Government to spend S$3.3 billion on infocomms technology in 2023

MORE than 100,000 personal computers and printers across Singapore’s public service are expected to be replaced in 2023, as part of the Government’s spending on info-communications technology (ICT) this year.

About S$400 million will be spent on such devices, which are replaced about every three years, the Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech) said on Wednesday (May 24).

The replacement of PCs and printers – which requires suppliers to meet certain environmental and energy standards, including packaging and materials reuse – is one of three key bulk tenders being called this year.

Another is a S$600 million tender aimed at providing government agencies with subscription-based software for customer relationship management and case management, as well as platforms that minimise the coding needed to create software applications.

The third is an S$850 million tender for services supporting cloud and on-site hosting for agencies.

The Government is expected to spend an estimated S$3.3 billion on ICT in 2023, the agency said, down from the projected annual spending of S$3.8 billion each in 2021 and 2022.

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GovTech chief executive Kok Ping Soon attributed the cost savings to the practice of aggregating demand for ICT services through bulk tenders.

“Aggregating demand for ICT products and services across the government agencies actually allow us to generate savings, and they make it easier for the companies to participate in bulk tenders,” he said.

Kok noted that the practice also saves time and effort for agencies, and allows them to build longer-term relationships with vendors.

The Government has invested about S$16 billion in ICT over the last five years.

Kok was speaking to the media on the sidelines of the Smart Nation and Digital Government Industry briefing at the Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The briefing is an annual event where projected government ICT business opportunities are announced and shared with industry players.

In 2023, about S$2.5 billion out of S$3.3 billion will go to ICT projects awarded via bulk tenders, or about 76 per cent of the Government’s projected spending for such services, up from just 27 per cent in 2022.

Meanwhile, about S$1 billion of the projected spending in 2023 will go to applications developed on the Government Commercial Cloud – a platform that allows government agencies to adopt commercially available cloud solutions.

About 66 per cent of eligible government systems have migrated to the platform, with the aim of hitting 70 per cent by end-2023.

The value of projects co-developed with private companies is expected to increase to about 45 per cent – or about S$1.49 billion – of total spending in 2023, up from 27 per cent in 2022.

These projects leverage government platforms for security compliance and can be used across different agencies or projects.

As part of sustainability efforts, GovTech is also working towards reducing the carbon footprint of government data centres.

Koh said more than half of the spending will go towards application development to deliver “better human-centric digital services”, such as improving the home-based learning experience for students or making it easier for businesses to get grants.

He pointed to the BudgetMealGoWhere website – launched on May 19 in collaboration with the Housing Board to allow people to search for affordable meals at HDB coffee shops – as an example of what the public can expect from GovTech.

“Citizens can look forward to services that are much more personalised, more geolocation-specific and done in a much more timely way to address their needs,” he said. THE STRAITS TIMES