More Government Data to be Made Available to Spur Social Innovation and Create Greater Public Value

As part of its strategy to drive social innovation and deepen co-creation efforts with citizens, the Government will be releasing more data to the public. A new data service - PopulationQuery - was announced by Guest-of-honour, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam at the eGov Global Exchange today.

With the theme “Engaging Citizens, Co-creating the Future”, this year’s eGov Global Exchange discussed how the Government can work with businesses and the public to develop public services, use technologies to promote closer collaboration with businesses, and achieve new efficiencies for the public sector.

The event saw a turnout of more than 500 delegates, comprising top industry leaders, academics and representatives from international organizations. Amongst the participants are 70 ministers and senior government officials from 60 countries/regions.

Having reached the mid-term mark of the five-year eGov2015 Masterplan launched two years ago, the Government shared updates on its e-Government progress as well as key highlights of its upcoming plans.

Speaking at the event, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam said: “By opening up more data, and through innovative use of technology, we can crowd-source ideas and co-create applications with the wider community.”

PopulationQuery and Machine-Readable Data to Encourage Social Innovation

The Government wants to better use data that it has to catalyse new ideas and services.

OneMap, the Government’s one-stop geospatial data platform, will feature a new service - PopulationQuery. PopulationQuery gives the public free and easy access to graphic and visual representations of Singapore’s demographic landscapes by displaying Singapore’s population data on a map by residential zones or commercial areas. Together with other OneMap data such as location of schools, public facilities or property prices in that area, PopulationQuery can generate new insights and assist users in decision making. For example, it can show the best places to set up a business, and attributes of the area when considering whether to purchase a property. It can also provide more information for research and analysis purposes.

The Government’s one-stop data portal - data.gov.sg - has seen a 60% increase in the number of data sets since its launch in 2011. The public can now access over 8,600 data sets from more than 60 public agencies for app development or research purposes. More data sets such as lightning information and more granular traffic accident data in machine-readable formats will be made available too.

The Government will also work towards making all data sets on data.gov.sg and OneMap machine-readable by end 2013. Unlike PDF formats where information is “locked”, machine-readable formats (e.g. XLS, APIs) enables users to slice and dice data easily. For example, a mobile app developer can pull real time data such as transport or weather data, for use in developing his application.

A new feature will also be introduced on data.gov.sg and OneMap for citizens to request data sets from government more easily.

Improved Citizen Engagement and Satisfaction with e-Government Services

The Government continues to improve its service delivery, as shown in this year’s e-Government Customer Perception Survey, with satisfaction levels hitting 96% and 93% for citizens and businesses respectively. This shows a 2% and 3%-point improvement from the last year’s survey respectively.

The Government will continue to tap on new technologies to improve our public service delivery so as to increase convenience and improve our customers’ experience.

To increase convenience for businesses and improve productivity, the Government will implement ‘CorpPass’ which will replace the use of SingPass for corporate e-services. CorpPass will bring about better segregation of personal and corporate passwords, and will allow authorised staff to access multiple corporate e-services through one common authorisation system. Businesses can look forward to using CorpPass in early 2016.

New Era of Efficiency for the Government

A key capability that the Government is looking into developing is in Data and Analytics, which will allow agencies to derive richer insights from the data collected so as to improve our policy formulation, enhance agency operations, service delivery, and customer engagement.

The Ministry of Manpower will be launching a new interactive website that provides official statistical information on Singapore’s labour market. Employers and employees will be able to benchmark their organisations’ performance against the national or industry norms on wages, employment conditions and staff turnover using tools available on the website. This website is expected to be launched later this year.

Another focus is Cloud computing as an infocomm solution to enable easy sharing of computing resources and applications amongst agencies. After establishing the Government Cloud (G-Cloud) Infrastructure in 2012, the Government will be offering, to agencies Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions such as business analytics and customer relationship management. The aggregation of demand for such solutions will generate cost savings for the Government.

A showcase of most of these initiatives can be found at the IDA booth at the Infocomm Media Business Exchange from 18 June to 21 June 2013.

JOINTY ISSUED BY THE INFOCOMM DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF SINGAPORE AND THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE

Related Resources:

• Annex A - PopulationQuery Fact Sheet
• Annex B - Data.gov.sg Fact Sheet
• Annex C - MOM Statistical Website Fact Sheet
• Annex D - G-Cloud Fact Sheet

About eGov Global Exchange

The eGov Global Exchange 2013 comprises the eGov Forum and eGov Exhibition. The eGov Forum will facilitate a more focused discussion on how infocomm technology provides governments with new possibilities and platforms for citizen engagement through Co-Creation with citizens and the private sector, so as to bring about better service delivery. The eGov Exhibition will showcase the progress and achievements of e-government initiatives by different government agencies.

About Ministry of Finance

The Ministry of Finance (MOF) seeks to create a better Singapore through Finance. This is done by focusing on three strategic outcomes: sound public finances, growth opportunities for all, and high performance government. We aim to collaborate with industry experts to make Singapore a world-class financial and business hub. For more information, please visit our website at www.mof.gov.sg.

About Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore

The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) is committed to growing Singapore into a dynamic global infocomm hub. IDA uses an integrated approach to developing infocommunications in Singapore. This involves nurturing a competitive telecoms market as well as a conducive business environment with programmes and schemes for both local and international companies. For more news and information, visit www.ida.gov.sg

For media clarification

Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore

Christopher Koh (Mr)
Manager
Corporate and Marketing Communication
DID: +65 6211 1709
HP: +65 9144 1995

Fax: +65 6211 2427
E-mail: christopher_koh@ida.gov.sg

Ministry of Finance

Stellina Seng (Ms)
Associate
Corporate Communications
DID: +65 6332 7336

Fax: +65 6337 6731
E-mail: stellina_seng@mof.gov.sg

Ministry of Manpower
(MOM’s statistical information website)

Candice Lau (Ms)
Manager
Corporate Communications
DID: +65 6317 1248
Fax: +65 6317 1652
E-mail: Candice_LAU@mom.gov.sg

Singapore Land Authority (OneMap)

Kuan Qian Ying (Ms)
Assistant Manager
Corporate Communications
DID: +65 6478 3883

Fax: +65 6323 9937
E-mail: KUAN_Qian_Ying@sla.gov.sg