Speech by Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for Information, Communications
and the Arts at the SCS Gala Dinner & IT Leaders Awards 2012 on 2
March 2012, 8.15 pm at Shangri-La Hotel
Mr Alphonsus Pang, President, SCS
Members of SCS
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
Good evening.
1. It is my pleasure to join you here today at the SCS Gala Dinner
and the IT Leaders Awards 2012. This is a special occasion where
infocomm professionals gather and celebrate the vibrancy of the infocomm
ecosystem, as well as to honour those who have made notable
contributions to Singapore’s infocomm sector.
Stable Outlook in Singapore’s Infocomm Sector
2. Despite global projections of slower economic growth in 2012, the
outlook for infocomm remains stable. Worldwide IT spending this year is
expected to grow to a total of $3.8 trillion
1, a 3.7 percent increase from 2011. At home, results from the Business Expectations Survey
2
for the first quarter this year has also shown that manpower for
infocomms and communications industry is expected to remain stable.
3. Singapore’s infocomm sector has also developed rapidly over the
past few years. Since 2008, more than 80 foreign start-ups have
established critical infocomm functions and ventures in Singapore. For
instance, Germany-based Netbiscuits, an innovation start-up and a
leading B2B web software platform for development, publishing and
advertising in the mobile Internet, started its Singapore operations in
December last year and is looking to hire more developers this year.
4. MNCs have also continued to invest in Singapore. IBM, for example,
opened its regional Services Integration Hub in Singapore in December
last year. Likewise, Google held the groundbreaking ceremony of its
Singapore data centre, the company’s first centre in South East Asia
last December. Once completed, there will be many new job opportunities
for infocomms professionals.
Government is Committed to Developing Infocomm Talents
5. With such vibrant industry developments, Singapore needs the right
quality and quantity of infocomm manpower. The Government is committed
to collaborating with our partners to develop infocomm talents who can
respond to global industry shifts and help strengthen Singapore’s role
as an infocomm hub. IDA’s Infocomm Manpower Development Roadmap Version
2.0, or MDEV 2.0,
[Note: read as "em-dev-two-point-zero"]
was launched last year to develop and expand Singapore’s infocomm
talent pool. Since then, 13 MDEV 2.0 programmes have been rolled out by
IDA and its partners.
6. One of these programmes is the Hybrid Skills Development
Programme, or HSP for short. The programme equips infocomm professionals
with in-depth industry domain knowledge and infocomm skills to help
enterprises in various economic sectors leverage on infocomm for
business growth. I am pleased to announce that the National University
of Singapore’s School of Computing has been appointed the first lead
training provider for the healthcare industry under HSP. NUS will be
working with major healthcare and IT organisations such as the Ministry
of Health Holdings and the Integrated Health Information Systems to
train up to 600 infocomm professionals in acquiring healthcare
informatics skills, and up to 1,000 healthcare professionals in
acquiring IT application skills over the next three years.
7. Another programme, IDA’s Critical Infocomm Training Resource Programme Expanded, or CITREP Expanded,
[Note: read as "See-trap Expanded"]
provides funding support for selected courses and certification for
infocomm professionals. The programme has identified 300 courses aligned
to IDA’s National Infocomm Competency Framework which details
competencies required for key infocomm job roles. Since April 2011,
5,000 professionals have benefited from
CITREP Expanded, building up
capabilities in critical and emerging areas such as Cloud Computing,
Business Analytics and Green ICT to keep abreast with the challenges of
the evolving infocomm industry.
Strong Need to Continue Building Pipeline of Infocomm Talent
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