Singapore Govt to spend $70m on infocomm sector
Funds will be used to nurture and retain top talent, develop IT experts
By Alfred Siew, Technology Correspondent
THE Government will spend $70 million over the next five years to boost infocomm manpower, as well as sharpen Singapore’s technology edge by retaining top talent.
Parts of the funds are being set aside to develop ‘techno-strategists’ with specialist infocomm skills to serve the health-care, finance and banking sectors.
Meanwhile, top students at three universities will be mentored by industry leaders to pick up skills in the sector.
Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Second Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, said in Parliament yesterday the infocomm sector did well last year. Growth in the sector’s value-add to the economy is forecast to be 6 to 8 per cent.
Dr Balakrishnan was replying to questions from MPs Zaqy Mohamad (Hong Kah GRC) and Penny Low (Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC).
Mr Zaqy said Singapore is losing its engineering edge, with the best talent leaving for more lucrative deals in sectors such as banking.
Ms Low pointed out that many large infocomm firms set up offices here to do sales rather than research. She urged Singapore to focus on high-end jobs that require innovation instead.
Agreeing with both MPs, Dr Balakrishnan stressed that talent is key to the industry. He noted that more than 80 per cent of infocomm professionals here have tertiary education.
The new funds, he said, will be spent partly on workshops and courses that will help produce 1,000 ‘techno-strategists’ out of mid-tier professionals here.
These experts will then be equipped with ‘deeper’ domain knowledge that is a notch above general infocomm skills.
Dr Balakrishnan said the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) will also nurture the top 20 per cent of infocomm students at the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University and Singapore Management University .
From this academic year, bright students will be exposed to infocomm policy thinking at workshops and seminars and will learn from mentors from key companies in the industry.
According to an IDA survey released yesterday, the industry hired 130,400 people last year, up 8.9 per cent from 119,700 in 2006. Infocomm hires form about 4.8 per cent of the labour market here, a proportion that has stayed constant over the past few years.
The IDA also released numbers that show small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are still shy to take up technology. While 72 per cent have a computer and 66 per cent use the Internet, only 31 per cent have a website.
The figures seem to tie in with Ms Low’s other point yesterday, that SMEs are not adopting technology fast enough.
Dr Balakrishnan said there are a number of options already in place for SMEs. For example, they cam pay just $5 for consultancy services at the Infocomm@SME centre launched last year to help them pick up the necessary information technology tools.
Soon, SMEs can also get hooked up with fuss-free packages of PCs, software and website services the IDA is putting together with companies here. From May, SMEs can buy these packages from as little as $800.
‘As an additional sweetener, IDA will co-fund the first 5,000 SMEs when they take up these packages,’ said Dr Balakrishnan.
He added: ‘Resources are available. However, you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot force it to drink.’
Source : Straits Times - 01 March 2008
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