Singapore spends big on no name change
After spending 400 000 Singapore dollars (about R1,6-million) to come up with a suitable new name for the revamped downtown Marina Bay, Singapore has decided to stick to, well, Marina Bay, media reports said on Friday.
The city-state’s urban-development authorities and global branding company Interbrand spent months deliberating over 400 potential names before settling on the original moniker, according to the Today newspaper.
The 400 000 Singapore dollars financed a massive branding exercise that involved market tests, focus-group discussions and consultations with developers and the general public, Today said.
Finding the right name for the city-state’s revised downtown, which will include a much-debated resort casino, a new business district and swanky retail outlets, was a process akin to parents deciding on a name for their child, said National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan.
“We started off with [the name] Marina Bay and after looking at everything, the name that really tugged at the heartstrings was in front of us,” Mah said.
Not surprisingly, many Singaporeans were quick to lambaste the government’s latest publicity efforts as an utter waste of public funds.
“Waaah, you so clever ... [you] think and think and think and come up [with] this new old name,” Rockson Takumi Tan wrote on his popular blog.—AFP
