The Assurance, Care and Engagement (ACE) Group, in partnership with the Smart Nation and Digital Government Group, the Building and Construction Authority, the Economic Development Board and industry partners such as The Singapore Contractors Association, will be distributing more than 450,000 contact-tracing devices to all migrant and local workers living or working in dormitories, as well as those in the Construction, Marine Shipyard and Process sectors.
The distribution of the devices will be carried out in phases from 18 October 2020 and is expected to be completed by early November 2020.
Contract Tracing Devices purpose built for worksite environments
The contact-tracing devices, BluePass tokens, are purpose-built for the dormitory and worksite environment. They are compact and water-resistant, and can be worn at all times.
They will be interoperable with and complement the use of the TraceTogether app on migrant workers’ smartphones, as some workers may not always be carrying their phones at work and at the dormitories.
The ACE Group and sector agencies will trial and evaluate how these tokens function and perform in the rugged work environments, and how the data from the tokens can help improve contact tracing and the quarantine process when new COVID-19 cases are detected.
Tokens will help minimise COVID-19 transmission and work disruptions
This will benefit employers and workers because only close contacts will be isolated, thereby minimising any work disruptions.
Data can also be extracted from the tokens, to assess the extent of intermixing amongst the workers. This can help employers and workers better understand how preventive measures can be taken to minimise intermixing and potential transmission of the virus.
The contact-tracing devices will be distributed with the support of the Forward Assurance and Support Teams to migrant workers living in purpose-built dormitories.
Workers living in other types of accommodation will be issued their devices at Regional Screening Centres for Rostered Routine Tests.
Self-collection points will be set up for workers residing in decant sites and other forms of accommodation. Employers and workers will be informed of the collection dates subsequently.
Photo Credit: www.gov.sg
Cloud has emerged as the biggest enabler in assisting businesses to operate and thrive in these unstable times. Most organisations have transitioned to a full cloud or hybrid data storage model to ensure their employees can work seamlessly from remote locations.
As the shift to the cloud was done, in many cases, hurriedly as a reactive measure due to the severity of the pandemic, it may not have been the best in terms of security. Organisations are now feeling vulnerable and exposed because they do not know how best to make their cloud platforms more secure and reliable.
OpenGov Asia hit the nail on the head with the OpenGovLive! Virtual Breakfast Insight it organised for delegates from various agencies and organisations in Singapore to discuss the reliability and efficiency of their cloud strategies to deliver mission-critical services.
The Virtual Breakfast Insight on 26 November 2020 witnessed an overwhelming response from the delegates both in terms of their attendance and engagement.
The pace of transformation has picked up significantly but security is still a concern
Mohit Sagar, Group Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief at OpenGov Asia opened the session with a quick round of introductions in the virtual room and set the tone for the discussions to follow.
He acknowledged that cloud technology is not new, but its acceptance and adoption have risen significantly in the COVID-19 era.
Drawn into the digital transformation wave, citizens are becoming increasingly reliant on digital solutions, pushing governments and private service providers to be more adaptive and accessible in service delivery.
Mohit also pointed out that though the pace of transformation has picked up significantly, security still remains a big concern. Most certainly, the public sector that harbours much sensitive information on its citizens and residents, needs to be extra cautious in this regard.
Digital solutions in the new normal demand rapid digital transformation strategies that are well thought out and planned, keeping accessibility, agility and security as the pillars on which everything else develops.
In conclusion, Mohit urged delegates to not waste any time trying to do all this in-house. He stressed the power of a well-coordinated partnership with experts to attain stability and security in their cloud operations.
Organisations must Innovate their digital infrastructure
After Mohit’s opening, Yee May Leong, Managing Director, Equinix South Asia took to the virtual podium to share her insights with the delegates.
Yee May emphasised the need to fast track digital strategies and the pivotal role leaders play in driving them. She shared that the most optimal way of doing it is minimising the distance and cost between employees, customers and other stakeholders.
She went on to explain the role that digital infrastructure plays in driving this advantage and how Singapore’s Smart Nation Program has made this digital infrastructure is easy to access
Yee May encouraged delegates to focus on three major goals as they progress on their cloud journey:
- Solve performance, scale, and flexibility challenges
- Accelerate growth and gain agility
- Sharpen competitive edge
She underscored how Equinix is leading the way for digital transformation by sharing a few customer testimonials.
In conclusion, Yee May opined that focus must on consolidating the right resources, people and possibilities to ensure success as digital leaders. She signed off by encouraging the delegates to reach out to them to know more.
An Overview of Victoria Government’s digital strategy to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic
After Yee May’s presentation, Jithma Beneragama, Director, Digital, Design and Innovation of the Department of Premier and Cabinet (Victoria), shared some interesting insights on digital initiatives being run by the Victorian government and how they harnessed Cloud Technology to manage the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jithma began by agreeing that governments are incredibly complicated organisations in terms of structure and that there is an urgent need to transform the way they use digital tools and technology. He explained that his team’s focus has been to make technology and the process of digital transformation faster, simpler, scalable and repeatable.
Jithma went on to share some of the initiatives they worked on as the challenges of the pandemic became increasingly complex.
The first course of action was to create a consolidated platform, a dedicated hub for all information related to the COVID-19 pandemic. He confirmed that their goal was not only to simplify the frontend of technology tools for the citizens but also to create a decentralised backend for easy navigation and use of employees.
The next step for them was to ensure that this information is stored and hosted in a scalable environment that can cope with the dramatic and almost instantaneous changes in traffic. Their major priority was to make sure that the cloud platform storing all this information is highly secure with proper access and response across all Victorian Government departments.
In summary, Jithma emphasised the importance of having fast, scalable, repeatable and secure digital applications, especially for the public sector.
Defining a multi-cloud strategy in the current environment
After Jithma’s sharing of best practices, Zheng Guanglei, Chief Cloud Solution Architect, WhaleCloud, shared his organisation’s perspective with the audience.
After briefly introducing the company to the audience, Zheng clearly defined multi-cloud strategy and the 3 main multi-cloud scenarios that are being adopted by organisations worldwide. They are private + public cloud, multiple public clouds, and private cloud + multiple public clouds.
After shedding some light on these three scenarios, he shared a fact that as much as 81% of all organisations are working with two or more cloud providers. This trend is mainly because organisations are recognising the benefits of using multiple clouds like greater flexibility, data sovereignty, disaster recovery etc.
But like everything else, multi-cloud options also bring in challenges like management difficulties, lack of IT skills, large CapEx in the private cloud etc. In the same vein, he also shared that the best way to overcome these challenges is to deploy a multi-cloud management platform that is flexible, fully managed and highly secure.
Zheng outlined the different kinds of services and support his organisation can provide to the customers like migration services (defining, planning, and executing the migration of data), cloud-enabling services (architecture design, security, training etc.) and cloud management services (interfacing with cloud vendors, SLA’s etc).
He concluded his presentation by sharing specific pointers that are essential to make a multi-cloud strategy a success. These include a secure and controllable environment, flexible and scalable technologies and change-driven leadership.
After the informative presentations by the speakers, it was time for the interactive polling session and discussion with the delegates.
On the first question about their organisation’s long term cloud strategy, a majority of the delegates voted that they plan on having a hybrid cloud strategy with some data sitting on-premise, some in the private cloud, and some in public/shared cloud (80%).
A senior delegate from the banking industry reflected that he believes that multi-cloud strategy is the future but due to so many compliance and regulations in Singapore, they are currently leveraging a hybrid cloud.
The next question polled the delegates on their respective organisation’s current percentage of mission-critical services put onto the public cloud this year almost two-thirds went with greater than or equal to 40% but less than 80%.
A digital executive from the financial services industry shared that because of the very sensitive nature of their data, it is very difficult for them to move all their data on the cloud and hence his vote for this option.
On the final question about the external help needed most by the organisation on cloud migration, close to half of the delegates voted for changing mindsets from traditional DC Ops to DevOps in the cloud (43%).
Another participant from banking shared that the biggest challenge for them to create a collaborative environment through the cloud, in particular convincing the staff to make that move.
After the polling session, Yee May addressed the audience with closing remarks. She thanked all the delegates for participating and sharing their challenges with them. She also opined that the journey of migration to the cloud starts with taking small steps and gradually scaling them.
Yee May urged the delegates to feel free to reach out to their team in case they have any questions or queries about the cloud scenarios and solutions discussed during the session. She also encouraged them to explore partner with them to facilitate their cloud journey.
In collaboration with
In Singapore, some heroes are comparatively small, silent creatures that operate behind the scenes to keep Singapore running.
We’re talking of course, about drones. Since their inception, various agencies in Singapore have been trying to use them to make tasks easier, safer and more efficient.
Let’s take a look at some of these ‘silent’ heroes and the jobs that they do – some of them are on trial, yes, but hey, it’s always fun to take a glimpse into the future.
Supporting anti-dengue operations!
With Singapore facing a record number of dengue cases this year, it is a priority to eliminate dengue hotspots this year. Some of these hotspots though are located in areas that might be challenging to carry out anti-dengue operations.
One example? Private residential estates.
To solve this, NEA has been using drones to check for mosquito breeding. The drones can fly over houses, and look out for potential breeding sites, such as the roof gutters in private estates.
Making building inspections SUAVE
Building inspections can be dangerous and time-consuming affairs, where there is a risk of accidents and falls. Not to mention, a lot of equipment and manpower is needed to ensure this happens safely.
SLA’s way of overcoming this? Flying drones equipped with an algorithm called SUAVE (Smart Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Enhanced) which analyses buildings for defects and potential maintenance issues. Small cracks, debris, water ponding, you name it!
The results are pretty impressive – the use of drones saves up to 80% for time and only uses 60% of the cost required for a conventional inspection.
Island hopping, drone style
Most drones rely on 4G and WiFi for operation and navigation. However, when out at sea, both of these signals are affected by sea waves, weather conditions and passing ships.
That said, SLA and GovTech is running trials with a way to get past this, by deploying a large drone that uses TVWS (TV White Space), which, at the risk of sounding very nerdy – is the inactive space found between channels actively used in UHF and VHF spectrum with frequency spans from 470 MHz – 790 MHz.
In real-world terms, this means that the drone can theoretically be piloted for a range of 10 km, and can stream live images of the remote Southern Islands using TVWS. This is something that many commercial drones can’t do.
Currently, SLA officers have to travel by boat and on foot to carry out manual inspections on the general upkeep of the islands i.e. grass cutting, housekeeping, pest control, arboriculture and horticulture works.
If it all works out, this drone can help inspections on the island to be done remotely and also more efficiently.
Keeping us safe, from the skies
We might not have those police helicopters as they do in the United States, but the police here are developing drones that give operators a clear picture of the ground situation instead.
These drones have a range of a few hundred metres, and are equipped with cameras with high powered zoom lenses – they are kinda like a hawk patrolling its grounds. In addition, they are also capable of missions up to 30 minutes, reducing the need for manpower.
Singapore deployed them this year in a trial, monitoring industrial areas on the western part of the island, as well as areas that are susceptible to crimes such as housebreaking and theft.
Keeping calm and swimming on
Unlike all the other drones we’ve mentioned earlier, the NUSwan is a swimmer, not a flyer.
Beneath their elegant exteriors, they have propellers instead of legs and can operate for hours without the need for sustenance. They’re also built to survive close encounters with boats – talk about durability!
These robot swans patrol Singapore’s reservoirs and keep us safe by assessing pollution and the drinkability of water. Sensors located in the NUSwan measure oxygen levels or chlorophyll, and stream these in real-time back to a central command centre – which can also control them remotely.
Yes, that’s right – an army of Robot Swans – it’s no wonder they decided to film Westworld in Singapore.
What’s next?
It’s amazing how fast technology develops! Just a decade ago, few of us would have imagined the uses that drones have today. With that in mind, what the future for us will be equally mind-boggling.
What we do know though, is that they’re here to stay. The next time to see a drone out in public, don’t be alarmed!
Chances are, like us, they’re just doing their job.
Photo Credit: GOVTECH
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced today the 20 finalists for the 2020 Global FinTech Hackcelerator. The finalists this year comprise several unique solutions that seek to drive positive social and environmental impact within the financial sector, in response to the challenges posed by COVID-19 and climate change.
The Global FinTech Hackcelerator identifies innovative market-ready solutions to address real industry needs. The finalists will pitch their solutions at the Global FinTech Hackcelerator Demo Day at the 2020 Singapore FinTech Festival x Singapore Week of Innovation and TeCHnology (SFF x SWITCH).
Mr Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer, MAS said, “Over the past four years, the Global FinTech Hackcelerator has provided FinTechs from Singapore and around the world with an excellent platform to showcase innovative solutions that can solve key problems within the financial industry. This year, there is added urgency to address pressing challenges brought about by COVID-19 and climate change. This is evident from the record number of problem statements submitted by the industry. We look forward to seeing our finalists use the Global FinTech Hackcelerator as a launchpad towards greater success while helping the financial industry tackle the health, economic, and climate crises facing our generation.”
The finalists were selected through two parallel segments – the Local Programme, which addressed high-priority problem statements collated from the finance industry in Singapore and globally; and the International Programme, which comprised solutions from winners of FinTech competitions organised by international partners.
• In the Local Programme, supported by KPMG Digital Village, 10 finalists were shortlisted from over 270 submissions from across more than 40 countries. These submissions addressed a record 107 problem statements across four categories: Responding to a Global Pandemic; Green Finance Solutions; Green Finance Enablers; and Sustainability. More than 150 of the submissions came from Asia and about a third were from Singapore.
• The International Programme participants comprised 10 winners from six independent FinTech competitions organised by our international partners. This year, the Global FinTech Hackcelerator’s international partners are Abu Dhabi Global Market, Accelpoint, the Saudi G20 Presidency and the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub, the Central Bank of Kenya, the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and Women’s World Banking.In total, more than 700 FinTechs spanning across the globe participated in the International Programme.
During Demo Day on 10 December, finalists will present their innovations and the top three winners will win S$50,000 in prize money each. All 20 finalists will also receive a S$20,000 cash stipend and be fast-tracked in their applications to receive grant funding under the MAS Financial Sector Technology and Innovation (FSTI) Proof of-Concept Scheme.
In addition, the finalists will exhibit their solutions as part of the Digital Showcase at SFF x SWITCH. The finalists will also be invited to a dedicated Deal Friday networking session in November to meet potential investors.
Until late-2019, the world witnessed and suffered numerous emergencies and disasters like wildfires, tornados, floods, etc. as individual nations and larger geographical regions. But it was only at the end of the year that the world was hit by a global pandemic that caught everyone totally off guard.
The scale and magnitude of the pandemic have heightened the need to be more resilient and prepared to manage multiple critical threats. In order to inform and educate organisations on this crucial area, OpenGov Asia organised an OpenGovLive! Virtual Insight on 25 November 2020 to discuss Organisational Resilience 2.0.
The virtual event witnessed a full house with delegates attending from a wide range of organisations from Singapore, India, Australia and Hong Kong.
Have well-orchestrated business continuity plans backed by technology
The session was opened by Mohit Sagar, Group Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief at OpenGov Asia. Mohit started by acknowledging the fact that the pandemic has made the world realise how unprepared we were to deal with something of that magnitude.
Business continuity plans and risk mitigation strategies were never designed for a situation like this. He emphasised that it is important for organisations to learn from all this and become more resilient for the next big critical event.
Not only do organisations need to keep their people and assets safe, but must also learn to keep their businesses running. Managing critical events should become a part of the business’s DNA and should not disrupt the daily functions frequently.
The need of the hour is to have a well-orchestrated business continuity plan that involves and takes into consideration every small aspect of an organisation’s structure and one that is backed by the latest technology.
In conclusion, Mohit advised the delegates to partner with experts who are seasoned critical management experts rather than trying to do everything on their own from scratch.
Everbridge’s critical event management suite will structure response and mitigate risk
Once Mohit set the stage for the topic at hand, Graeme Orsborn, Vice President – International CEM Business Unit, shared his views with the delegates.
Graeme started by providing a comprehensive overview of how Everbridge can assist in managing critical events. He shared ways in which critical events can impact an organisations’ people, assets and operations.
Interestingly, even today most organisations have manual, disjointed and siloed approaches to managing critical events. This makes it challenging to have them work in a synchronised manner.
The main goal of an integrated platform like the Everbridge CEM suite is to remove these silos and disjointed workflows and drive a more collaborated and effective effort. This coordinated and cohesive environment is conducive to implementing a common platform-based strategy.
He then proposed what organisations should ideally do to effectively manage a critical event. The four necessary steps include:
- Assess the context and severity of the event
- Locate stakeholders and assets
- Act by informing, notifying, rallying, mitigating and fixing the impact
- Analyse the organisation’s performance by reporting, complying and learning
These are four components form the ethos of the Everbridge critical event management suite and everything is built on these pillars.
Graeme concluded his address by explaining how automation of the management process can help enhance organisational resilience in the new normal.
The Scottish Local Government’s phased approach of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic
After Graeme, Martyn Wallace, Chief Digital Officer, Scottish Local Government Digital Office gave a summary of how they managed the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Scottish government followed a phased approach comprising of 3 major phases in dealing with the global pandemic:
– Response
– Recovery and
– Renewal
In the Response Phase, they focused on establishing incident response mechanisms, cross-sectional workforces and supporting the staff to work from home.
In the Recovery Phase, they focused on digital transformation, remote learning and strengthening cybersecurity.
In the final phase of Renewal, they focused on digital maturity, review of services and accessing key data and driving insights from it.
Martyn concluded his address by sharing certain principles that governed this process. They are:
- instantaneous decision making
- empowering the workforce and organisation as a whole to work together effectively
- deploying tools that enable active communication
- working as a team without silos or egos
- working to achieve a common set of goals
Organisations need to be agnostic and agile in managing critical events
After Martyn’s insightful sharing, Mark Shortman, Principal and Head of Crisis and Resilience Consulting, Asia Pacific, Control Risks offered his take with the audience.
After briefly introducing his company, Mark explained the following three ways in which they assist organisations to solve complex issues and crisis:
- Building secure, reliant, and resilient organisations
- Resolving complex issues
- Delivering growth and opportunity
He emphasised the need to be agnostic and agile in managing crisis so that business as usual is maintained with no fatigue in dealing with crises.
Mark concluded his presentation by advising the delegates to opt for the technology-enabled Control Risks and Everbridge platform with numerous response and continuity that can help organisations improve resilience.
He encouraged the delegates to share their challenges and be involved in conversations with experts so that they can choose the most suitable solution for them.
After the informative presentations, it was now time for the interactive polling session.
On the first question about organisations’ preparedness to respond quickly and decisively to critical events, a majority of the delegates voted that they are well prepared but there is room for improvement (80%).
A delegate from a major bank in Australia shared that preparedness depends on geographical location and experience of dealing with crisis and pandemic. He also believes that increasing dependence on technology and the workforce’s inability to quickly adapt is a major challenge.
On the next question about having a companywide alert mechanism through various tech channels, the delegates seemed divided between yes, they have it all sorted out (41%) and they have some communication but not sure of its effectiveness (58%).
A participant from Singapore reflected that they have a mix of the traditional and modern ways of communicating like calling, email, SMS etc. They are also promoting using internal social media for this purpose.
On the final question about the instant access to critical information needed to evaluate risks and take proper action during emergency events, the delegates were yet again divided between they have established systems (53%) and they are looking for comprehensive, interactive visualisation platform (46%).
A delegate from an Indian agency shared that because their primary job is to keep track of this information and alert masses and engage local agencies about the impending crisis, they have well set up systems to access information quickly. But he also agreed that there is always room for improvement.
After the polling session, Graeme addressed the audience to close the session. He expressed his deep gratitude to the participants for taking the time to join the session and for their insightful contributions to the topic at hand.
He left the delegates with a simple but powerful message highlighting the importance of Prepare, Pursue, Protect and Prevent; ad these 4 Ps need to be executed with Speed, Scale and Simplicity (3Ss). These are the key components of the Everbridge Critical Event Management Suite.
Graeme urged the delegates to not let the experience from the pandemic go to waste but to learn to be better prepared and more resilient.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced the launch of the Green and Sustainability-Linked Loan Grant Scheme (GSLS) yesterday, which will be effective from the 1st January 2021.
The Loan Grant Scheme aims to support corporates of all sizes to obtain green and sustainable financing by covering the expenses of independent service providers to validate the green and sustainability credentials of the loan.
The grant also encourages banks to develop green and sustainability-linked loan frameworks to make this kind of financing more accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises.
Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director of MAS, said, “Loans are a key source of financing across Asia – be it for individuals, SMEs, or large corporates. Therefore, there is significant opportunity to encourage firms across different industries to transition to more sustainable practices through green and sustainability-linked loans. MAS’ grants for green loans and bonds are an important part of the green finance ecosystem that Singapore is building – to support Asia’s pivot towards a sustainable future.”
Green and Sustainability-Linked Loans
Green loans are any type of loan made available exclusively to finance or re-finance, in whole or in part, new or existing eligible green projects.
Sustainability-linked loans are any type of loan which incentivise the borrower’s achievement of ambitious, predetermined sustainability performance targets.
Unlike green loans, there are no restrictions on the use of proceeds for sustainability-linked loans, and they can be used for general corporate purposes.
Green and sustainability-linked loan frameworks refer to frameworks that spell out clear, streamlined criteria for banks to evaluate green and sustainable finance transactions.
MAS to cover expenses for assessment and advisory services for green and sustainability-linked loans
For Corporates
The grant will cover expenses incurred by corporates to engage independent sustainability assessment and advisory service providers to develop green and sustainability frameworks and targets, obtain external reviews and report on the sustainability impact of the loan. MAS will defray up to S$100,000 of these expenses per loan.
For Banks
The grant will cover expenses incurred by banks to engage independent sustainability assessment and advisory service providers to develop frameworks, obtain external reviews, and report on the allocated proceeds of loans originated under the framework. MAS will pay up to 60% of these expenses, capped at S$120,000 for such green and sustainability-linked loan frameworks.
Helping Banks support SMEs
MAS will also cover 90% the expenses incurred by banks to develop frameworks specifically targeted at SMEs and individuals, capped at S$180,000 per framework. This is to further encourage banks to provide greater support to SMEs, which are a key driver of economies, and enable individuals to contribute to the sustainability agenda by integrating sustainability considerations in their financing decisions.
Finance Action plan to promote sustainable development in Singapore and the region
The GSLS is an initiative under MAS’ Green Finance Action Plan, and will support MAS’ aim to develop green and sustainable financial markets and products to support Asia’s transition to a low-carbon future.
The grant will help to channel more financing towards green projects and enhance corporates’ sustainability practices.
To promote the transparency and integrity of green and sustainable financing flows, MAS will require corporates to engage independent sustainability assessment and service providers and obtain independent external reviews on these loans to demonstrate alignment with internationally-recognised standards.
BNP Paribas, OCBC Bank and UOB have introduced innovative green and sustainability-linked loan frameworks that will qualify for the scheme.
The banks’ frameworks feature standardised criteria and processes, which will streamline assessments of green and sustainable lending to corporates, and support the banks’ clients in financing circular economy projects, renewable energy, energy efficiency activities, and promote sustainable supply chain practices; activities that promote sustainable development in Singapore and the region.
Minister of Information and Communications, Nguyen Huy Dung, said that the development of a smart city is the implementation of digital transformation for a city with three major elements, including digital government, digital economy and, digital society.
The summit will feature the participation of around 1,000 delegates via online platforms from 27 places of provinces and cities. Smart cities are a development trend for all cities around the world and the Vietnamese government has always emphasised that the development of smart cities is a breakthrough necessary to contribute to improving national competitiveness.
According to a media report, in addition to legal documents, Vietnam has proactively joined smart city networks in the region and around the world. Currently, Vietnam has three cities, having been in the ASEAN smart city network since 2018, and nearly 40 localities implementing smart city models.
Speaking at the summit, Dung noted that from a policy perspective, smart cities are a place to pilot the implementation of services, models, and policies through the use of new digital technologies. In recent years, the Ministry of Information and Communications has proactively coordinated with relevant ministries, localities, and several international agencies from Singapore and the Republic of Korea to enhance smart city development, he added.
The 2020 Smart City Summit is a great opportunity for management agencies, experts, speakers, and enterprises from Vietnam and abroad to share and contribute their valuable experience in the building and development of smart cities.
The country recently also held the Vietnam Open Summit to promote the use of open platforms and architecture. OpenGov Asia reported that the event gathered 200 participants, including senior officials of ministries and agencies, as well as IT experts from large high-tech corporations. A lot of countries have announced they plan to only buy open technologies, especially technologies used to build national infrastructure platforms. Vietnam is also following this trend. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, apps like Bluezone and CoMeet were open-source or developed with open-source software.
The Ministry of Information and Communications has also launched the national open data portal, which has registered over 10,000 data sets. Vietnam’s 5G network will also use the open standard Open RAN. Vietnam has chosen to develop open technology, open-source software, and open data for individuals and businesses to join the creation of new values.
Nearly 3 million organisations and businesses from 70 countries have joined the open-source community. 35 out of 50 top companies in the world sent their teams to participate in the open-source projects in the forum. Vietnam ranks third in Southeast Asia and is among the top 20 in the world in open-source applications, after Singapore (17), and Malaysia (18). The government aims to develop open technology with a focus on three pillars – developing a Make-in-Vietnam open ecosystem, promoting open culture, and developing an open community.
The Makati City government is urging its residents, investors, workers, students, and visitors to download the Makatizen app to gain instant access to emergency hotlines and report crimes promptly to the authorities.
According to a press release, the app, available on Android and IOS, was created to bring information and public services, including emergency assistance and response, closer to the people who live, work, do business, or spend their leisure time in the country’s premier financial centre.
It aims to empower Makatizens to use their mobile phones to keep up with the latest developments at City Hall and to actively participate in the governance of the city. More importantly, it enables them to promptly contact the proper authorities during emergencies that require urgent government assistance and intervention.
The Makatizen app is one of the country’s technology-driven innovations focusing on mobility, resilience, and sustainability. It was presented by the mayor at the Smart City Expo World Congress held last month in Barcelona, Spain. Makati, the sole Philippine finalist in the 2019 World Smart Cities Awards, earned a top spot in the Innovative Idea category.
Since the app’s launch in 2017, the city’s central command centre at City Hall has recorded a significant increase in incident reports from 150 to 400 incidents per day, subsequently improving response time to emergencies.
As OpenGov reported earlier, local government units (LGUs) have been called up to embrace the switch to digital technologies to vastly improve their delivery of frontline services and generate more revenues under the New Economy in the post-pandemic era.
Last month, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III urged local executives start working with the national government in preparing for the seamless transfer of the additional devolved functions, services, and facilities that they would have to assume (beginning from 2022) with the implementation of the Supreme Court (SC) ruling on the far higher revenue allotment (IRA) share of LGUs.
Under the high court’s Mandanas doctrine, the IRA share of LGUs should come from all national taxes, as mandated under the 1991 Local Government Code, and not from just the taxes collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) within the respective jurisdictions of LGUs.
This expanded revenue coverage means the IRA share of LGUs should also include other taxes such as those collected by the Bureau of Customs (BOC). This sizable IRA increase for LGUs will let them pump-prime their respective local economies in the New Economy.
Technologies adopted should include the processing of business registrations and the collection of local taxes. Investments in information technology will not only make for more responsive governance but will also improve the revenue generation of LGUs.
The national economy, after all, is the sum of all local economies. LGUs are at the frontline of serving vulnerable communities; they are also catalysts for building a new economy while the nation does what it can to address the global health emergency.
