Positioning S’pore as Asia’s smart-data capital

When Singapore took the No 1 spot in the World Economic Forum’s Networked Readiness Index released last month, after being second-ranked for the preceding five years, it was an affirmation that Singapore has further sharpened its digital competitive edge.

The Republic is also strengthening its digital infrastructure in its 10-year plan to become a Smart Nation, where big data collected from an expansive network of sensors and enhanced data analytics capabilities will improve the lives of Singaporeans and boost the Singapore economy.

Data is the new currency of the global economy. Globally, a new data value chain is slowly emerging. Leading technology companies such as IBM, Google and Facebook are going beyond big data to focus on smart data. This is not unanticipated. Big data in itself is useful only when it is analysed to generate smart data and business insights that create economic and commercial value.

Companies and countries that can successfully tap big data and smart analytics will have a greater competitive edge over others. Singapore recognises this and has taken steps to ride this trend. For instance, the Economic Development Board (EDB) and the Infocomm Development Authority are already positioning Singapore as a global hub for data management and analytics. The aim is to build on the country’s reputation as a trusted hub for data creation, management and insight generation.

ADAPTABILITY IS KEY

In fashioning this new ecosystem, building the infrastructure and creating data assets is an immediate priority. However, what is even more important is how we move up the data value chain and continue to adapt to a constantly shifting digital environment. The ultimate aim is to extract data value to secure commercial and economic returns.

When a nation such as Singapore is able to attract investors, entrepreneurs and data scientists to its shores to create new commercial and economic value, it can become the magnet that pulls these various elements in one strategic hub. This is where the concept of smart-data capital comes into place, where a regional hub acts as a centre of gravity for data-value creation.

Singapore has traditionally been at the confluence of the physical trade of goods and services. The potential of big and smart data presents new opportunities for the country to position itself as the smart-data capital not only of South-east Asia, but for the whole of Asia.

In April, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong invited global technopreneurs and investors to join Singapore’s Smart Nation journey by encouraging them to test-bed the country as a solution centre for urban challenges such as healthcare, transport and an ageing population.

The Republic is also going to launch Virtual Singapore, a mega data-portal where the government will share publicly collected data with industry to help grow the Singapore economy.

These are positive moves that could anchor Singapore’s position as a first-mover in data-driven smart urban solutions. The larger challenge for both policymakers and industry players is how to remain nimble and adaptable in a constantly fluid data-driven economic environment.

Mr Jack Ma, executive chairman of the Alibaba Group, said at the 2013 EDB International Advisory Council meeting in Singapore that “in the future, companies will compete on how quickly they adapt to meet the needs of their customers.”

Education Minister Heng Swee Keat recently reminded us that adaptability is a key skill for the workforce.

Smart data is an asset. An asset can and should be exploited to make us even more adaptable.

We are still in the early stages of our big and smart data strategy implementation, so only time will tell whether we will be able to leverage smart data to make Singapore enterprises and the Singapore economy more adaptable.

Consider the following example in the tourism healthcare industry.

Smart data can show patients’ behaviour and trends, especially their choice of countries and hospitals to get medical treatment and what facilities they value the most. Service providers would find such data insights commercially useful.

With Singapore facing increasing competition from countries such as Thailand and Malaysia, the challenge would be how quickly Singapore hospitals can leverage smart data to adapt to changing consumer trends by offering uniquely tailored medical tourism packages.

This will be the kind of smart data challenge that will be the new normal in the future. Singapore will need to get it right by having the “soft” adaptability skills to complement the “hard” smart-data analysis to sustain its long-term competitive advantage.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Zaid Hamzah is an intellectual capital strategist, technology lawyer and author who teaches part-time on the Law of Investments and Financial Markets at RMIT University.