Infocomm has significantly transformed the global landscape over the last few decades, breaking down geographical and cultural barriers to information and markets, and forcing fundamental paradigm shifts in the way people think and operate. This digital revolution has seen an explosion of innovative business models made possible by infocomm, producing a new generation of economic forerunners, such as Google, eBay and Skype.
Looking ahead, the acceleration of infocomm technology advances will create even stronger competitive pressures on economies and companies, while generating immense growth opportunities for those who are able to differentiate themselves from the competition. Whether a country or company succeeds in this will be determined by its ability to develop, attract and retain talented manpower which is able to innovatively exploit infocomm.
Set against this global landscape, the vision for Singapore is to have an
infocomm-savvy workforce and globally competitive infocomm manpower to drive national economic competitiveness
.
In order to achieve this vision, IDA has set a target to:
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Boost the number of infocomm jobs by 55,000 to about 170,000 by 2015.
This is expected to generate another 25,000 non-infocomm jobs in the infocomm industry, to bring the number for such jobs to about 70,000.
In total, the number of new jobs created would be about 80,000.
To realise this vision and target, these strategic thrusts are recommended:
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Develop Infocomm Competencies in Key Economic Sectors
There is a need to strengthen the belief of business leaders in the strategic value of infocomm to their organisations and to raise the level of infocomm skills among the general workforce so they too can innovatively harness infocomm to improve business productivity and competitiveness.
Programmes under this strategic thrust are targeted at business leaders and the general workforce in order to:
a. Develop a technology receptive mindset among decision makers;
b. Equip the general workforce with more sophisticated infocomm skills.
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Develop Globally Competitive Infocomm Professionals
There is a need to build a pool of infocomm professionals who have a breadth of technology know-how; good understanding of business and the capability to create intellectual property.
Programmes under this strategic thrust target are targeted at infocomm professionals in order to:
a. Develop techno-strategists;
b. Develop technologists.
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Develop, Attract and Retain Infocomm Talent
There is a need to ensure that infocomm attracts a fair share of talent to drive the growth of the industry and that young people, who will become the leaders and workforce of the future, are motivated to make technology innovation a part of their everyday life.
Programmes under this strategic thrust are targeted at students and aim to:
a. Attract bright local and foreign students to an infocomm career;
b. Bring out the initiative in the young to use infocomm innovations whenever they can.
In addition to the three strategic thrusts above, we seek to bridge the digital divide and build an all-inclusive society where infocomm is used as a powerful leveller to empower and benefit the elderly, needy and people with disabilities.
This is done through a range of programmes that promote infocomm awareness to make the less tech-savvy feel comfortable with technology and provide infocomm access and tools to help the less privileged enhance their employability, integrate with the mainstream, and lead more independent, fulfilling lives.
