The Ministry of Finance (MOF) published its biennial report, known as the Singapore Public Sector Outcomes Review (SPOR) for 2017 and 2018, on Dec. 20.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this review, it is a report which takes stock of existing and new government-led initiatives in the last two years.

It is also an indicator of the direction that the government has in mind for the overall development of Singapore.

The report is broken down into five chapters -- economy, healthcare, infrastructure, diplomacy/security and governance.

Digitalisation as the main theme of development

While all five chapters addressed concerns which were distinct from one another, one big common thread that runs through all of them was digitalisation.

In fact, the report gave showed how far-reaching the Government's "Smart Nation" drive was, and how serious they were in using digitalisation as the key driver of Singapore's development.

Within the report's overview alone, the word "technology" was mentioned no less than four times, all within the context of how technology was shaping national and business development.

"Alright, so what?" you may be thinking. After all, digitalisation is a topic that has already been mentioned, but still feels like a concept rather than reality

Bear with us a bit as we bring you through several initiatives reported by the SPOR as a result of this digitalisation drive.

Automation and cyber defence for security

There was extensive digitalisation within the area of national security, which aimed for manpower savings, improving SAF's efficiency and streamlining National Service.

Within SPOR's sub-section - "Protecting our Homeland and Strengthening National Service" -  several examples were cited.

There was the development of Unmanned Watch Towers for Jurong Island which boosted protection of key installations and had manpower savings of up to 30%.

The use of the "Fleet Management System" within F-16 fighters and the frigate vessels was also brought up by the report as an example of how investment has been made in "in digitalisation, data analytics, and machine learning to maximise operational availability".

While the Cyber Full-time National Servicemen Scheme, which was implemented in February this year, is further cited as an instance of how the SAF has set up "dedicated units to develop cyber defence capabilities".

Streamlining public services

Digitalisation was implemented in public services with the aim of improving efficiency, according to SPOR.

It highlighted six projects which used technology to deliver services to Singaporeans:

• National Digital Identity
• e-Payments
• Smart Nation Sensor Platform
• Moments of Life
• Smart Urban Mobility
• CODEX

To highlight just one example of leveraging on digitalisation to make accessing services easier, the MyInfo platform, launched in Oct. 2018, allows Singaporeans to "release their personal details for use in 110 government services and 90 private sector services".

A practical application of MyInfo reduces the processing time"for new bank account and credit card applications has been reduced by up to 80%."

The reshaping of the focus of education

SPOR's first chapter highlights how the focus of education had shifted towards "upskilling and reskilling".

It shared that as of 2017, 47.9 percent of the workforce (aged 15-64) has actually engaged "in some form of work-related structured training or education activities."

Furthermore, up to 285,000 eligible Singaporeans have used their SkillsFuture Credit by the end of 2017.

It added that since the launch of the SkillsFuture Series in October 2017, universities, polytechnics, and Institutes of Technical Education have taken "the lead in offering modular courses for emerging and critical areas such as data analytics and cybersecurity".

In total, around 1,000 new courses have been launched, with over 16,000 individuals having since signed up for these courses.

Additionally, an initiative known as Digital Clinics has also been introduced as part of the "Digital Readiness Blueprint" in making sure that the Smart Nation was inclusive.

Under this initiative, seniors are provided with one-on-one assistance in using their mobile devices.

In the time period between Nov. 2017 and Sept. 2018, up to 2.500 seniors have since received aid from these clinics.

Technology is tomorrow?

As such, while it remains to be seen how successful the Government would be in their implementation of digitalisation, the fact that there were many initiatives leveraging technology in the SPOR shows that a digital reality is the desired order of the day.

And judging from the numbers of Singaporeans engaged in some form of training or another, especially in courses to do with technology, it would appear that many are heeding this call for the Smart Nation as well.

Left photo by Joshua Lee, right photo from Mindef Facebook