IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The Asian city state embarked on e-commerce 29 years ago and, as one of the world leaders in the field, now exports its expertise around the world to share its experience and help others learn its experience.

In San Francisco today, booking a car ride does not necessarily mean having a driver pick you up at your location. Instead, you might open the Waymo One mobile application, enter your destination, and within minutes, a silent and driverless car will pull up, and there is no one behind the wheel. What was once a scene from the Netflix sci-fi series Black Mirror has now become a way of life there. Waymo is a subsidiary of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, and it operates one of the world’s largest commercial robotaxi services.

• The World Bank predicts a 70% urban population by 2050, driving the need for smarter cities and systems to run them.
• Projects in Saudi Arabia, Australia, and Singapore prioritize social and environmental considerations into their design.
• True smart living begins with designing for delivery, and beyond.

According to the World Bank, nearly 70% of the world's population will live in cities by 2050. To meet this demand, cities must accommodate growing populations, enable mobility through well-planned transport networks, power activities with efficient energy systems, and support modern life with integrated, real-time solutions.

Technology is increasingly being deployed at all levels of government around the world to combat COVID-19. While ARC sees significant headwinds affecting smart city markets over the next couple of years due to decreased tax revenue, reduced workforce, and more, many cities, states, and countries are forging ahead with large increases in technology investment both to combat COVID-19 and reignite economic growth in beleaguered cities. While ARC expects many smart cities related markets to decline in 2020, this increased investment in technology will provide an impetus for growth and quick recovery. Here are some examples of what’s happening around the world right now.

Beyond in-person or virtual lectures, the Academy will provide instructor-led workshops, tech talks, exchanges with communities of practice, hackathons, and offers for on-the-job training.

The Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech Singapore) has introduced a new platform designed to raise the digital competencies of all public service leaders and officers, particularly those in ICT.

From green city to a smart city, Singapore’s on the forefront of pioneering technologies that almost seem unheard of to the common citizen.

The recent keynote at AsiaTech Singapore, held by Lim Chinn Hwa, Senior Director of the Smart Nation Sensor Platform (SNSP), GovTech Singapore untangles the curious questions we have about how SNSP is the key to better serving the community.

India’s vast Smart Cities Mission contrasts Singapore’s precise Smart Nation initiative. Can scale or precision better solve urban challenges in these rapidly growing Asian nations?

India’s Smart Cities Mission, launched in 2015, aims to transform 100 cities into sustainable, tech-enabled urban hubs. By July 2024, 90% of its 8,000+ multi-sectoral projects were completed, with investments exceeding $19 billion. Cities like Bhubaneswar and Pune lead the charge. Bhubaneswar’s Smart Janpath project integrates smart parking and intelligent traffic systems, reducing congestion by 15% in key areas. Pune’s shift to cleaner fuels saw 90% of its bus fleet electrified by 2024, cutting emissions by 20%. These efforts target India’s urban population, now 35% of its total, projected to hit 50% by 2050.

Four Indian cities—New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru—witnessed a significant drop in their rankings in the global listing of smart cities that was topped by Singapore.

The Institute for Management Development (IMD), in collaboration with Singapore University for Technology and Design (SUTD), has released the 2020 Smart City Index, with key findings on how technology is playing a role in the COVID-19 era.

IDA International, the execution arm of IDA for public service ICT collaboration between Singapore and countries around the world, shared Singapore’s change management strategies in adopting and implementing e-governance.

In the first extension of the use of national personal data platform MyInfo, customers opening accounts with DBS, United Overseas Bank, OCBC Bank, and Standard Chartered will no longer have to fill in voluminous forms or submit documents such as income statements.

Instead, the bank can call up their details from MyInfo to make it a swifter, fuss-free affair.

Deputy Minister of Communications and Information Technology Haytham Bin Abdulrahman Al-Ohali has asserted that the Saudi leadership pays great attention to futuristic industries as part of efforts to enrich the citizen's life and meet his needs.

He said this was in line with the three main pillars of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030: a prosperous economy, vital society and ambitious nation, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

• Singaporeans can now scan their face to log into SingPass, as well as send an SMS one-time password to another SingPass user’s mobile number

Biometric security measures keep gaining in popularity as use cases pop up in all manner of sectors, with the latest in Singapore being the addition of facial recognition verification to access online governmental services via SingPass, the official e-government account for Singapore citizens.

• Claimed to be the world’s largest digital twin of a country, Vizzio “cloned” the entire Singapore by using AI, with photoreal renditions from aerial to building to street level to indoors, in a seamless interactive 3D tour.
• Vizzio will also be launching a metaverse version of Singapore and the world for leisure and gamification purposes.
• The company even has the capability to clone the entire planet earth on a global scale and is ready to be used by government and commercial entities.

A digital twin is, to put it simply, a digital model of a physical asset. It basically collects information via sensors, drones or other IoT and Industrial IoT tools, and applies advanced analytics, machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) in order to churn real-time insights about the physical asset’s overall performance. The technology is very promising when it comes tothe creation of smart cities around the world

This forecast includes spending by government on internal services, software, IT services, data center, devices and telecom services.

The Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore has developed CorpPass, a new log in portal for businesses.

The rollout by IDA aims to enhance security and privacy among organisations, as well as individuals who make use of the alternative SingPass account.

CorpPass allows business executives to apply for grants, or declare import, export goods. Businesses are leveraging SingPass accounts for corporate transactions at the moment, however, IDA plans to segregate the accounts to avoid mix up and protect individual data.

Singapore was the highest index-ranked Smart City in the world in 2021, followed by a tie between Zurich and Oslo, according to Statista. While China did not have any cities listed on the index-ranked list, they are certainly working to build digital and business collaborations with Singapore through their Smart City Initiative, which was launched in 2019.

What are some of the specifics that Singapore and China are working on with this initiative? There are a total of eight agreements and 14 projects between the two. Some of the projects include planning to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and boost how batteries are used for electric vehicles via artificial intelligence.

Singapore is the smartest Asian city and the seventh smartest in the world, according to the 2023 Smart City Index.

Published by Swiss business school Institute for Management Development (IMD) on Tuesday, the index ranks 141 cities by how they use technology to address the challenges they face to achieve a higher quality of life.

Singapore has launched the Singpass app, which allows citizens to log into eGovernment services with biometric authentication.

"The new SingPass Mobile app will offer a more convenient log-in option, as users no longer need to enter their passwords to log in," said GovTech's chief executive, Mr Kok Ping Soon, in a statement on Monday, reported the Straits Times.

The Singapore government has received another big pat on the back for its continuing efforts to bolster citizen services through digital technology.

The latest Waseda-IAC International E-Government Ranking has placed Singapore right at the pinnacle again, for three consecutive years.