In Pursuit of a “Smart Nation”

Singapore envisions to be a city of the future

Last March 30 to 31, 2016, Singapore held one of Southeast Asia’s biggest technology events
this year, the Internet of Things (IoT) Asia 2016 Expo. More than 20 sponsors backed the event
including leading ICT companies Intel, Accenture, and IBM. The two-day affair gathered more
than 60 exhibitors and around 2,500 participants to unite Singaporeans on the future of the
Internet of Things in the Asian region.

But the gathering did not stop at a lively discussion of the future. It was a preparation.

In 2014, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, signaled the intention of the city-state to be
the region’s “smart nation”. And by smart, it doesn’t just mean educating children. In this case,
he intended this as a sign to upgrade Singapore into a world-class “smart city” that employs the
Internet of Things as a key driver in running the whole country.

The ambition of the country’s chief was nonetheless supported by Singapore’s Forign Minister,
Vivian Balakrishnan, who is now spearheading the “Singapore Smart Nation” initiative. In his
opening remarks during the IoT event, he highlighted the country’s role in paving the digital silk
road of the future. This could mean that the country intends to be a world-class “smart city”
model in the ASEAN Region and to the world.

Balakrishnan’s bold ambition comes with the financial figures to back him up. The government
has allocated 19 billion dollars for research and development in the next five years. That’s a
fairly large amount in comparison to the 22 billion dollars spent in the last 10 years in R&D.
Nonetheless, the budget itself speaks a lot for a country that anchors itself to science and
technology development.

A vision for tomorrow’s cities

In the world of technology, the Internet of Things is the next phase in urban development. The
phrase has been abuzz since 2014 with claims from the World Economic Forum that around 50
billion things will be connected by 2020. This means that gadgets will be able to communicate,
not just smartphones and computers, but even lamp posts, appliances, and even light bulbs.

In the case of Singapore, this means that their already organized system of running the city will
be further refined with the support of technology through the IoT. Balakrishnan outlined that in
the future, he envisioned a Singapore that is able to:
● Control autonomous vehicles to help citizens commute more efficiently
● Leverage on the use of robots to accomplish routine tasks and jobs
● Manage street lighting individually and remotely
● Utilize sensors to gather city data
These were just some of the ideas floating around and the government’s Infocomm Development
Authority (iDT) has started picking up other straws in further building the Smart City vision for
Singapore. They are currently collecting data and exploring ways that could help the country
achieve its goals.

And Singapore is highly capable of reaching its dream. According to iDT, as of 2014, 88 percent
of all households in Singapore has access to the internet and 79 percent of their 5.5 million
population are internet-users. These are crucial requirements as smart cities will be reliant on the
IoT. In this case, almost all of Singapore is connected.

Singapore is future-ready

Just this year, an additional boost came from tech giant Dell, when it named Singapore as the
third most “future-ready city” out of the 50 cities named based on the Futures Ready Economies
Model. The top two spots went to San Jose and San Francisco, California (which are obviously
hotbeds of technology). The first 20 countries that made it to the list are:

1. San Jose
2. San Francisco
3. Singapore
4. London
5. Washington, DC
6. Boston
7. Austin
8. Raleigh
9. Stockholm
10. Sydney
11. Toronto
12. Seoul-Incheon
13. Seattle
14. Denver
15. Portland
16. Dallas-Fort Worth
17. New York
18. Minneapolis-St. Paul
19. Houston
20. Atlanta

The rest of the list can be accessed at futurereadyeconomies.dell.com.

Singapore was the only Asian country to make it to the Top 10 with Korea’s capital
Seoul-Incheon entering at number 12.
Aside from that, Singapore has also earned the recognition of the International Data Corporation
(IDC) in 2015 when it won four out of 14 categories in the Most Outstanding Smart City
Initiatives. These were:

● Transportation: Intelligent Transport Systems Initiative

● Education: Future Schools@Singapore
● Smart Water: Smart Water Sensors for Water Management
● Land Use and Environmental Management: National Environmental Agency Smart
Mapping for Dengue Prevention and Control

Other countries that were chosen as winners for the other categories were China, Australia, New
Zealand, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

Smart cities for other ASEAN nations

On top of all the accolades, Singapore remains to be one of the few ASEAN countries actively
pursuing projects towards smart city development. Malaysia and Thailand have started some
initiatives as well but other nations seem to be lagging behind. This comes at a time when
internet connectivity still remains shoddy and unreliable in some parts of Southeast Asia.

Nonetheless, with the lion state taking the lead, Balakrishnan’s vision might just come true.
Taking the digital silk road to Southeast Asia could be the country’s biggest contribution yet to
all ASEAN member nations.

Resources
http://www.internetofthingsasia.com/events/iot-asia-2016/event-summary-01fd5afb68aa45a29e6
661a3fcf5ea72.aspx
http://www.computerweekly.com/news/450280333/Singapore-smart-city-head-delivers-vision-to
-the-world
http://www.wired.com/insights/2014/11/the-internet-of-things-bigger/
http://www.computerweekly.com/news/4500255850/Singapores-Smart-Nation-vision-entices-sta
rtups-and-IoT-developers
https://www.ida.gov.sg/Tech-Scene-News/Facts-and-Figures
https://www.greenbiz.com/article/singapore-aims-become-worlds-first-smart-city-state
http://www.futurereadyeconomies.dell.com/the-top-50-ranking-future-ready-cities-around-the-gl
obe/
http://business.asiaone.com/news/singapore-the-most-future-ready-economy-asia-dell-ranking
https://www.edb.gov.sg/content/dam/edb/en/resources/factsheetsnew/EN-Factsheet-Electronics.p
df
https://www.edb.gov.sg/content/edb/en/industries/industries/electronics.html
http://www.computerweekly.com/news/4500258202/Singapore-leads-Asean-smart-city-push
https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prSG25961915

Written by Michael David T. Ramos