Singapore to splurge $1.2b on IT upgrade

Who will benefit the most?

According to a release, the Singapore Government plans to call S$1.2 billion worth of new infocomm tenders in the Financial Year (FY) 2013 leveraging on industry expertise to improve service delivery to citizens and businesses, through the innovative use of technology. 

This was announced at the annual Industry Briefing on Business Opportunities for Infocomm in the Public Sector held today, where IDA together with the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) and Singapore Customs share their infocomm procurement plans for FY13.

Mr James Kang, Assistant Chief Executive Officer, Government Chief Information Office of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, said that the Government will focus on key areas of technology development to drive improvements within the public sector. These include Agile Software Development, Government Cloud Solutions, Data and Analytics, and Infocomm Security.

Mr Kang also revealed that the S$1.2 billion worth of new infocomm tenders in the Financial Year (FY) 2013 is comparable to investments in FY 2012, where the Government awarded 577 infocomm contracts worth up to $1.2 billion.

The Government will call for a bulk tender on agile software development which will provide government agencies with access to a range of suppliers with agile expertise, resources and tools enabling a shorter turnaround time for the development of innovative applications and solutions.

User Experience Design will be key in ensuring that services, websites and apps are accessible, usable, useful, and credible.

The agile development’s iterative approach allows for the gathering of constant user feedback to enhance the usability of solutions launched, especially towards citizen-centric applications, such as government e-services, websites and mobile applications. This dynamic approach will also be beneficial to small-to-medium infocomm companies as it opens up collaborative opportunities to infocomm companies regardless of their size.