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Budget 2019 aims to transform economy by investing in digitalisation of firms and workers

Photo Credit: www.singaporebudget.gov.sg/budget_2019

The Finance Minister said in his Budget 2019 speech that economic transformation is critical. He outlined three key areas of the Budget that would help support this transformation.

  • Building deep enterprise capabilities
  • Building deep worker capabilities
  • Encouraging strong partnerships, within Singapore and across the world.

He said that $4.6 billion would be invested over the next three years on the new and enhanced economic capability-building measures, and to support Singaporean workers, and that $3.6 billion will go towards helping workers to thrive amid industry and technological changes with $1 billion going towards helping firms build deep enterprise capabilities.

Building Deep Enterprise Capabilities

The minister said that companies and workers must stay on top of rapid advances in technology, especially in digital technology. The government will continue to help SMEs adopt digital technologies. One example of how they are doing this is the SMEs Go Digital programme. Around 4,000 SMEs have adopted pre-approved digital solutions since the start of this initiative.

He said that Accountancy, Sea Transport, and Construction will get their own industry digital plans, with more sectors to be added later. These will guide SMEs on relevant digital technologies and skills training programmes.

They will also expand the number and range of cost-effective, pre-approved digital solutions that will be supported under SMEs Go Digital, to boost technology adoption among SMEs.

MAS and the Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) will also jointly pilot a cross-border innovation platform for SMEs, known as the Business sans Borders, with an Artificial Intelligence-enabled marketplace to help our SMEs match with buyers and vendors globally.

To help companies in the services sector capture opportunities from digitalisation, the Ministry of Communications and Information launched a pilot of the Digital Services Lab (DSL) in November last year. The DSL brings together industry and the research community, to co-develop digital solutions with sector-wide impact.

Government Agencies must embrace technology

The Finance Minister also said that government agencies must embrace technology to serve companies better and that they had made progress in this area.

The Business Grants Portal, launched in 2017, provides a one-stop shop for businesses to identify and apply for the right grant for their plans.

To make it easier for businesses to transact with the Government, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and relevant agencies are developing a one-stop portal, with a pilot to be launched for the food services sector by 3Q 2019. Businesses will deal with only one point of contact, instead of up to the 14 different ones today.

BCA and HDB are also testing the use of drones to inspect building facades more effectively. Learning from these pilots, government agencies will continue to innovate, and improve the ease of doing business.

Equipping Singaporeans with skills for digital environment

Mr Heng Swee Keat said that the budget would not only to support Singapore enterprises to build deep capabilities so that they can succeed in the global competition. But the ultimate goal is to enable Singaporeans to continue to have good jobs and opportunities, and to be at their best. Hence, the second thrust of the economic transformation in this Budget is to deepen the capabilities of Singaporean workers.

 We want our people to have the skills, knowledge, and attitude to adapt and thrive in this competitive and technology-intensive environment. On the part of the Government, we will continue to invest in our people across all stages of their lives, from pre-school, to work. the Finance Minister said.

With the national SkillsFuture movement and the Adapt and Grow initiatives, this has enabled Singaporeans to reach their fullest potential throughout life, and help those affected by restructuring. The government is continuously supporting workers to upgrade their digital skills and become future ready.

Global perspective on innovation

The third key area is to build on global partnerships, so that firms and people can forge new areas of collaboration with other innovation centres.

In Budget 2017,  the Global Innovation Alliance (GIA)was launched, one of the Committee on the Future Economy’s recommendations. We have now established nine nodes in global start-up hotspots, such as Bangkok, Beijing, Berlin, Jakarta, and San Francisco. These GIA nodes give our entrepreneurs and students opportunities to learn and build networks globally.

Economic transformation is critical

Mr Heng Swee concluded his speech on transforming the economy by saying “Economic transformation is critical.We expect to spend $4.6 billion over the next three years on the new and enhanced economic capability-building measures in Budget 2019, and to support Singaporean workers.”

“$3.6 billion will go towards helping our workers to thrive amid industry and technological changes. $1 billion will go towards helping firms build deep enterprise capabilities.”

 

 

 

PARTNER

Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

PARTNER

CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

Well-known for our strengths in system integration and consultation, CTC Global proves to be the preferred IT outsourcing destination for organizations all over Singapore today.

PARTNER

Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

SUPPORTING ORGANISATION

SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

PARTNER

HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

PARTNER

IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

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