Mention Singapore and the image of a vibrant, dynamic country comes to mind. For over two decades, Singapore has strategically deployed infocomm technologies to help grow the economy and develop the society.

A Vibrant Infocomm Industry
The infocomm industry has also evolved to be an important engine for the country, tapping into new opportunities in the Digital Age. The industry revenue hit S$45.4 billion in 2006, a growth of 20 percent from 2005.

Infocomm has greatly enhanced Singaporeт€™s competitiveness by raising productivity and transforming business processes. For five consecutive years, Singapore has been in the top three positions in the World Economic Forumт€™s Global IT Report. In the latest ranking, Singapore was ranked third globally т€”and the only Asia-Pacific economy in the top ten positions.

Today, more than 90 per cent of Fortune 1000 technology companies have made Singapore a key node in their global network, a strong testament of the countryт€™s strategic position to be a global infocomm hub.

Strong MNCs Presence
For example, Hewlett-Packard (HP) sites one of its main manufacturing operations for computing, imaging and printing products in Singapore. In March this year, HP Singapore Integrity Server R&D Centre launched the Itanium-processor based server, Integrity rx2660 that is completely researched, designed and developed in Singapore.

Cisco established a state-of-the-art Customer Briefing Centre in Singapore to showcase the latest innovations in Internet networking technology. Software giant Oracle established its first Asian centre of excellence for enterprise grid technology in Singapore and teamed up with a local university to offer Asia Pacificт€™s first certification for Enterprise Grid Architects.

Microsoft started the BackPack.NET initiative in Singapore back in 2003, to facilitate the research, development, testing and showcasing of new innovative infocomm technologies for education. BackPack.NET encourages student-centric learning through the use of tablet PCs, digital inking applications and other innovative infocomm technologies in a digital classroom environment.

Innovative Local Enterprises
Singapore is witnessing the mushrooming of a new breed of infocomm local enterprises (iLEs) that are making a presence in key markets such as China, India, Europe and the Middle East.

The high degree of user sophistication in Singapore has afforded iLEs with the opportunities for iLEs to roll-out innovative large-scale infocomm projects that have sector-wide impact. The TradeNet project is a case in point. It streamlines information flows between logistics players and relevant government agencies and the deployment of infocomm systems and applications has contributed significantly to making Singapore one of the worldт€™s busiest ports.

Behind these projects are innovative iLEs that are also breaking into key global markets. Ecquaria is one such company, developing the Qatar Service Platform for the Qatari government. This platform will eventually host key e-Services and uses common reusable services such as user authentication and e-payment.

Several iLEs have also made their mark by being the first in the pack. For example, iWOW offered the worldт€™s first GPRS USB modem and the worldт€™s first Khmer language mobile phone. For its inventions, iWOW was named one of the 500 fastest growing technology companies in Asia Pacific. Another iLE making world-class product is Trek2000. It is the inventor of the ThumbDriveТЎ solution and has registered over 390 patents of which 114 are worldwide patents.

To read about more Success Stories on Singapore Home-grown Infocomm Companies, click here.