16 examples of pioneering approaches to environmental measures.

• Section 2: Case Studies of the Regional Integration Function Manifested in the Environmental Field (3 examples)
• Section 3: Case Studies of Voluntary Implementation of Advanced Environmental Measures (4 examples)
• Section 4: Case Studies Applying Sophisticated Technology in Reducing Discharge of Pollutants (4 examples)
• Section 5: Environmental Measures in New Business Development (5 examples)

As a wide variety of businesses are going on by Japanese companies in Singapore, examples of environmental measures collected during this survey are wide-ranging.In particular, we focused on Japanese companies that allocate their Singaporean operations as regional headquarters for Southeast Asia, and examples of their approaches are put together in Section 2.Examples of approaches taken by manufacturers, which are not limited to the measures for wastewater, waste gas, and other waste materials, but also include other types of positive approaches, are given in Sections 3 and 4.Examples of innovative approaches of those in non-manufacturing sectors and small-to-medium-scale companies for utilizing environmental measures for business expansion are introduced in Section 5.

Appendices at the end of the book carry the reference materials as follows.

• [Appendix 1] Environmental Pollution Control Act (EPCA)
  Revised Edition 2000 (30th December 2000)
• [Appendix 2] Rg 5 Environmental Pollution Control (Trade Effluent) Regulations
  Revised Edition 2001 (31.1.2001)
• [Appendix 3] Rg 8 Environmental Pollution Control (Air Impurities) Regulations
  Revised Edition 2002
• [Appendix 4] Rg 11 Environmental Public Health (Toxic Industrial Waste) Regulations
  Revised Edition 2000 (31.1.2000)
• [Appendix 5] Sources of Environmental Information in Singapore and Japan

Appendix 1 carries a Japanese translation of the full text (except Schedule) of the Environmental Pollution Control Act in order to help the reader to get a deeper understanding of the Act.Full-text Japanese translations of two regulations under the Act, namely the Environmental Pollution Control (Trade Effluent) Regulations and the Environmental Pollution control (Air Impurities) Regulations appear in Appendices 2 and 3, respectively.Appendix 4 carries a Japanese translation of the full text of the Environmental Public Health (Toxic Industrial Waste) Regulations under the Environmental Public Health Act (EPHA).

The exchange rate used in this book is 70 Japanese yen per Singaporean dollar prevailing as of January 2003.

In this book, names of government agencies, laws, and regulations frequently appearing in connection with environmental problems in Singapore are expressed by their acronyms as needed.

1.Government Agencies
ENV: Ministry of the Environment
NEA: National Environment Agency
MTI: Ministry of Trade and Industry
EDB: Economic Development Board
JTC: Jurong Town Corporation
SPRING: Standards, Productivity and Innovation Board
MND: Ministry of National Development
HDB: Housing & Development Board
URA: Urban Redevelopment Authority

2.Laws

EPCA: Environmental Pollution Control Act
EPHA: Environmental Health Control Act