Smart Nation Singapore: How Government and Industry are Driving Innovation

IDA or the soon-to-be-formed Government Technology Agency (GovTech) is set to continue on its course towards encouraging innovation and partner the infocomm technology (ICT) industry and invest in technologies such as data analytics, ICT infrastructure and platform-as-a-service to develop citizen-centric services.

This aims to enhance the quality of citizens’ lives and make business transactions with the government easier.

GovTech, which will be established at the end of this year, will lead technological transformation in Government. The agency will be tasked with building a more intuitive and anticipatory Government through digital service delivery with technologies, nurture and attract ICT talent, and ensure that people are always at the heart of digital service transformation for the public sector. The agency will also make use of trending methodologies and technologies, such as agile and data analytics, to create innovative services.

SMEs accounted for more than half of ICT contracted value in FY15

The Government will continue to partner the industry to co-create such digital solutions. It will be calling for a projected S$2.82 billion of ICT tenders across FY16. These ICT tenders will comprise mainly infrastructure and ICT security bulk contracts due to some multi-year contracts ending in FY16, as well as contracts relating to agency-specific systems. In FY15, SMEs accounted for more than half of the total contracted value of ICT tenders.

One key focus for government procurement this year will be to enhance ICT infrastructure to better support the data and digital services needs of a Digital Government in a Smart Nation. For example, increased data centre virtualisation will allow the Government to modernise its hosting of ICT applications and ensure faster time to production for new digital services.

Wi-Fi will be extended to more areas within Government schools to support smart learning. The Government will also continue to invest in its cybersecurity efforts, with a bulk tender for IT security services to be called in this fiscal year. Such projects which are larger in scope, will be rolled out over a few years.

Jacqueline Poh, Managing Director, IDA, said, “We want to empower Singapore with possibilities through technology. To do that, investment in infrastructure is necessary so that innovative citizen-centric services can be built and enhanced on a strong foundation. There will be opportunities abound for the government and industry to collaborate and build a Smart Nation together.”

To help more local technology companies take up ICT projects, the Accreditation@IDA scheme, launched in 2014, provides an independent third party evaluation of early-stage growth technology by promising Singapore-based companies. To date, 13 companies, including Hope Technik (an unmanned aerial vehicle and automated guided vehicle solution provider), Sense Infosys (data analytics) and V-Key (mobile and web security) have been accredited. These accredited companies have also won more than 25 government contracts to date.

Chan Cheow Hoe, Assistant Chief Executive (Government Chief Information Office), IDA, said, “The Government wants to co-create solutions with the industry. We have therefore introduced greater agility in our ICT procurement processes, such as the Public Sector ICT Supplier Panel and Outcome-based Procurement, to ensure that agencies can work with the industry to utilise new technological solutions more easily.”

Speakers from the Ministry of Health, MOH Holdings, National Environment Agency and the Workforce Development Agency also shared their ICT plans at the IB.

These plans were announced at IDA’s annual Industry Briefing (IB), where IDA provides updates on government strategies and business opportunities relating to ICT. The event was attended by close to 1,000 attendees including industry CXOs and government CIOs.