SINGAPORE: As part of the initiatives to invest in the future, Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced that Singapore will put more than S$1 billion over the next five years into National AI 2.0, which will help enhance the country’s artificial intelligence capabilities.
In the National Budget roll-out on Friday (Feb 16), Mr Wong, also Singapore’s Finance Minister, said, “Part of the investment will be used to ensure that Singapore can secure access to the advanced chips that are so crucial to AI development and deployment.
We will also work with leading companies in Singapore and around the world to set up their AI Centres of Excellence here. We want these Centres to spur industry collaboration and innovation, and drive greater value creation across the whole economy.”
This push toward boosting AI capacities is one of the Budget announcements that have been met with approval.
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Mr Nithin Chandra, managing partner at global management consulting firm Southeast Asia at Kearney, is quoted in a CNBC piece as saying:
“Surprisingly, nearly three-quarters of business leaders globally are ill-equipped for AI transformation, believing their preparations are limited by time, people, and money.
This initiative will help ensure that businesses can capitalize on the opportunities afforded by technological advancements and capture new opportunities,” he added.
“We have arrived at a fascinating intersection where technologies like AI have the potential to play a pivotal role in nation-building and in helping to catalyse economic resilience,” Mr Dan Bognar, Vice President & Managing Director, JAPAC, HubSpot, told MarketTech APAC.
AI “provides an opportunity to enhance the future-readiness of Singapore’s growing digital economy,” and “represents a long-term, sustainable solution for firms to deal with ongoing economic challenges such as rising costs and increased complexities as the business grows.
This will be especially relevant for SMEs, where technology can empower them with the means to compete with larger industry counterparts,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Mao Gen Foo, the head of Southeast Asia at Qualtrics, also said that investing in AI is key for Singapore to grow stronger as a business and innovation hub.
He also noted that Singapore boasts one of the highest global acceptance rates for AI in the workplace, something that the government’s ambitions to set up new AI centres of excellence supports, and added that it would “create high demand for skilled professionals.”
The Budget allocation of S$1 billion is a sign of “the government’s commitment towards fostering a trusted and responsible AI ecosystem.”
“As AI adoption grows, consumers must be reassured that their data is safe, and that technology is being used for good,” said Sujith Abraham, a senior vice president and general manager of ASEAN at Salesforce. /TISG
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