Being a Smart Nation entails having open mind on technology

SINGAPORE as a Smart Nation was the principal focus of last week's mega infocomm technology (ICT) show, the CommunicAsia, EnterpriseIT and BroadcastAsia 2015. This trade show-cum-conference is one of Asia's largest ICT events and more than 48,000 attendees from 101 countries were present during the four-day event.

At the conference, Minister for Communications and Information Yaacob Ibrahim declared that Singapore has entered the "build phase" of its plan to become a Smart Nation, with concrete results from its first wave of projects to show for it.

Ever since Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong formerly launched the Smart Nation initiative in November last year, much of the government's ICT activity has been centred around this endeavour. While government officials and technology experts understand the huge potential that exists in bettering the lives of citizen in the country once it becomes "smart", the concept till now has been a bit nebulous as far as the public is concerned.