Singapore’s digital economy isn’t just growing; it’s maturing. According to IMDA’s Singapore Digital Economy 2025 press release, the sector contributed S$128.1 billion, or 18.6% of GDP in 2024, up from 13% in 2017. The report makes one thing clear: the next phase of growth will be defined not by speed, but by confidence — in systems, in data, and in the people building them.
Across boardrooms, digital trust has evolved from a compliance topic to a growth strategy. PwC’s 2026 Global Digital Trust Insights found that most business leaders now rank it among their top business priorities, while Deloitte’s analysis Connecting Trust and Economic Growth links high-trust economies to stronger innovation and GDP growth.
Confidence as a Catalyst for Digital Transformation
Gartner’s 2024 CEO and Senior Business Executive Survey found that while growth remains the top focus, digital resilience, AI governance, and responsible innovation have quickly become the real enablers of sustainable growth.
Across industries, that shift is already visible in how enterprises approach transformation. It’s less about speed and more about certainty. Enterprises are realising that digital transformation does not begin with technology, but with trust. For Singapore, this trust agenda sits at the heart of IMDA’s Digital Economy 2025 strategy. Assurance frameworks such as IMDA Accreditation and the Data Protection Trustmark were designed to make innovation safer and faster, giving buyers a verified way to measure reliability before they commit.
That mindset shift — treating assurance like infrastructure — is changing how leaders build, becoming part of procurement, partnerships, and even R&D.
IMDA Accreditation and the elevation of the Data Protection Trustmark to a Singapore Standard have become central to that approach, creating verifiable signals that close the gap between innovation and implementation.
“It gave us a lot of confidence. It was not just a startup we had never heard of. Being accredited helped accelerate procurement and cement this working relationship,” said Teng Joo Loh, Head of Information Technology at SBS Transit. “In our environment, we have to be careful about who we work with. Accreditation gives us the confidence because IMDA has already evaluated the vendor’s reliability,” Teng Joo added.
For global operators such as Seaco Asia, trust looks different — it’s about consistency and alignment across regions.
“There is a certain level of trust with IMDA vendors and the due diligence that IMDA does. Now we actually prefer to look at what other organisations are doing and keep IMDA as a benchmark,” said Damian Leach, Chief Information Officer at Seaco Asia. “In a global company, you need a single definition of trusted technology. That’s what accreditation gives,” Damian said.
At Microsoft Singapore, the same assurance allows large enterprises to move faster with local innovators, proving that scale and safety can coexist.
“BeLive is IMDA Accredited, so even though they’re small and relatively unknown, the accreditation ensures the due diligence has been done. That speeds adoption and builds confidence faster,” said Joey Tan, Former Strategic Transformation and Business Development Lead at Microsoft Singapore.
Joey put it simply: “Trust is the real accelerator of innovation. Without confidence, even the best ideas stall before they start.”
Accreditation does not replace ambition. It protects it by turning trust from a feeling into a framework.
Understanding the Buyer’s Dilemma: Risk versus Readiness
Yet for many buyers, knowing what to trust is harder than knowing why. Across Asia, CIOs and procurement leaders are trying to modernise without inviting unnecessary risk. The intent is clear, but the path is not.
While AI and automation promise efficiency and agility, governance has not always kept pace. IDC’s 2025 study, Responsible and Secure AI: The Key to AI-Fueled Growth found that only 24% of organisations are fully confident in their ability to govern AI responsibly, with 76% acknowledging persistent gaps in oversight and accountability. Gartner’s 2024 Procurement Risk Survey echoes this concern, identifying supply disruption, supplier instability and compliance volatility as the top risks to procurement success through 2026.
“The barrier to entry is extremely high. It’s not just about whether your product works. We need to trust that you’ll be there for the long term,” said Teng Joo. “Procurement always wants to know, what if this vendor disappears? Accreditation helps with that because you can tell the board, ‘IMDA has already done this due diligence.’ That helps us move,” he added.
For global firms like Seaco Asia, consistency of assurance matters as much as speed.
“In a global setup, you cannot manage trust manually. You need consistency and validation across regions. Accreditation helps when everyone speaks the same language of compliance,” said Damian.
Joey, at Microsoft Singapore, sees the same pattern from the other side — the pressure to prove trustworthiness before any deal moves. “Clients want proof that the solutions they’re buying meet not just technical standards but ethical and governance expectations,” he said.
That tension is where assurance earns its keep. It closes the distance between innovation and accountability. Frameworks such as IMDA Accreditation allow enterprises to innovate responsibly while keeping regulators, customers, and boards aligned.
In multinational enterprises, the challenge multiplies across time zones and compliance regimes. Damian explained that managing trust across global operations demands consistency and validation in every region. IMDA Accreditation helps align teams to a shared compliance baseline, ensuring everyone operates with the same level of assurance.
Why Assurance Matters: Turning Validation into Velocity
Assurance is no longer a formality; it has become the foundation of progress. Across sectors, businesses are realising that validation is what allows innovation to scale responsibly. When vendor credibility, compliance, and security are pre-tested, the rest of the process moves faster.
According to Deloitte’s 2024 Digital Transformation Report, organisations with clear governance and assurance frameworks achieve faster deployment, stronger ROI, and higher resilience. IMDA’s national programmes apply that principle at scale, using IMDA Accreditation and the Data Protection Trustmark to turn validation into velocity.
“When vendors are accredited, it shortens our procurement cycle by weeks because the risk assessments are already done,” said Teng Joo. “In the past, every new solution had to go through lengthy checks. Accreditation means those tests are already done — we can focus on integration, not verification.”
At Seaco Asia, the impact extends globally.
“The due diligence IMDA has done on these companies means I can go straight to integration. It gives me trust that they’ve already passed the hard tests,” said Damian. “IMDA’s reputation carries weight. It’s become a benchmark for quality. If a company is accredited, we know it’s been vetted, tested, and benchmarked against real standards.”
This assurance has also helped Seaco’s teams unify cybersecurity and compliance standards across markets.
“We operate in over twenty countries. Accreditation gives us one baseline of trust instead of twenty separate ones,” Damian said.
At Microsoft Singapore, assurance serves another purpose — enabling collaboration between large enterprises and local innovators.
“Accreditation builds that bridge of confidence. It tells us that the vendor is not only technically sound but also enterprise ready,” said Joey. “In AI, we always say trust travels faster than technology. That’s why frameworks like this are essential if we want AI adoption to scale responsibly.”
IMDA’s IMDA Accreditation programme was designed with exactly that in mind: to remove friction between innovation and implementation. By offering both assurance and visibility, it gives enterprises the confidence to move forward knowing that risk, security, and governance have already been addressed.
IMDA’s Tech Acceleration Lab has supported more than 130 proof-of-concepts across industries, helping enterprises shorten development timelines by up to fourfold, according to the agency’s Digital Economy Report 2025.
The result is digital transformation that moves with both confidence and speed — where innovation is not just tested, but trusted.
Buyer Spotlights: Lessons from the Field
For every organisation, digital transformation looks different, but the underlying principle remains the same: progress depends on trust. From transport to logistics to technology, assurance has become the quiet enabler of confidence, helping enterprises move faster without compromising security or compliance.
At SBS Transit, digital innovation must coexist with public accountability. The company’s move towards AI-driven simulators, real-time data systems, and smarter operations follows a clear rule: every new system must be as reliable as the legacy infrastructure it replaces.
“We use accreditation as a shortcut to due diligence. It is one of the reasons smaller firms can now work with us,” said Teng Joo. “Accreditation gave us the comfort that we’re not testing something unproven. It’s already been through a government-standard check.”
For Seaco Asia, trust is about alignment across borders. The company operates in more than 20 countries, each with its own cybersecurity and compliance requirements.
“When you’re dealing with partners in the EU or Australia, accreditation gives you that common baseline for compliance,” said Damian. “The due diligence IMDA does on vendors gives me peace of mind. I can focus on integration rather than constantly verifying risk.”
For Microsoft Singapore, assurance empowers collaboration between global enterprises and local innovators.
“The IMDA Accreditation programme helps us show enterprise customers that local innovation can be trusted,” said Joey. “You can’t scale AI responsibly without a backbone of assurance. Accreditation gives enterprise buyers a reason to say yes sooner.”
Through initiatives like the Agentic AI Accelerator and collaborations with accredited partners such as BeLive, Microsoft is helping ensure that innovation in Singapore’s digital economy grows responsibly, with the same level of rigour applied by global corporations.
Together, these stories show that trust frameworks such as IMDA Accreditation and the Data Protection Trustmark are not just compliance tools. They are strategic instruments that align buyers, vendors, and regulators under a shared standard – simplifying adoption, building credibility, and making innovation not just faster – and safer by design.
Key Themes and Takeaways
Across every story, the message is consistent: trust is not a by-product of innovation. It is the condition that makes innovation possible.
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Trust is the new differentiator.In a landscape where every company claims to be digital, credibility is what cuts through. Buyers no longer choose partners based on features or price; they choose those who can prove reliability, accountability, and compliance. PwC’s 2026 Global Digital Trust Insights echoes this, noting that digital trust leaders achieve higher customer retention and market confidence.
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Assurance accelerates adoption.When the groundwork is done — the risk assessments, the due diligence, the validation — the rest of the process moves. Frameworks like IMDA Accreditation and the Data Protection Trustmark do more than signal compliance. They remove friction, shorten procurement cycles, and turn assurance into momentum. This is reflected in IMDA’s 2025 launch of new AI assurance tools, enabling enterprises to validate reliability and transparency in AI systems before deployment.
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Collaboration builds credibility.When the public and private sectors share the same standards, the ecosystem strengthens. Accredited startups gain visibility and confidence; large enterprises gain speed and security. Governance becomes a shared language rather than a constraint.
“We are not looking for perfect tech – we’re looking for trusted tech. Accreditation helps define that,” said Teng Joo.
“Digital trust has to be engineered into the process. Without that structure, speed becomes danger,” said Damian.
“Confidence and credibility are what accelerate AI adoption – and that’s what Accreditation gives,” said Joey.
Together, their perspectives capture what Singapore’s digital economy is quietly proving: that trust is the real infrastructure of transformation. When governance and validation are built in from the start, innovation becomes not just faster, but stronger, safer, and built to last.
Assurance Makes Innovation Possible
The success of digital transformation has never hinged on technology alone. What sets lasting change apart is trust — the kind that gives enterprises confidence to move, experiment, and scale without fear of breaking something essential.
Across transport, logistics, and technology, every buyer’s experience points to the same truth. Innovation succeeds when it is built on assurance. IMDA Accreditation programme gives both sides of the market — enterprises and innovators — a common foundation to work from. It turns the abstract idea of ‘trust’ into something measurable and actionable.
By embedding governance, assurance, and accountability into Singapore’s digital economy, IMDA has made innovation safer without making it slower. The frameworks IMDA has built — from the Data Protection Trustmark to IMDA Accreditation — show that speed and safety can coexist. Alongside this, initiatives such as the Agentic AI Accelerator further help enterprises adopt AI responsibly at scale.
“Accreditation doesn’t slow things down. It’s what lets us move fast, responsibly,” said Joey.
Trust gives permission to act.
It makes innovation repeatable. It turns confidence into advantage.
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