SINGAPORE — Whenever a pasar malam pops up near his neighbourhood, Sengkang resident Gordon Chia would make it a point to visit it almost daily.
“It’s the variety of food, some of which you’ll hardly find elsewhere,” said the 35-year-old, speaking to TODAY on Thursday afternoon at a pasar malam next to Punggol MRT Station in between bites of crispy-fried cuttlefish.
“But now, even though a pasar malam would appear near my place once in a while and I have to walk through it to get to work or go home, I rarely buy anything,” he said, attributing it to costliness.For decades, trade fairs such as festive bazaars and neighbourhood pasar malam — Malay for night market — have been a common sight in Singapore.
While these fairs have undergone some positive changes over the years, such as being generally cleaner and of better layouts, other developments are not so welcome. One issue that sticks out in particular, as highlighted by Mr Chia and Kishan, is the escalating prices of the pasar malam offerings. As for pasar malam in the heartlands, a 20-day fair at Our Tampines Hub with 50 stalls that ended on Wednesday had a tender value of S$171,000, according to publicly available information on the government procurement site Gebiz.
Vendors, bazaar organisers and a business expert suggested that PA relook how it awards the tender, given that the tender price forms a significant part of overall costs. Replying to a parliamentary question on Friday , Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong said that trade fairs are organised through an open tender process to appoint a professional fair operator to manage and operate the event.
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