Singapore's HDB beats eight countries to win international award for service innovation

THE Housing & Development Board (HDB) has beaten eight other countries to win the international FutureGov Awards 2014 for service innovation, it said on Monday.

The other countries are Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, India and the Republic of Maldives.

HDB won the award for creating a new and improved customer experience through service personalisation at its Punggol branch.

A new HDB Punggol branch was set up in 2012 to better serve the needs of a growing number of residents in Punggol Town. HDB had taken that opportunity to pilot a new customer service experience by adopting innovative information technology solutions at the branch.

"The new ideas and service concepts piloted at Punggol branch have been well-received by residents. With the positive response, HDB has replicated some of these features, such as having service ambassadors and electronic noticeboards at HDB branches island-wide. HDB will continue to review how more features can be implemented or adapted in other branches, so that more HDB residents can benefit from them," it said on Monday.

The Awards - organised by the FutureGov Asia Pacific Magazine, an independent trade journal - is an international benchmark by which public sector innovation is judged. There are 28 different award categories, including the service innovation category which Singapore won.