Ministry of Manpower of the Republic of Singapore

06/28/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 06/27/2024 22:10

MOM to Improve Diversity and Quality of Offerings at Recreation Centres

MOM to Improve Diversity and Quality of Offerings at Recreation Centres

28 June 2024Foreign manpower

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) will be appointing external partners to operate Recreation Centres (RC) to better meet the social and recreational needs of migrant workers. This is part of ongoing efforts to improve the diversity and quality of offerings at the RCs.


2 Drawing from the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic, MOM has made strides in building a more resilient migrant workforce, particularly in the areas of housing, healthcare, and recreation. Recreation Centres serve as welcoming spaces for our migrant workers, to meet their daily social and recreational needs. In the event of a pandemic, RCs can also be re-purposed to serve as testing and vaccination centres for migrant workers.


3 Today, MOM operates six1 of the nine RCs located near large migrant worker dormitory catchment areas. As the social and recreational needs of migrant workers continue to evolve, MOM is committed to work with stakeholders and partners to improve the quality of the RCs through four key thrusts:
  1. Partner external operators to enhance diversity and quality of offerings;
  2. Expand collaboration with non-governmental organisations (NGO) and community partners, with the RCs as a physical nexus;
  3. Refurbish older RCs to ensure that the facilities and offerings are relevant and up to date; and
  4. Explore and pilot new design concepts for RCs for the future

Appointing external partners

4 MOM will appoint external partners with strong operational expertise to operate the RCs. These partners are expected to attract a vibrant mix of tenants as well as pilot innovative programmes at the RCs. This will increase the attractiveness of the RCs to our migrant workers and improve visitorship.5 For a start, MOM has appointed the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) to operate three RCs - Penjuru, Terusan and Tuas South - from 1st August 2024 for three years. NTUC has a good understanding of migrant workers' needs through the conduct of the migrant workers' Settling-In Programme and strong operational experience in running the Migrant Workers' Centre Recreation Club. In addition, NTUC can leverage its rich network of social enterprises and recreational offerings to enhance the attractiveness of the RCs.6 To ensure that RCs are attractive to migrant workers, who have lower spending power, MOM will disburse a grant to NTUC to support the operations of the three RCs. To receive the grant, NTUC must meet annual visitorship targets, as well as implement the required governance controls and financial and procurement procedures.7 "MOM will continue to transform and enrich the RC landscape in collaboration with our partners, so that RCs would be the preferred destination of migrant workers for their daily needs and on their rest days. I am confident that NTUC, with its strong operational experience and capabilities, will be able to enhance the diversity and quality of offerings at the three RCs, and drive higher visitorship." said Dr Koh Poh Koon, Senior Minister of State for Manpower.8 Beyond the appointment of NTUC, MOM intends to identify more like-minded partners with the necessary expertise to operate RCs. MOM is also studying plans for larger RCs that can provide a wider range of offerings and bring together more migrant workers. More details will be released when ready.

[1] The six recreation centres operated by MOM are Cochrane RC, Kranji RC, Penjuru RC, Sembawang RC, Terusan RC and Tuas South RC. The remaining three recreation centres - Kaki Bukit RC, Woodlands RC are privately operated, while the Migrant Workers' Centre Recreation Club is operated by an NGO.