SGTech, the trade association for the tech industry in Singapore, has launched a white paper which details how Singapore could grow the digital trust sector by nearly three-fold by 2027 – from S$1.7 B currently to S$4.8 B. This estimate does not include the additional multiplier effects that digital trust could have in enabling growth in other sectors within the digital economy.
Singapore’s success as a global hub for business, shipping, finance, aviation and services has long been known to have been built on trust. Digital Trust: Unlocking the Next Wave of Growth in the Digital Economy puts forward the position that Singapore has immense potential to leverage this trusted reputation to provide a similar competitive advantage in the digital space, built on digital trust. With a sizeable global market-segment opportunity of S$385 B and an expectation to double this to S$765 B over the next five years, it is crucial for Singapore to maintain its edge by defining the current landscape, identifying the trends, overcoming the challenges, and making the most of the opportunities in the digital trust domain.
This has significant implications for Singapore and its workforce. The white paper expects the digital trust sector in Singapore to employ up to 34,000 people by 2027, more than double the current 15,000. The study further points out that if the strong growth in privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs), distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) and digital identity solutions continues, the sector could hire up to 45,000 instead. These projections assume Singapore maintains certain leadership positions in the digital economy and the white paper contains recommendations about how these can be attained.
Other highlights include:
- The digital trust sector comprises areas such as cybersecurity, DLTs, PETs, and digital identity, etc. The largest growth rates (2020-2027) are projected to come from the following subsectors:
o DLTs – 49%
o PETs – 40%
o Cyber insurance – 25%
o Digital identity – 16%
SGTech Chair Wong Wai Meng said: “The promise of the global digital economy hinges on whether there is trust among economies, companies and individuals to transact with one another. We at SGTech believe that digital trust is key to surmounting challenges in this space. Singapore has a unique opportunity to position itself as a global digital and data node built on trust, further strengthening our hub status for global businesses. Hence our focus on this important topic of digital trust and this early study is to chart the landscape, size the market and map the path for Singapore.”
Philip Heah, Chair of SGTech’s Digital Trust Committee, added: “Between January 2022 and August 2022, a series of 80 interviews were conducted with leading experts in digital trust domains across the world. Our broader definition of digital trust* is important for stakeholders to understand the growth opportunities in digital trust that go beyond cybersecurity, which accounts for more than half of the sector in Singapore currently, and to identify where these new avenues of growth could come from.
"This white paper also identifies five key trends that are shaping the landscape – namely, (1) widespread misinformation and its ill-effects to people; (2) the growth and mainstreaming of expectations towards privacy and the responsible use of data; (3) the rising number of cybercrimes in Asia Pacific; (4) the rise of data localisation, sovereignty, and challenges to cross-border data flows; and (5) the growing demand for digital trust skills and risk management solutions. We trust the recommendations put forth in the paper will help overcome these potential pain points.”
SGTech is formally submitting the recommendations to the Singapore government for consideration ahead of Budget 2023 and in line with the major planning effort under Forward Singapore. There are five categories of recommendations:
- Expressing digital trust policy leadership globally and regionally
- Professionalising the trust workforce
- Developing company digital trust capabilities, products and services
- Enabling seamless cross-border transactions
- Building digital trust-savvy consumers
NetSfere and Amazon Web Services are Presenting Sponsors of the white paper, with Lenovo, Intel and Microsoft as supporting sponsors. Anurag Lal, President and CEO of NetSfere, said: “This digital trust study provides valuable insights and actionable strategies aimed at strengthening Singapore’s digitalisation efforts and furthering Singapore’s ambition to become a global node for digital trust. Supporting this study is aligned to NetSfere’s efforts as it partners Singapore-based companies in several sectors to position Singapore as a global digital and data node built on trust.”
Quint Simon, Head of Public Policy for Asia Pacific & Japan, Amazon Web Services (AWS) added, “SGTech’s digital trust study reinforces the need to harness the benefits of digital technologies by maintaining the highest standards of security and develop policies, which will enable Singapore to become a leader in the global digital economy.
“AWS is deeply committed to helping Singapore achieve its digital transformation goals – we collaborate closely with the Singaporean government and local industry on initiatives to accelerate innovation and digitise citizen services through our world-class infrastructure, deepest set of tools and services, and one of the most secure cloud computing environments. We look forward to continuing to work alongside SGTech to take meaningful steps to action the insights from this study.”
SGTech also announced an upcoming global forum on digital trust, to be held at Resorts World Sentosa Convention Centre, Singapore, on 28 October 2022. The inaugural SGTech Global Future Series: Digital Trust Forum aims to bring together global leaders, practitioners and thinkers to discuss digital trust concepts and suggest actionable steps for Singapore to take to work towards being a global digital and data node.
Considered the first global forum dedicated solely to digital trust issues, it consists of 16 sessions featuring more than 30 international speakers, including Singapore's Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information Tan Kiat How; Dr Bhaskar Chakravorti, Dean of Global Business at The Fletcher School at Tufts University; Piyush Gupta, CEO, DBS Bank; Ajay Bhalla, President, Cyber & Intelligence, Mastercard; and Janet De Silva, President and CEO of the Toronto Region Board of Trade, who is also Chair of the Digital Working Group, APEC Business Advisory Council.
Registration for the event remains open to the public for in-person and virtual delegates until 25 October 2022.
*Digital trust is defined in the white paper as “the confidence participants have in the digital ecosystem to interact securely, in a transparent, accountable, and frictionless manner”.
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