CUGE inked a Memorandum of Collaboration (MOC) with Parks and Leisure Australia (PLA) in Darwin, Australia on 13 Sep 2009.  The MOC was signed by DCEO/PDS, Dr Leong Chee Chiew and President, PLA, Mr Steve Mason, at the Annual PLA National Conference in Darwin, which saw a gathering of over 250 parks practitioners and experts.   PLA is Australia’s pre-eminent professional body representing the parks, gardens, recreation and leisure industry.  With more than 2000 members including corporate membership by most of the major parks services in Australia, PLA provides advocacy, research, professional development, education and training and other membership service in addition to proving industry advice to various levels of the Government in Australia.

PLA was incorporated in 2000 as a merger of the Royal Australian Institute of Parks and Recreation (RAIPR - which has an evolutionary history dating back to the early 1920’s) and the Australian Leisure Institute. It is a corporate member of the International Federation of Parks and Recreation Administrators (IFPRA) and World Leisure. PLA also has established international collaborative protocols with parks and recreation organizations in USA, Canada, UK, Columbia, New Zealand and Japan.

Specifically for CUGE and NParks, the intended outcomes from partnership with PLA are as follows:

(1) integration and collaboration of their respective parks and recreation expertise to considerably leverage the research, education, training, professional development and sustainability benchmarking capacities of both Australia and Singapore.

(2) profile CUGE activities and capabilities through its partnership with established institutions and associations in Australia and internationally.

(3) PLA on the other hand, is keen to learn from our urban park management, green mark certifications and other urban greening initiatives from NParks and CUGE.

This MOC paves the way for CUGE to showcase NParks capabilities in urban greening and also to serves to reaffirm Singapore’s position as a hub for tropical landscape training excellence. CUGE will continue to forge more such links with reputable and internationally recognized institutions and agencies in the coming months.