The Singapore Government’s $3.5 billion ICT spend increase intended to help revive the COVID-19 hit economy will aid post-pandemic recovery of the ICT market in 2021.
Following a drop of 6% in 2020, the enterprise ICT market value in Singapore is expected to grow by 3% next year, according to forecasts by leading data and analytics company GlobalData.
“The growth will be mainly driven by an increase in government’s ICT spending to accelerate digitalisation and promote the wider use of technology across industries in Singapore,” said Nidhi Gupta, Technology Analyst at GlobalData.
Science and technology efforts in Singapore have proven successful in preventing the spread of COVID-19 through apps like TraceTogether and SafeEntry.
Singapore plans to scale up innovation platforms to accelerate the adoption of science and technology across industries, and efficiently transform research output into commercial-grade technology solutions that can add greater value for the economy.
The country set up the National Research Foundation, where Singapore has already proven capabilities like advanced manufacturing and engineering, health and biomedical sciences, and urban solutions while simultaneously promoting the use of cutting-edge technologies like big data and analytics, sensors and communications.
The Ministry for Communications and Information is also powering the country’s innovation efforts through investments in world-class infrastructure like the development of 5G. The Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority is also helping in these efforts by aiming to hire and reskill 1,000 professionals to support the 5G rollout.
The Ministry will also work with industry partners and academic institutions to strengthen Singapore’s capabilities in the fields of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, media and communications technology.
The National University of Singapore is one such university that is researching the implementation of artificial intelligence into data center cooling technologies.
And the innovations don’t stop there. With the inevitable rise of fintech, the Monetary Authority of Singapore plans to boost electronic payments and digital banking and support financial services and fintech firms in leveraging new technology solutions that can help them better manage risks, increase productivity and improve customer engagement.
DBS also recently joined forces with Amazon Web Services to train more than 3,000 staff members in artificial intelligence and machine learning, in an effort to digitally transform its business.
As a result of the Government’s push for digitalisation in the public sector, disruptive technology solutions like artificial intelligence platforms, big data platforms and infrastructure-as-a-service are expected to witness double digit annual growth increases of 14.1%, 10.8% and 11.8%, respectively.
Singapore will also register a total 3.5% compound annual growth rate between 2019 and 2024 in the ICT market.
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