For Singapore's Smart Nation vision to succeed, citizens, companies, and government need to work together. But in the area of innovation, the private sector must take the lead.
"The public sector can be the enabler and catalyst, but it is the private sector that needs to lead in innovation, to bring ideas from the research lab to the market, to deal with the disruption and be disruptors themselves," says Janil Puthucheary, Singapore's Minister of State for Communications and Information during the committee of supply debate held yesterday.
Minister Puthucheary notes that they are working working together with representatives from the technology sector, such as Caesar Sengupta, who is the Vice President of Google, located in Singapore, together with a group under the Committee on the Future Economy to examine the impact of disruptive technologies on the economy, and to come up with some recommendations for Government, private enterprises, and individual citizens.
"We will look at how technology presents opportunities to re-engineer our business processes for better outcomes, leveraging on Singapore’s competitive advantages – for example our high level of connectivity, our very high rate of literacy, as well as technological literacy, and the high level of trust that exists in the Singapore brand name," says Sengupta.
"At the same time, we must anticipate risks from new technologies, such as the threats to traditional businesses and jobs from automation. We must find ways to ease the transition for our people into new jobs and allow them to thrive in future work environments."
Vibrant start up ecosystem
Minister Puthucheary also noted the country's vibrant startup ecosystem. "But to seize the opportunities out there, this ecosystem needs to grow."
The Minister related that in 2015, Infocomm Investments Pte Ltd (IIPL) set up a start-up space called BASH, which stands for Build Amazing Start-Ups Here. "And we did. BASH has built 65 amazing start-ups in the one year that it has been operating."
Across Singapore, IIPL has accelerated about 230 start-ups, including the 65 start-ups from BASH.
"We have found that our strategies also increase the survival rate of start-ups. Lots of start-up ideas, and initial excitement, but a key part of the process is the ability of the start-up to get past the initial stage and attract further follow-on funding and investment. The survival rate, under our strategy has increased significantly from 10% to more than 60%. Most have chosen to be based in Singapore, which in turn creates jobs for Singaporeans."
Minister Puthucheary lauded the support from a growing number of Singaporeans who are offering their time and expertise to help other aspiring entrepreneurs.
One example is Teik Guan. He was the CEO and CTO of DS3, a Singapore-based company, before he moved on to Gemalto, a digital security MNC. He decided to make a mid-career change this year and became a full time mentor at BASH.
"Thanks to such efforts, the quality of our start-ups is improving. More and more home-grown start-ups are developing products that could potentially transform their sectors. One example is Jaga-Me, a graduate of IIPL’s pre-acceleration programme. Jaga-Me is a local start-up that connects patients and their families with quality home nursing services on-demand. In doing so, it helps families to manage the stress of caregiving."
Demand for IT manpower
With the Smart Nation initiatives, Singapore expects an additional demand for 30,000 infocomm jobs to be filled by 2020, according Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for Communications and Information, during the debate.
"As demand far outstrips current supply, and because the landscape is changing so rapidly, it is difficult to meet company needs for skilled manpower without non-Singaporeans entirely," noted Minister Ibrahim.
However, to prepare for the anticipated demand for IT professionals, the minister revealed a plan to launch an Industry Preparation for Pre-Graduates (iPREP) Programme. IDA will work with the IHLs to select students and place them on this structured internship and mentorship programme, so that they can build their portfolios and gain sufficient entry-level skills and experience even before they graduate. Over three years, the programmeaimds to increase the supply of professionals by 2,400.
“This will help more young Singaporeans like Tan Kai Heng, an NTU Computer Science alumni. During his internship at Gametize, he worked with a dynamic team and even co-led it to develop an Android app from scratch. The internship helped him become a confident software developer, and he was subsequently offered a job with Gametize after graduation. He has been with them for almost 4 years now.
“We will also help experienced professionals deepen their skills, or convert to new infocomm disciplines. IDA’s Critical Infocomm Technology Resource Programme (CITREP) helps approximately 3,000 mid-level professionals take up professional short courses and certifications every year. Moving forward, we will expand the CITREP+ programme and also help entry level professionals to start acquiring ICT skills and professional certifications early in their careers,” said Minister Ibrahim.