SINGAPORE: Having people well versed in digital skills is key to Singapore’s Smart Nation drive, and the country hopes to attract Singaporeans based overseas to return home to work on such projects, said Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation Initiative Vivian Balakrishnan.Advertisement
“So the third element has been carefully and judiciously … complement our own local workforce by bringing in people from overseas who … truly have the skills that we need, who complement us, who have the networks, who have that extra ideas and verve to help us with the start-up scene in order to grow a bigger ecosystem,” he said during the interview that was broadcast on Tuesday night .
The Government needs to have “enough talent” as it envisions and creates the necessary digital infrastructure and software, but it plays a “complementary role”, said Dr Balakrishnan. He cited the example of the national digital check-in system SafeEntry, which was developed by the Government Technology Agency .
“So if you think about these three factors – the infrastructure, the talent and digital inclusion – fortunately already in place by the time COVID-19 broke out,” said Dr Balakrishnan. “In fact, the issue was not just publicising accurate information but also dealing with the fact that there are so many competing narratives,” he told CNA. “Getting above that pebble noise was a challenge.”
The country’s contact tracing tools, both software and hardware, were open-sourced and this allowed “people to come take a look … check that it was indeed what we said it was”, he added. “If you move forward to where the future is, it’s not enough for us to just be consumers because ultimately our market is small,” Dr Balakrishnan told CNA.
He pointed to the local jobs market which, despite rising unemployment, continues to see some sectors with labour shortages as the pandemic quickens digital transformation. Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation Initiative and Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan speaking during an interview as part of the CNA Leadership Summit 2020.
“We've always known that trust is absolutely essential … and equally important in this crisis, you need public trust because without that trust, you’re not going to get full compliance and without full compliance, many of the scientifically and correct things to do can’t be executed,” he said.
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