THE Housing & Development Board yesterday unveiled more initiatives to help HDB shops, including the selection of 35 sites for batch three of its Revitalisation of Shops (ROS) scheme.
ROS, which kicked off in November 2007 and has since covered more than 3,000 shops, provides part-funding for shopkeepers to upgrade and carry out promotions. Participating shopkeepers have reported 10-20 per cent increases in sales.
The budget for the scheme this year is an estimated $6 million. Besides helping through ROS, HDB will grant half-month rent-free periods to tenants who renovate their premises. The sum of $2 million a year has been set aside for this initiative, which is expected to benefit more than 6,000 HDB shops.
Besides announcing the moves yesterday at a retail seminar, HDB also used the occasion to launch a Where2shop@HDB Mobile website. Unveiled last year to showcase HDB shops in 148 locations, Where2Shop can now be accessed by consumers through mobile devices. Extra features, such as tenant profiles and details of promotions, have been added to the site.
Also at the seminar, Grace Fu, Senior Minister of State for National Development and Education, shared findings from a 2009 business expectations survey - 62 per cent of shopkeepers surveyed took the initiative to improve their businesses, up from 52 per cent in 2008, she said.
About 2,800 HDB shopkeepers islandwide took part in the survey, which was carried out in September and October last year.
Source: Business Times, 17 Jul 2010
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