Page 17 - Implementing ITU-T International Standards to Shape Smart Sustainable Cities: The Case of Singapore

Implementing ITU-T International Standards to Shape Smart Sustainable Cities –
The Case of Singapore

Singapore is particularly well positioned to lead the way in transforming itself into a Smart
Nation. The country’s governance system simplifies the process of implementing smart city plans
and allows public initiatives to be enacted relatively quickly. This is because it has a single layer
of government (versus Federal and State-level administrations), allowing it to avoid the complex
bureaucracies prevalent in other nations and island states. Additionally, Singapore is willing and
able to dedicate funds to infrastructural enhancements designed to make its Smart Nation plans
a reality.
With these advantages, Singapore has been moving to deploy sensors to increase the
connectivity of its infrastructure with the cars and people who use them, in concert with
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advanced ICTs.
In a recent development, Singapore has restructured the agencies responsible for its Smart
Nation initiative.

In May 2017, the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office (SNDGO) office was founded
under the Prime Minister’s office (PMO). This brought together teams working on various
aspects of Smart Nation and Digital Government policy, such as the SNPO, the Digital
Government Directorate from the Ministry of Finance, and the Government Technology Policy
Department from the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI). The Government
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Technology Agency (GovTech), formerly a statutory board under the MCI, was placed directly
under the PMO as the implementing arm of the SNDGO.
The move was intended to accelerate Singapore’s Smart Nation efforts by enabling the
government to work in a more integrated and responsive manner on Smart Nation and Digital
Government matters.

SNDGO and GovTech are collectively referred to as the Smart Nation and Digital Government
Group (SNDGG) within PMO.

A key role of the SNDGG is to work in partnership with government agencies, industry and
citizens to (a) apply digital and smart technology to improve citizens’ lives; (b) develop digital
enablers and platforms for Smart Nation, to grow economic value and catalyse innovation by
companies and citizens; and (c) to drive the digital transformation of the public service,
strengthen government ICT infrastructure and improve public service delivery.

The key strategic national projects of the SNDGG include the creation of a national digital
identity framework to facilitate digital transactions; the development of a national sensor
platform with common infrastructure and analytics capabilities for public agencies; driving
e-payments adoption; improving urban mobility; and the development of citizen-centric, user-
friendly and personalised government services centred on key life moments.

7 GreenBiz, 2014.

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GovTech was formed in Dec 2016.

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