On 26 June, three Singapore government agencies – Economic Development Board (EDB), Enterprise Singapore and Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA)- announced a partnership to set up a new joint office in order to better support and capitalize on the growth opportunities for Singapore’s technology sector. Digital Industry Singapore (DISG) brings together 45 existing officers from EDB, Enterprise Singapore and IMDA. It will serve a single interface for the government to interact with the technology sector and better understand companies’ needs.
Singapore already hosts 80 of the top 100 global technology companies, and more than 4,000 home-grown and international start-ups from around the world. With the complimentary networks, resources and programs of the three agencies, DISG aims to establish Singapore as a technology hub with deep capabilities, strong infrastructure and a vibrant ecosystem of local and global enterprises, from which new products, services, business models and partnerships are created for Asia and beyond.
The office will work on both the consumer technology and enterprise technology segments of the ecosystem. On the consumer technology front, it will assist companies to tap into the growing, mobile-first Asian market to capture opportunities in areas such as ride-hailing, e-commerce, fintech and new media. In the enterprise technology segment, DISG will leverage Singapore’s established base of diverse industry sectors and ongoing investments to digitalize our economy to help companies build new solutions in areas such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, payments and cloud, that can scale globally from Singapore. In collaboration with industry and relevant government agencies, DISG will co-create future-ready policies and guide investments in areas such as data, talent, trade and digital infrastructure.
These efforts are expected to create up to 10,000 new jobs within the technology sector over the next three years, in roles ranging from engineering, software and product development to finance, human resources, innovation and business development. To prepare Singaporeans for these jobs, DISG will work closely with IMDA, the industry and local education institutions to implement training program and on-the job training, covering areas such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data science, network engineering, software development, user experience design and product management.
(Sources: Enterprise Singapore; Straits Times)
