Singapore has long been seen as a smart city leader in Asia. While many governments were only beginning to build smart cities, Singapore had already spent years preparing and has become a model for other advanced economies. How is a smart city that can think and communicate built? technine looks at Singapore’s innovation journey.
The 2006 Decision to Build an Intelligent Nation
Many people assume that the smart city concept began with IBM’s Smarter Planet idea in 2008. In fact, before that, the Singapore government had already released the Intelligent Nation 2015 plan in 2006. The plan set out a 10-year vision to create an intelligent nation, a global city, and a place where information technology is everywhere.
Changing a city’s development model, or shaping a country’s future, cannot happen overnight. Singapore started with three ideas: innovation, integration, and internationalization. To reach its goals, the government also mobilized enterprises and citizens to help smart services enter every level of national development.
The Intelligent Nation 2015 plan set six major performance indicators. These included 90% household broadband penetration, 100% computer penetration among households with school-age children, 80,000 information and communications technology jobs, ICT industry output of SGD 26 billion, ICT export revenue of SGD 60 billion, and becoming a global leader in using ICT to increase economic and social value.
Becoming the World’s First Smart Nation
With broad participation, Singapore achieved all the targets set by Intelligent Nation 2015, and some were exceeded. In 2014, the government announced Smart Nation 2025, aiming to build Singapore into a technology-driven smart nation over the next decade, solve modern social problems, and open new economic opportunities.
The shift from “intelligent” to “smart” may seem small, but it reflects a higher level of interpretation. Intelligence can refer to the ability to read data, while smartness involves analyzing data and creating practical solutions. Facing complex urban challenges, intelligence alone is not enough. Singapore therefore moved early toward a more competitive Smart Nation direction.
Importantly, Singapore’s purpose in building a Smart Nation was to create a better life for people. Its priorities and resources focused on establishing the role of a service-oriented government.
Smart Nation 2025 was built around three core ideas: connect, collect, and comprehend. The goal was to bring big data into everyday life, communities, and the future, allowing the government to predict public needs and provide better public services.
Four Strategic Directions
First, Singapore moved from “government for you” to “government with you.” To implement Smart Nation more effectively, the government emphasized cooperation with research institutions, private enterprises, and citizens, integrating different strengths to create more value.
Second, Singapore promoted a “many agencies, one government” management model. As a service-oriented government, it launched the mGov@SG one-stop platform to reorganize and digitize administrative services. By coordinating departments around government service delivery, it improved efficiency.
Third, Singapore developed continuous and integrated government services. Because Smart Nation is people-oriented, the government emphasized seamless connection between services. Citizens could use one account to connect to different departments, reducing fragmentation and increasing convenience.
Fourth, Singapore focused on the Internet of Things. IoT is one of the key technologies for building a Smart Nation. To provide more timely and human-centered services, the government needed a way to manage data scientifically, integrate data from different parties, and respond to possible city management challenges.
Lessons From Singapore’s Smart City Development
Hong Kong and Singapore are often compared in economic and innovation discussions because both perform strongly. After years of steady work, Singapore is now ahead of many competitors. For this reason, Hong Kong should study Singapore’s policy measures, examine its own gaps, and plan its future direction more clearly.
Translation supported by AI.