Governments in Southeast Asia are increasingly turning to cloud adoption in the public sector as a means of providing prompt and efficient services to their citizens, according to Amazon Web Services (AWS).
According to Eric Conrad, AWS regional managing director for public sector in ASEAN, they are seeing public sector organizations move into a new phase of their digital evolution.
The growing interest in cloud adoption in Southeast Asia has led Amazon’s cloud computing division to boost its investment in the region. As of 2017, the company has already provided cloud skills training to over 1 million individuals.
A recent Gallup poll commissioned by AWS revealed that more than 90% of public sector employees in Southeast Asia expressed a high level of interest in receiving training for at least one digital skill.
The same survey also showed that ASEAN public sector employees also demonstrated a significant interest in digital skills training, with 91% expressing a high level of interest in at least one area. Additionally, government workers in the region showed an interest in receiving training in an average of 19 different digital skills, including but not limited to AI and cybersecurity.
However, the survey also revealed that the most significant challenge to public sector workers receiving training is the lack of training resources that cater to their specific needs.
In an effort to address this demand, AWS has invested over $6.5 billion in infrastructure and job creation in Singapore.
GovWallet, a digital service designed to provide Singaporeans with easy access to government services, was built and deployed entirely on the AWS Cloud by the Government Technology Agency (GovTech), a statutory board tasked with delivering digital services to the public on behalf of the Singapore government.
In the Philippines, AWS collaborated with the Department of Information and Communications Technology to assist with the implementation of the agency’s “Philippine Cloud First Policy” across all government agencies in the country. Additionally, AWS announced plans to launch a local zone in the Philippines last year, as part of a larger initiative to establish 10 new local zones across the region.
Conrad believes the cloud will play an even bigger role to help ASEAN governments and public sector organizations deliver national priorities, improve the lives of citizens, and drive economic growth.
