25 February 2005 - Speech By Mr Chan Yeng Kit, Chief Executive Officer, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore At Soft Launch of The RFID@NEC Centre, Republic Polytechnic.
Speech By Mr Chan Yeng Kit, Chief Executive Officer, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore At Soft Launch of The RFID@NEC Centre on 25 February 2005, Republic Polytechnic.
Good morning,
Mr. Akinobu Kanasugi, President, NEC Corporation,
Mr. Tomohiro Yagi, CEO, NEC Solutions Asia Pacific Pte Ltd
Prof. Low Teck Seng, Principal and CEO, Republic Polytechnic,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Singapore's RFID Initiative
1. It gives me great pleasure to grace this significant occasion on the launch of the RFID@NEC Centre here in Republic Polytechnic.
2. IDA first announced our RFID initiative in May last year. As a start, we focused on creating a conducive environment for the development and adoption of RFID in Singapore. This meant revising our RFID spectrum allocation to align with international standards, and building up the awareness of the technology and its capabilities among companies here.
3. Half a year later in November, IDA announced the allocation of the 866-869 MHz and 923-925 MHz bands within the UHF band for RFID applications in Singapore. The power output limits of 0.5W without licensing for both bands, and 2W with licensing for the 923-925 MHz band, will allow systems implemented in Singapore to inter-operate with those in Europe and the US. This was an important development. Singapore is the first country in Asia to officially allocate UHF bandwidth for actual RFID deployment use.
4. In addition to the allocation of frequency for RFID usage, companies in Singapore have since committed to invest more than $12 million towards the development of RFID technology capabilities, setting up of regional RFID infrastructures, and trial of RFID applications in end-user company operations in Singapore. These include:
* Technology development projects by Tunity Technologies and GT&T;
* A Testing and Compliance Centre by NOL in partnership with SUN; and
* A host of adoption projects by companies such as Airbus, YCH and Grocery Logistics of Singapore (the logistics arm of NTUC Fairprice)
5. Last November, IDA also launched the RFID Call-For-Collaboration (CFC). Its objectives are two-fold:
a. To build up RFID capabilities of the manufacturing, logistics and retail sectors in Singapore. This marks an important first step towards creating RFID-enabled supply chains which will help position Singapore as the logistics nerve centre for the region.
b. To build up the capabilities of the RFID industry here in order to position Singapore as the choice location for RFID development & implementation
6. This CFC is open for submission of proposals until 11 March 2005. I am pleased that NEC has responded. And I would urge other companies to make use of this opportunity to also partner with IDA on their RFID journey.
NEC's First RFID Centre Outside of Japan
7. We are very pleased that NEC has chosen Singapore as the place to set up its first RFID centre outside of Japan, in partnership with Republic Polytechnic. This centre will offer the first Electronic Product Code, or EPC network service in the region. Companies in the region will be able to make use of this service to exchange essential product and shipment information using information captured via RFID. This decision by NEC is a strong endorsement of our efforts to position Singapore as the top location in the region for RFID development and implementation. I would like to thank NEC for their support. We certainly hope that this will be one of many collaborative projects with NEC in the future.
8. I am also pleased to note that NEC has chosen to partner Republic Polytechnic for this project. While Republic Polytechnic is the youngest among our Polytechnics in Singapore, it has blazed the trail with many innovative approaches to Polytechnic education. I am confident this will be another successful and significant collaboration.
9. Once again, I like to wish Mr Akinobu Kanasugi and his team in Singapore all best for the Centre. Thank you.
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