The Government will call for ICT tenders worth a total of S$2.82 billion this financial year, and local SMEs will be able to compete for most of these projects.
Good news for technology companies including local small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
The Government will be calling for ICT tenders worth S$2.82 billion in this financial year, with the majority of investment earmarked for infrastructure upgrades and security bulk contracts as part of Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative.
“Many of the tenders for this year are in areas of infrastructure development because this provides a foundational layer for the rapid and effective development of Smart Nation applications,” said Ms Jacqueline Poh, Managing Director of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA).
She is also the Chief Executive Officer-designate of the soon-to-be-formed Government Technology Agency (GovTech)
Ms Poh (top photo) stressed that SMEs will be able to compete for many of these new contracts as about eight in 10 are valued at S$5 million and below. In the last financial year, SMEs accounted for more than half of the total contracted value of ICT tenders.
The upcoming projects are part of the continuing collaboration with the industry to co-create digital solutions for the public.
Ms Poh was speaking at the annual Industry Briefing, which was attended by almost 1,000 leaders and professionals in the local tech sector as well as senior government officials.
Empowering the nation with possibilities through technology
The Ministry of Finance together with the upcoming GovTech will be exploring the practical use of apps to touch all Singaporeans at various points in their lives from going to school, to developing their careers, to getting married and starting their families to aging and retirement, she said.
“These applications are what the citizens will touch and feel every day."
A capacity crowd of participants attended the annual IDA Industry Briefing to learn about the Government's upcoming ICT investment plans.
The more than 300 infrastructure-related projects planned for this financial year will be aimed at refreshing existing systems and creating new capabilities particularly in the areas of data centres and storage, cloud networking, routers, providing new PCs and laptops for government agencies — and even extending Wi-Fi coverage within schools to further encourage and support smart learning.
As many of these are long-term projects extending beyond the current financial year, some of the $2.82 billion expenditure will only be realised in three to five years.
As the government upgrades its ICT infrastructure and develops more technical capabilities in areas such as application development, hosting, cyber security, data science and analytics, sensors and the Internet of things, it will demand more innovation from the industry, said Ms Poh.
“We aim to increase standards across the board. We may be pushing you to develop products that don’t even exist, but these are products that you will be able to sell not just in Singapore but also in other countries, and you will be world-beaters.”
Apart from infrastructure development, the other main sectors the government will be investing in are Internet security, digital and data, and web and services.
Making it easier for companies to grab opportunities
Mr Chan Cheow Hoe: We have introduced greater agility in our ICT procurement processes to ensure that agencies can work with the industry to utilise new technological solutions more easily.
Encouraging more home-grown companies to compete for these projects, Ms Poh urged them to enrol in the Accreditation@IDA scheme.
Launched in 2014, Accreditation@IDA provides independent third-party evaluation of early-stage growth technology by promising Singapore-based companies.
To date, 13 companies have been accredited, putting them in a "green lane" for government procurement. Accredited companies have been awarded 25 contracts worth $3.3 million to date, and this number is set to grow as there are 35 more projects in the pipeline.
Mr Chan Cheow Hoe, Assistant Chief Executive (Government Chief Information Office) at IDA also shared that there are other procurement methods which are aimed at making the development of digital solutions easier.
He said that the government had introduced the Public Sector ICT Supplier Panel and Outcome-based Procurement to bring greater agility to its ICT procurement processes.
Mr Samuel Choo: The Government is keen on the upgrade of its hosting services and the delivery of next- generation data centres.
Also speaking at the Industry Briefing was Mr Samuel Choo, Director of Government Business Management Division, IDA.
He said one key area of ICT development which the Government is keen on is the upgrade of its hosting services and the delivery of next- generation data centres.
These will include co-location, virtualised hosting options, high-capacity software-defined networks, and secure and energy-efficient “lights-out’ operations.
Another IDA speaker was Dr Daniel Lim, a consultant with the agency’s Data Science Division. He outlined ways in which the tech industry here could collaborate with government agencies and how data science is being used in the public sector to measure, amongst other things, the state of the economy and healthcare management.
Several other public agencies also presented their ICT roadmaps and system requirements for the fiscal year.
For example, the Ministry of Health Holdings is looking to develop common data analytics capabilities within and beyond the healthcare sector which will provide actionable health insights about the population, while one of the procurement programmes at the National Environment Agency will be a waste ecosystem.
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