Saving Singapore’s heritage business: who will decide?

The past couple of years have not been kind to heritage institutions with successive closures. The Government has taken notice, forming an inter-agency task force in February 2025 to support heritage businesses, traditional activities and cultural life. The National Heritage Board’s inaugural SG Heritage Business Scheme followed, with 42 recipients announced in October. But while state recognition is validating, according to the 13 businesses ST spoke with, it offers cold comfort when market forces may still have the final say. Cultural economist Swati Sharma says deciding what to preserve is not an “organic” process, but an “ongoing negotiation” between states, communities and individuals, so there will be groups that are “overlooked”. “We make a conscious decision about what we want to carry forward from the past generation to the next generation. We’re deciding what’s worth remembering and what we want to forget,” adds Dr Sharma, who lectures at NTU.

Click here to read the article.