Mrs Tan Ching Yee, Chief Executive Officer Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore Speech Launch of the RosettaNet Architecture Centre of Excellence, Nanyang Polytechnic
Mrs Tan Ching Yee, Chief Executive Officer
Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore Speech
Launch of the RosettaNet Architecture Centre of Excellence, Nanyang Polytechnic
Singapore, 16 September 2004
Good afternoon,
Mr Herman Stiphout, President, RosettaNet,
Mr Edward Ho, Deputy Principal for Technology, Nanyang Polytechnic,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
1. I am happy to be here for this event. This event is significant for two reasons. First, we are among friends and partners. In September 2000, a RosettaNet chapter was set up in Singapore. To-date, IDA has cultivated a base of more than 150 RosettaNet partner companies, laying a firm foundation for efficient global B2B communication.
2. The most recent partnership with RosettaNet was the formation of the RosettaNet Global Logistics Council in March this year, co-hosted by RosettaNet and IDA. Through this Council, Singapore hopes to play a more active role in facilitating the development of new e-business process standards in logistics.
3. Nanyang Polytechnic has been a partner of IDA in several areas. Let me name a few: the NYP-Cisco IP Convergence Lab, set up in 2001, and the NYP-IBM Web Services Innovation Zone, set up in 2002. These two Centres, among the other specialist centres that NYP has set up together with her partners, have gone a great step in supporting the industry in leading technology applications development.
4. For this collaboration, NYP has committed to develop and deliver innovative Infocomm applications and solutions for the industry, leveraging on XML, Web Services and open computing technologies - areas that IDA wishes to promote.
5. I believe that with NYP's strong focus and commitment on capabilities development in Infocomm technologies, we will have more partnerships to come.
6. In addition to RosettaNet and Nanyang Polytechnic, the contributions of our industry sponsors to this Centre are equally significant. They have made strong contributions in manpower, software and hardware, amongst others. The sponsors include Cisco Systems, Gridnode, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Institute of Information Industry (Taiwan), Intel, Microsoft, NCS, Oracle, and Singapore Computer Systems. Without their strong support, this Centre would just have remained a concept.
First Architecture Centre Outside Of the US
7. The second reason for this being a significant event is that this Centre is the first Architecture Centre outside of the USA. IDA is pleased that RosettaNet Global has chosen Singapore to be the location to house this Centre. This is testimony that Singapore has the necessary talent, infrastructure and business knowledge to help RosettaNet and industry partners to develop and integrate business processes standards.8. The Singapore economy, though small, is highly diversified. It has a thriving manufacturing sector with several clusters of world-class excellence. For example, more than one third of the world hard disk drives are manufactured in Singapore. Singapore also hosts HP's global R&D centres for inkjet printers and networking products, and it makes the PCs, workstations, servers, networking products, imaging and printing products and supplies here. Matsushita Singapore manufactures more than half of the Matsushita Group's global output of refrigerator compressors, which is equivalent to about 10% of total global output. Finally, the Philips' design centre in Singapore is the company's biggest set-up outside the Netherlands, employing more than 1,000 development engineers and industrial designers.
9. Singapore is the world's 4th largest foreign exchange trading centre. Last year, we were one of the world's busiest port handling 18.41 million TEUs (Twenty foot Equivalent Units). Singapore is also an ICT hub - rated world's second most networked ready economy by the World Economic Forum in 2003. Thus in one city state, we have gathered the key elements for ICT-enabled B2B business integration - goods flow, information flow, financial flow and talent flow.
10. Singapore also serves as the test bed for exciting new technologies and business processes. I understand that RosettaNet is moving towards Web Services and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies; so is Singapore. Last year, the IDA launched its Web Services Add Value to Enterprises (WEAVE, in short) programme to encourage adoption. This year, IDA announced a S$10 million plan to catalyse the adoption of RFID. There is much RosettaNet and Singapore can do to combine these powerful new technologies for business efficiency. Some ideas include the incorporation of the Electronic Product Code (EPC) information into RosettaNet partner interface processes; integration of RFID chips with RosettaNet standards; and the development and testing of new supply chain capabilities in e-payment, collaborative design and e-logistics.
Benefits to Singapore Infocomm and User Companies
11. For Singapore based infocomm companies, this Centre will develop new capabilities and create new business opportunities in areas such as the development of new solutions.12. The RosettaNet user community in Singapore will benefit from the opportunity to pilot the use of new and improved RosettaNet PIPs and technology standards that will boost their efficiency and competitiveness. For example, the new architecture developed could help to reduce the initial investment for adoption substantially. This will be particularly beneficial to our 3,000 plus SMEs in the high tech manufacturing sector. Of course, what works here in this Digital Living Lab that we call Singapore could work equally well in other parts of the world. By offering Singapore as a development centre and test bed location, we hope to play our part in advancing RosettaNet standards in the global stage.
Conclusion
13. In closing, I would like to thank RosettaNet, Nanyang Polytechnic, our partners from the ICT industry and user communities for your strong support. Working together, we will make ICT work better for our businesses.14. Thank you.
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