Speech by President Halimah Yacob at the Asia Pacific Telecommunity 40th Anniversary Gala Dinner

Minister Iswaran

Minister for Communications and Information

Your Excellencies,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good evening. I am pleased to be able to join you today to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT).

The ICT landscape has evolved rapidly since the establishment of the APT in 1979.  Advancements in digital technology has transformed economies and societies, impacting lives in profound ways. While digitalisation has presented challenges and disruptions, it can also be used as an important force for spurring innovation, fostering new markets and driving inclusive growth to raise the standard of living for many societies around the world. 

In this regard, I would like to thank the APT for its excellent work in improving the lives of many across the Asia-Pacific region. Over the past 40 years, the APT has helped to support the expansion of ICT infrastructure, promote regional cooperation in areas such as standards development and regulation, and encourage technology transfer. This has strengthened the region’s international standing in ICT. 

The APT has also evolved to stay relevant, taking on a leading role to equip individuals with skills and knowledge to use emerging ICT-enabled technologies such as 5G, the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain. 

Staying connected to the world is especially important to a small and open economy like Singapore. We are therefore always looking for new ways to collaborate with other countries in the digital economy. Recently, Singapore began talks with Chile and New Zealand on the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement, or DEPA. Through DEPA, we aim to set forward-looking standards on digital trade, and establish new international approaches to support the digital economy and trade in the digital era. Minister S. Iswaran will elaborate further in his address tomorrow.

This collaborative spirit is especially pertinent when new technologies are being adopted at a faster pace than before, and skills and regulatory frameworks have to keep up.  One such example is 5G, which presents many exciting opportunities. Future-ready digital infrastructure is a key building block of our digital economy. In Singapore, we envision 5G to be an enabler to support the development of new innovative applications and services that will power our Digital Economy. It is not just about how fast our 5G network is or how soon we have it deployed, but also about how we use the 5G network to create value and deliver benefits to our businesses and people. Singapore aims to roll out 5G by 2020, and a focus area for the Singapore Government is to enhance the expertise and quality of the workforce in the ICT sector, so that our workers are ready with the new skillsets for future jobs created and impacted by 5G.  This effort will involve close collaboration between the Government and the industry. A successful roll-out of 5G must involve not just the infrastructure and industry use-cases, but also a technical workforce ready to support the new ecosystem.

In a digitally-enabled economy and society, services will be seamless, end-to-end, empathic, and anticipatory to customer needs in an unprecedented way. In many ways, ICT technologies have become central to work, lifestyle and social interactions. To get Singaporeans ready for the Digital Economy, we need to equip everyone with access to technology, and more importantly, the skills needed to use that technology – actively, meaningfully and safely. It was with this objective, that we launched the Digital Readiness Blueprint in 2018. The Blueprint is a collective effort by the Singapore Government and partners in the private and people sectors to ensure that everyone can experience the benefits of technology. It contains recommendations around providing widespread access to technology, driving digital literacy, encouraging everyone - government, business, and the community at large - to play a part in strengthening digital readiness and hardcoding digital inclusion into the design of all processes and services.

Singapore is not immune to the digital inclusion challenges faced by most, if not all, countries. We must all work together to make digital inclusion a priority, for the betterment of our communities. The APT plays an important role in that regard, by supporting inclusive development within the region.

As the APT forges ahead towards the co-creation of a digitally connected future, I am confident that the APT will continue to play a pivotal role in supporting countries and their peoples to harness ICT for sustainable growth, and in turn, enjoy better quality of life. Working together, I believe we can achieve our shared goals of harnessing the full benefits of digitalisation for collective progress and prosperity.

I wish everyone a pleasant and enjoyable evening, and once again, a happy 40th Anniversary to the APT. Thank you.