By 2010 more than 60,000 public officers will work even more seamlessly in a standard ICT operating environment (SOEasy).
|
To encourage the sophisticated demand for infocomm, several initiatives have been launched since 2006, targeting sectors like healthcare, education, finance, Government as well as the SME sector. For instance, initiatives for the healthcare cluster aim at improving the quality of healthcare while in education, infocomm is being deployed to schools to provide learner-centric, collaborative learning environments beyond the classroom.
In the area of e-Government, to achieve greater excellence in service delivery and operational efficiency, by 2010 more than 60,000 public officers will work even more seamlessly as One Government, in a standard ICT operating environment (SOEasy) with collaborative tools. In fact, some public agencies started enjoying the new SOEasy services from July 2009. The Government will also be looking into emerging mobile technologies to meet the needs of citizens who are always on the go.
In the SME sector, to promote greater infocomm adoption and innovative use, programmes such as the SME Infocomm Package, was launched in June 2008.
In the financial sector, the Next Generation e-Payment Programme will provide for cashless payment at more places beyond public transportation, such as food courts, provision shops and convenient stores. The deployment of these contactless Point-of-Sale terminals will also serve to support future mobile payment solutions, such as those enabled by Near Field Communication technology. In addition, the three-year Digital Concierge programme aims to spur the development of informational, transactional and location-based e-commerce services on the mobile channel.
Sophisticated demand for infocomm services will only increase as Singapore develops further as a highly-connected society. To ensure that all can have access to PCs and laptops and to the Internet, IDA together with industry put in place the NEU PC Plus programme to help low-income households with school-going children to have their own computers that come bundled with free broadband service.