Page 31 - 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

24-Hour air quality monitoring network

The ambient air in Singapore is monitored through a network of air monitoring stations located
in different parts of the island. Continuous analysers at the monitoring stations measure levels
of particulate matter, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone and carbon monoxide. These
pollutants are used in the calculation of the Pollution Standards Index (PSI). The hourly PSI is
reported by region and made available to the public via a web-portal and mobile apps. The air
quality network also allows tracking of long-term air quality trends to assess the effectiveness
of pollution control policies.

3.3. Productivity dimension
The third dimension of ITU SSC KPIs revolves around the economy, productivity and innovation,
with a particular focus on ICTs.

Singapore’s Smart Nation’s initiatives transcend internet connectivity and involve enabling
technology to improve the business productivity of its economy’s capital and labour force. The
initiatives encompass tools and technology meant to improve inclusivity, economic growth and
development into the future. Like many other developed countries around the world, Singapore
faces issues of urban density and an aging population. To combat this, city-state stakeholders
have engaged local universities, tech start-ups, research and development institutes and
investment firms to enable big data and analytics technologies, and next-generation sensor
networks. Enabling these technologies will encourage entrepreneurs from around the world to
leverage Singapore’s smart infrastructure and employ their solutions in Singapore. The country
will create an environment in which new ideas can be tested, as the country offers itself as an
“early adopter” further improving technologies that can be scaled globally. In order to advance
and progress its ICT capabilities, Singapore intends to spend S$0.4B support digital innovation
from 2016 to 2020. This aligns with the ITU KPIs on investment in R&D and will continue to be
measured going forward.

To drive innovation, start-up accelerators in JTC Corporation’s Launchpad, IIPL BASH and Clean
Tech Park are all examples of the strong presence of venture capitalists and multinational
companies. The new Jurong Innovation District (JID), a technological and innovation cluster,
helps to nurture creative innovations and provides enterprise exposure for different innovations

to be validated and tested in the market. Singapore holds a high global ranking for its start-up
ecosystem, with a top score among the countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Singapore ranks sixth
in the world for global innovation and scores the highest in Global Connectedness in the Asia-
Pacific region. The country also tops the global ranking for start-up talent (ahead even of Silicon
Valley).
Another example of ICT and advancing a more productive ICT based economy is the Monetary
Authority of Singapore (MAS) (Figure 4) opening its FinTech Innovation Lab to serve as a
platform for the financial technology (FinTech) community to connect, collaborate and create
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with one another.

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Monetary Authority of Singapore.

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