SINGAPORES BEST DECORATED BUILDING COMPETITION WINNERS ANNOUNCED

PARCO Bugis Junction has once again clinched the top prize in the Best Decorated Building Competition. This was announced on December 14 at the prize presentation ceremony held at the Tourism Court headquarters of the Singapore Tourism Board (STB).

This is the second consecutive year that PARCO Bugis Junction has bagged the top award in the Shopping Centres Category of the competition. Using stained glass and other Christmas decorations, PARCO's winning theme this year was 'Christmas with an Edge'.

'Santa's Candy Land' helped Tanglin Mall secure the second spot, while the third place went to Tangs whose theme was 'Memories of Shanghai of Tangs the Christmas Store'.

Commenting on this year's competition, Mr Yeo Khee Leng, Chief Executive of STB said: "This year's response is very encouraging despite the prevailing economic outlook. The Best Decorated Building Competition is now an established event that everyone looks forward to each year and it has certainly helped foster the festive spirit."

This is the 18th year of the Best Decorated Building Competition. Since its inception in 1984, the annual event has had over 80 participants from all across Singapore. This year's décor themes range from the traditional "Winter Wonderland" at NTUC Lifestyle World Downtown East, to the unconventional "Monstrous Fun @ Junction 8".

Three other participating buildings were also recognised for their efforts in dressing up their buildings. They were Raffles City Shopping Centre,

Jurong Point Shopping Centre and newcomer Novena Square Shopping Mall. DBS Tampines Centre was presented the Merit Award in the 'Other Commercial Buildings' Category, which included attractions, hotels, shophouses, country or town clubs and office buildings.

The buildings were judged on the following criteria: originality and creativity, décor effects (by day and night), interpretation of building's concept theme, and workmanship and effort.

This is also the first year that SingTel has extended its *SEND services to allow its mobile phone subscribers to submit their entries to the Guess The Winners Contest 2001 via their mobile phones.

The SingTel *SEND Guess The Winners Contest 2001 was launched on 23 Nov 01. At the close of the contest on 07 Dec 01, an overwhelming response of more than 4,000 entries were received.

Commenting on the enthusiastic response, Mr Lucas Chow, Executive Vice President (Consumer Business) of SingTel, said: "Traditionally, the *SEND service is used by our mobile phone subscribers to retrieve up-to-date information on the weather and movie reviews. This is the first time we have collaborated with the STB on the Best Decorated Building Competition's Guess The Winners Contest, and we are indeed very excited by the response."