Infocomm boosts Singapore’s competitiveness

Since 1980 when computerisation began in earnest, Singapore’s Infocomm industry has grown to become an important contributor to the general economy.

Infocomm has also enhanced the Republic’s competitiveness by raising labour productivity and transforming business processes. The crucial role is evident in the fact that for five consecutive years, Singapore has been in the Top 3 positions in the World Economic Forum’s Global IT Report.

Revenues for the infocomm industry hit S$51.7 billion in 2007, a 13.8 percent increase from $45.42 billion in 2006. Of the four main IT industry segments (hardware, software, IT services, telecom and contents) the fastest growing was IT services.

Singapore’s deep and wide experience in using infocomm technology to empower public life and businesses is now being leveraged to help governments and public authorities in other countries, particularly in the area of e-government.

To this end, IDA International, the overseas arm of Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority, was established, to apply Singapore's know-how, skills and professional expertise to assist governments achieve their vision and outcomes. Read more on IDA International.

Infocomm hub for MNCs

Today, more than 90 percent of Fortune 1000 technology companies have made Singapore a key node in their global network, testament to the country’s strategic position to be a global infocomm hub. Besides the traditional hardware manufacturers, there also dot-com global leaders moving to this island.

PayPal's international headquarters that was set up in Singapore in November 2007 highlights Singapore's drive to make itself the hub of electronic-based financial services.

One of the latest is Salesforce.com, a global leader in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). It has set up its Asia-Pacific headquarters as well as its first international data centre in Singapore.
Yahoo! has also established its headquarters for global emerging markets, in Singapore. From this base, Yahoo! co-ordinates the development of markets in South-east Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Africa, Latin America and India. It also leads the innovation of new mobile and web products for these markets out of Singapore.

Autodesk opened a new R&D facility in November 2008, serving 130 researchers, product engineers and developers in design, computing and engineering disciplines.

Going global for local ICT firms

The number of local technology firms are also increasing, and more of them are looking aggressively at key markets such as China, India, Europe and the Middle East. It is noteworthy that in 2007, the largest export market for Singapore’s IT companies is North Asia, comprising China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Many such infocomm local enterprises (iLEs) have experience in rolling out innovative large-scale projects in Singapore. 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 world’s busiest ports.

With such domain knowledge and experience, the iLEs are confident as they reach out to key global markets. Business intelligence software provider Elixir, for instance, has sold its Elixir Repertoire BI system to more than 600 customers across 50 countries. Homegrown Ohanae which has an active presence in the United States, was selected as one of the top 100 global IT companies for 2009, by technology media company Red Herring.

In China, a market that continues to lure and fascinate Singapore ventures, Bizpoint System is partnering with a Hangzhou telco to offer software-as-a-service package to Chinese firms. Bizpoint, which employs 90-100 IT employees in a software park in Anhui province, offers a series of ERP solutions that are as good but cheaper than the best from the US and Europe.

In the Middle East, large Singapore ICT groups such as NCS and ST Electronics have helped public authorities create, deploy and manage e-government services.

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