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The Singapore government has established a new digital-focused office expected to create 10,000 technology related jobs over the next three years.
The establishment of Digital Industry Singapore (DISG) is a joint effort between Economic Development Board (EDB), Enterprise Singapore and Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).
The move comes as the government looks for ways to better support and capitalise on the growth opportunities for Singapore’s technology sector.
Specifically, the new office aims to transform the way the Singapore government engages with the private technology sector, as it serves as a single interface for the industry. This streamlined approach will enable DISG to better understand companies’ needs, with a view to anchor global technology leaders, build local champions, and nurture future ready talent in Singapore.
“Singapore today is a vibrant technology hub that is home to 80 of the top 100 global technology companies, and more than 4,000 home-grown and international start-ups from around the world,” said Kiren Kumar, chief digital industry officer, DISG.
“With the complimentary networks, resources and programmes of EDB, Enterprise Singapore and IMDA coming together, DISG will seek to achieve our mission to establish Singapore as a global-Asia technology hub with deep capabilities, strong infrastructure and a vibrant ecosystem of local and global enterprises, from which new products, services, business models and partnerships are created for Asia and beyond."
Furthermore, DISG will build up both the consumer technology and enterprise technology segments of the ecosystem.
Specific to consumer, it will assist companies to tap into the growing, mobile-first Asian market to capture opportunities in areas such as ride-hailing, ecommerce, fintech and new media.
On the enterprise side, DISG will leverage Singapore’s "established base of diverse industry sectors" and ongoing investments to digitalise the economy to help companies build new solutions in areas such as cyber security, artificial intelligence, payments and cloud, that can scale globally from Singapore.
In collaboration with industry and relevant government agencies, DISG will also co-create future-ready policies and guide investments in areas such as data, talent, trade and digital infrastructure. This will serve to strengthen Singapore’s capabilities and enhance the nation’s competitiveness as a business location for companies in the technology sector.
Furthermore, beyond technology roles in engineering, software and product development, DISG expects that jobs in other functions, such as finance, human resources, innovation and business development, will also be created.
To prepare Singaporeans for these frontier jobs, the new office will work closely with IMDA, the industry and local education institutions to implement training programmes and on-the job training.
These training initiatives will cover areas such as artificial intelligence, cyber security, data science, network engineering, software development, user experience design and product management.
