Singapore govt to call S$2.4b of ICT tenders in current fiscal year

THE Singapore government will be calling for a projected S$2.4 billion of information and communication technology (ICT) tenders in fiscal 2017 in order to support the momentum of the country's digitalisation efforts.

Announcing this on Monday, Jacqueline Poh, chief executive of GovtTech (government technology) said that the government will invest in technologies such as data analytics, sensors and related software and systems.

Ms Poh added that the investment would include a tender for data analytics and another for communications infrastructure to link data centres with Internet of Things (IoT) sensors.

The government will also partner the industry to increase the use of robotics. In this context, Ms Poh said, Temasek Polytechnic will be looking for an industry partner to build an inventory robot which will utilise radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to scan the print collection and navigate its library. This will help the library to carry out more and faster inventory stocktaking to boost productivity and efficiency, as well as provide early detection of missing or wrongly shelved books, Ms Poh said.

She added that the government has put in place a range of measures which minimises the likelihood of government systems being infected by malware. Ms Poh added that the government would continue to invest in cybersecurity to ensure that government agencies are equipped with best cybersecurity practices and next-generation technologies, including advanced threat analytics and automation.