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Tuesday, 21 January 2014

Singapore strengthening capabilities in data and analytics

The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) is committed to expanding Singapore's capabilities in data and analytics, said IDA Executive Deputy Chairman Steve Leonard today at the inaugural Emtech Singapore 2014, which IDA is supporting as host partner. EmTech is MIT Technology Review's global emerging technologies conference.

Leonard said, "The knowledge created through intelligent analysis of data enables us to deal with priority issues such as healthcare. Data and analytics underpin our development towards being an increasingly Smart Nation."

According to IDA, studies have projected that data and analytics could generate an additional S$10 to S$17 billion of value per year for Singapore.


IDA's initiatives to develop data capabilities include data.gov.sg's Apps4SG Competition to encourage participants to use government data to develop innovative applications that improve the way residents live, work and play in Singapore. IDA's Data Innovation Challenge is another example of the Government's crowdsourcing effort to address data-driven business challenges, connecting enterprises and data providers with data specialists, ICT companies, research institutes, and institutes of higher learning (IHLs) to develop prototypes, proof-of-concepts and analytics solutions for data-driven commercial problems.

To strengthen data talent within the organisation, IDA has appointed Prabir Sen to lead its new Data Sciences Group, which will provide capabilities to IDA’s data-driven projects. IDA will further train and recruit for this group.

Leonard said, "IDA has the goal of supporting Singapore's continued growth as a Smart Nation using data and analytics to improve the lives of citizens."

To enable Singapore to be a regional analytics hub, IDA has also collaborated with leading players in the ecosystem as well as local IHLs to provide academic programmes, facilitate industry attachment programmes, and to develop and enhance analytics capabilities for local students and professionals.

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