{"id":425520,"date":"2026-05-13T11:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T11:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/425520\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T11:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T11:40:10","slug":"singapores-ai-empowered-economy-strategy-the-straits-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/425520\/","title":{"rendered":"Singapore’s AI-empowered economy strategy | The Straits Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

SINGAPORE \u2013 Singapore can position itself as one of the best places in the world to develop, test and deploy AI solutions that solve real-world business problems.<\/p>\n

This was among a slew of recommendations by the Economic Strategy Review (ESR) committee to make the Republic an AI-empowered economy and a global leader in AI solutions, which is the second of eight thrusts aimed at driving the country\u2019s economic growth and workforce transformation.<\/p>\n

Comprising five sub-committees, the committee was formed in August 2025<\/a> to study how Singapore can remain competitive amid geopolitical changes.<\/p>\n

It noted that even as artificial intelligence is set to reshape economies as earlier innovations such as the internet did, Singapore does not have the scale of larger economies.<\/p>\n

Rather than compete to build the biggest frontier AI model or host the largest AI data centres, Singapore should instead position itself as \u201ca trusted hub where AI solutions are developed, tested and deployed to tackle real-world problems at scale\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur advantage lies in our ability to bring together government, industry and research institutions to channel resources and create the most enabling environment for breakthrough innovation,\u201d the committee added.<\/p>\n

The committee noted that, based on earlier ESR recommendations, the Government had established the National AI Council (NAIC) to drive the country\u2019s national AI strategy<\/a>, with national AI missions across four areas \u2013 advanced manufacturing, finance, healthcare and logistics.<\/p>\n

Additionally, it recommended several other measures, including making the city state a location of choice for high-impact AI solutions, with the NAIC working with businesses to co-develop \u201cambitious sector-specific\u201d problem statements suited for the deployment of the technology.<\/p>\n

The country should mobilise resources such as data sets and data infrastructure to attract leading AI companies and talent so as to develop and deploy solutions, which should eventually be scaled beyond the pilot stage and rolled out internationally.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should also update our rules for AI governance and invest in AI safety capabilities, so that Singapore becomes a trusted environment for responsible AI innovation,\u201d the committee said.<\/p>\n

The committee noted that AI should be integrated across firms\u2019 operations and workforce capabilities \u2013 a task which requires significant changes to systems, workflows and business models, and carries risks such as cybersecurity and operational vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n

It recommended that tailored support should also be offered to leading Singapore-based firms to help them undertake full-scale AI transformation, build new capabilities and manage these risks.<\/p>\n

These companies could then serve as reference models for their respective industries, it added.<\/p>\n

It also recommended accelerating AI adoption across the economy, noting that many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face challenges such as capability and cost constraints, as well as limited access to sufficiently large, high-quality data sets to develop AI solutions effectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmaller firms also still find it hard to navigate and access existing government support schemes,\u201d the committee said.<\/p>\n

It noted that trade associations and chambers could play a stronger coordinating role to aggregate demand, pool data where appropriate, and work with AI developers to create shared, sector-level solutions that can be deployed across firms more easily.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitial efforts can focus on sectors where there is strong potential for common AI use cases and wider productivity gains,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and the Environment Goh Hanyan described AI as a \u201cvery powerful technology\u201d that lends itself to huge experimentation.<\/p>\n

Top-down direction is needed as large-scale adoption of the technology requires culture change and \u201cempowerment at different levels\u201d, said Ms Goh, who co-chairs the ESR sub-committee on technology and innovation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not simply an enterprise productivity tool that can just be rolled out,\u201d she said during the Singapore Business Federation\u2019s Future Economy Conference 2026 on May 13.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and the Environment Goh Hanyan (centre) at the Singapore Business Federation\u2019s Future Economy Conference 2026 on May 13.<\/p>\n

ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM<\/p>\n

Noting that adoption of the technology is lagging, she said training can help expose more to the technology so as to better understand it.<\/p>\n

Ms Goh, who is also Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Culture, Community and Youth, suggested that such training could be made more widespread or even mandatory among staff of companies looking to adopt AI.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Yong Kang TCM Clinic said Enterprise Singapore\u2019s Productivity Solutions Grant was instrumental in its adoption of an AI chatbot, which resulted in faster responses to customers and a 20 per cent increase in bookings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe support provided by the Government made it more practical for us to test and adopt new technologies while improving our customer engagement processes,\u201d said Yong Kang\u2019s business development executive Leo Loh.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an SME with operations across multiple South-east Asian countries, we hope to see greater support for cross-border AI expansion, whether through bilateral initiatives, shared regulatory guidance, or grant frameworks that can better support regional business growth beyond Singapore,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Mr Leonard Loo, the CEO of agentic AI solutions firm Voltade, said that Singapore was well-placed to become a \u201ctrusted hub\u201d for AI solutions.<\/p>\n

As a neutral party between tech giants in the US and China, the Republic could help develop common governance guidelines for various AI models worldwide, he suggested.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SINGAPORE \u2013 Singapore can position itself as one of the best places in the world to develop, test…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-425520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}