13 April 2005 - Opening Address By Mr Chan Yeng Kit, Chief Executive Officer, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore At Splash Awards - Wireless Jam 2005, Singapore Polytechnic.
Opening Address By Mr Chan Yeng Kit, Chief Executive Officer, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore At Splash Awards - Wireless Jam 2005 on 13 April 2005, Singapore Polytechnic.
Good Afternoon,
Mr Lee Kwok Cheong, President, Singapore Computer Society,
Distinguished Guests,
Participants,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Introduction
1. I know that you are all anxious to find out who the winners are, and I am standing between you and the results. Hence I promise to keep my speech short.Competition
2. I understand that this is the third year in which this competition is being held . And I am pleased happy to know that the participation rate has doubled as compared to last year. I am also heartened to note that this year's competition has received tremendous support from corporate sponsors. Sponsors include including platform developers, handset vendors & mobile operators.3. As such, this event offers an excellent opportunity for both the participants and these sponsors to network, in many senses of the word, to identify wireless applications and solutions that can be effectively deployed and commercialised, and to forge business relationships with each other.
4. In the mobile and wireless sphere, technology has advanced rapidly in the last few years. Since last year's competition, for example 3G is already a reality has been launched in Singapore and we are looking forward to the era of Wireless Broadband. Phones now have integrated cameras, PDAs, game consoles, music and video players and are much more powerful and sophisticated devices than the early PCs that some of us are old enough to remember.
5. While Java enabled handsets remain the most pervasive platform with about 450 million handsets available globally, the market for Smartphone platforms is expected to grow exponentially - from about 2 million units sold in 2002, to an expected 130 million units in 2007. As such, it is timely that this year's competition has expanded its scope of of supported wireless platforms from J2ME to include Symbian, PocketPC and Flash. Developers now have the choice of developing over Java - to target the wide variety of supported phone models - or developing over the native Smartphone platforms - to tap directly into the richer capabilities and features of specific phone models.
Capability Development - Industry Angle
6. Manpower, and or talent, have has always been one of Singapore's most valuable resources. Specifically in the Infocomm industry, Singapore needs to continually grow our Infocomm manpower capabilities in order to sustain the industry's growth and maintain our competitive edge.7. We need to ensure that there is adequate talent, competency and opportunity to develop applications and content to leverage on the new and enhanced capabilities of these wireless devices and infrastructure. The Splash Awards serve as an excellent platform to address this need. The competition not only helps to expose and interest students in these new technologies and applications at an early stage, but also helps to build capabilities in the wireless arena as well as to encourage innovation, and entrepreneurship amongst students and wireless industry professionals.
Capability Development - Infocomm as a Career Choice
8. I also hope that this competition has given all of you the taste of the highlighted the exciting nature of work that lies in store for you as a future Infocomm professional. Whether it is wireless, security, games development, network management, or web development, the Infocomm industry offers a wide variety of career options ranging from technical roles, project managers, consultants, sales, educators, business managers, amongst others. If you have not already done so, I urge that believe most of you would have picked up a copy of the Infocomm Career Handbook at the registration table. The handbook provides snapshots of the profiles of 26 Infocomm professionals and the work they do and the Infocomm course offered at the local IHLs. I hope that it will give you some insights both into the lives of these Infocomm professionals as well as the limitless possibilities in Infocomm career.Conclusion
9. Before I end, I would like to thank all the participants in this year's competition and to congratulate the organiszers of the Awards, all the exhibitors, and especially the winners and all the exhibitors for a job well done. I saw your work in the marketplace and I am very excited. I look forward to seeing your applications being commercially deployed and to welcoming many most of you into the Infocomm industry.10. Thank you.
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