Singapore’s Renewed Vision for a Smarter Future
On October 1, Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced the launch of Smart Nation 2.0 to help Singapore more effectively leverage technology for the nation’s benefit, acknowledging the rapidly changing technology landscape since the initial launch of Smart Nation 1.0 in 2014. Under Smart Nation 2.0, Singapore will continue to heavily invest in AI education and research, including the establishment of a new Smart Nation Educator Fellowship and S$120 million (US$92 million) AI for Science program. Moving beyond planned investment and training initiatives, the plan also outlines several planned policy developments including the introduction of the Digital Infrastructure Act in 2025 to engender greater trust in technology by addressing a broader range of resiliency and security concerns for key digital infrastructure.
The refreshed Smart Nation 2.0 also includes plans to establish a new government agency in 2025, which will be empowered by a new law to act on behalf of victims of online harms in seeking civil remedies against perpetrators. The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) will also introduce a new Code of Practice to require social media services to implement measures to mitigate abuse of deepfakes and will engage service providers in the coming months on the details of the code.