Singapore: Smart Nation and Blockchain hub?

In 2018, Singapore reaped the rewards of preparing to be a Smart Nation.

Source: Omron 

Electronics. Lieu.

Lieu Yew Fatt, MD, Omron Electronics said, “2018 was the year that saw Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative gather significant pace. Many industries have benefited from some of the initiatives rolled out (in 2017) as part of the government’s efforts to encourage businesses to harness the potential of advanced technologies and digitalisation.

"These initiatives have reaped rewards on an industry and a national scale as Singapore was recognised as the most innovative country according to the Global Innovation Index. One of the areas that Singapore excelled in was high-and medium-high tech manufacturing, an industry earmarked by the government last year through the Singapore Smart Industry Readiness Index.”

Blockchain hub-to-be

In 2019, Singapore could well cement its position as an emerging Blockchain hub.

Enterprise Singapore sees two reasons why Singapore is a hotbed for Blockchain test bedding. Law Chung Ming, Group Director of Transport and Logistics, Enterprise Singapore said Singapore is a preferred location both for its world-class connectivity, and because of a vibrant Blockchain startup ecosystem and community.

Source: Enterprise Singapore.
Law.

"Singapore is situated at a prime location, just at the crossroads of Asia’s biggest markets and home to the world’s busiest transshipment sea port as well as Asia’s largest cargo airports. Our attractive tax regime, robust business regulations, well-developed IT infrastructure and strong investment opportunities makes us one of the best places to do business," he said.

Like Lieu, Law said the preparations Singapore had made in the past have led to a leadership position today. "We were also ranked the most innovative Asian country and 5th most innovative country globally according to the 2018 Global Innovation Index. That is testament to the thriving research and development (R&D) and startup ecosystem we have built over the years, where ideas, talent and innovation can flourish. Besides all the well-built infrastructure and hardware, the strength of our human capital is in our educated workforce and diverse mix of professional talent pool," he elaborated.

Law also noted that as many as 50 startups* are working on Blockchain-based technologies in Singapore. "Venture capitalists are looking for interesting Blockchain companies to invest in. Singapore’s local universities are researching the technology and looking to build up a pool of Blockchain talents to support the ecosystem.  

"Project Ubin is an example of a triple helix collaboration where efforts of the government, industry and academics have contributed towards an inter-bank payments Blockchain pilot. The results of the project were 150 Blockchain-trained personnel and a successful demonstration of a potentially more effective Blockchain-enabled settlement system," he shared.

Source: SGInnovate. Leonard.

Steve Leonard, Founding CEO of SGInnovate agreed. “Singapore is a great place for startups and entrepreneurs to be in. From a regulatory perspective, the government recognises the potential of Blockchain, and has set down the rules of engagement for Blockchain instead of outrightly banning it," he observed.

“By allowing innovation to take place, this allows us to find out how Blockchain can add long-term value to the local ecosystem. For Singapore to cement its position as a Blockchain hub in Asia, we will need to constantly stay ahead of the curve, and this means making regulatory changes to facilitate the adoption of new technologies, provide funding support and working with various education and industry bodies to develop the right talent,” he said.

Not future-ready enough?

In contrast, Ronen Naishtein, GM, Asia, HK & TW, Oracle NetSuite, said that Singapore cannot rest on its laurels, with local consumers and enterprises “surprisingly hesitant when it comes to embracing new technologies”.

He pointed out that Singapore - ranked first for knowledge and technology - ranks 15th in the World Digital Competitiveness Ranking by the IMD business school for future readiness, out of 63 economies. The future-readiness rank is comprised of three sub-rankings: adaptive attitudes, business agility and IT integration. Singapore ranked 20th for adaptive attitudes, 18th for business agility, and 3rd for IT integration, giving the aggregated future-readiness rank of 15th. In 2017, Singapore had been ranked 6th for future readiness.

Source: Oracle Netsuite.

Naishtein.

"Future readiness measures how well an economy is prepared to digitise based on how its society responds to and incorporates new technologies daily, as well as the adaptiveness of its enterprises to integrate these technologies into their operations,” he said.

“If we don’t improve, then Singapore’s leading role in Asia may be at risk, especially if other countries can adapt to new technologies better and faster. Next year, we therefore need to have the mindset to integrate new technologies into our everyday lives and in business practices and processes. For example, cloud adoption can help organisations reduce cost, mitigate risks and have greater options to scale nationally and regionally. By not adopting cloud or digitally transforming, businesses risk being disrupted, or worse, losing out altogether.”

Explore:

Browse the full list of 2018 round-ups and 2019 predictions in TechTrade Asia

Read the TechTrade Asia blog posts about:

- A Blockchain-based global trading platform for commodity traders

- Bullionist Technology's trade matching and record-keeping platform for bullion on IBM's Blockchain platform, and

- What Ravi Menon, MD, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), thinks of Project Ubin.

*Economic possibilities of blockchain technology by Ravi Menon, Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore