Singapore Smart City Smart Nation Report

Robin Morphet

August 7th 2017

1.Why has a smart city programme been proposed?

Singapore has some characteristics which mark it out from other cities. First it is a
small water deficient city state but with an important deep water port and airport.
As an imperial trading port the real currency in Singapore was information. Raffles’
Singapore became an Emporium of the East within a short period, despite the
absence of abundant harvests of spice or silk, because it attracted effective traders
who knew how to exploit the differential in information between people and
between places. (Mahizhnan 1999). It is not an OECD member because it lacks
the democratic processes of other OECD members. It is however an important
OECD comparator in areas such as education (OECD 2016)) where Singapore
dominates the education rankings. Similarly it performed well in the Asian Digital
Transformation Index (Economist Intelligence Unit 2016). Notwithstanding the
OECD implied critiscism of democratic processes the geography and political
stability of Singapore have been advantageous in underpinning smart city
developments. This is reinforced by government policy which seeks to harness
ICT, networks and data to support better living, create more opportunities, and to
support stronger communities, as a response to the growing urban challenges of an
aging population, declining birth rates, urban density and energy sustainability. (Lee
2016) A fibre network is in place across the island, bringing high-speed internet
access to every home and office and there are three mobile devices for every two
of its citizens (Souppouris 2016) but this reflects an ongoing investment in ICT of
which the Smart Nation programme is a recent manifestation

The National Computer Board (NCB) was established in 1981 to lead Singapore’s
ICT investment, its stated mission “to drive Singapore to excel in the information
age by exploiting IT extensively to enhance our economic competitiveness and
quality of life”. (Mahizhnan 1999) In April 1998, the Electronic Commerce Policy
Committee completed its review and made its recommendations to the
government. It listed six guiding principles (NCB, 1998a):
 i. the private sector should take the lead (in developing electronic commerce);

ii. the government should put in place a legal framework which provides for certainty
and predictability;

iii. the government should provide a secure and safe environment;

iv. the government, through joint venture pilots and experiments with the private
sector, should expedite E-Commerce growth and development;

v. the government should pursue innovative, liberal and transparent policies

proactively. Consistency with international regimes, international cooperation and
interoperability are necessary for E-Commerce to thrive. (Mahizhnan 1999)

In 1992 it published A Vision of an Intelligent Island: IT2000 Report, which examined

how ICT could improve competitiveness and the quality of life in Singapore. The
report is the work of the IT2000 Committee which included participants from the
private and public sectors and academia. The report set out its vision of Singapore
in 2007 as to be among the first countries in the world with an advanced nation-
wide information infrastructure with connected computers in virtually every home,
office, school, and factory.

In advancing the smart city/nation Singapore's suitability has been emphasised by

senior politicians :

“Singapore will be the ideal test bed for proof of concept and prototype solutions for the existential
future challenges […] The key is not technology but to create opportunities for people to interact,
build communities and have a higher quality of life.” – Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian
Balakrishnan, Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation Initiative

I’ll give you three reasons [why Singapore is well suited for becoming a Smart Nation]. Firstly,
because our ethos in our society is rational, technological and forward-looking. Secondly, because
we have a population which is IT-savvy and understands technology. Thirdly, this is a highly
connected and wired-up island.” – Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (Tanner 2016)

However, Choo (1997) argues that in the end in Singapore's desire to be a

competitive global economic hub, it will be the total capacity of its people to
continuously learn and innovate that will provide Singapore with a sustainable
competitive advantage. In a race between nation states, it will be their learning
cultures that will make the crucial difference.
2. Who has proposed it and when?
The smart metropolis that exists today was the vision of Lee Kuan Yew, the first
Prime Minister of Singapore. Under his premiership planning and in particular,
land-use planning was controlled through the prime minister's office. A master
plan was created, to be reviewed quinquennially but it was realized that this was
too inflexible to respond to rapid social and economic changes in Singapore and
sought the help of the United Nations, which eventually led to the launch of the
State and City Planning Project (SPC) 1967. The result of the completion of SCP
in 1971 was Singapore’s first concept plan, a long-term plan for housing, land use
and transport. A revised plan in 1997 emphasised green spaces, leisure and housing
variety. In 2006, the Intelligent Nation (iNation 2015) Master Plan was launched,
which is Singapore’s 10-year plan to realize the vision of Singapore being an
Intelligent Nation, global City powered by Infocomm (information and
communications technology). This plan is overseen by the Info-communications
Development Authority of Singapore. (Lee 2016). It can be seen that Smart
Nation planning has roots based in traditional urban planning practise.

The Smart Nation Program was developed in 2014, and seeks to harness ICT,
networks and data to support better living, create more opportunities, and to
support stronger communities. The Infocomm Security Masterplan serves to guide
Singapore’s national-level attempts to secure its country against any external or
internal cyber-threats, etc. (Lee 2016)

3. What are its aims?

The aims of the Singapore project are set out in iNation (2015) the Intelligent
Nation 10 year Master Plan. It argued that if Singapore were to maintain its lead
position in the region in the next century, it had to realise the full potential of its
small population, maintain a world class infrastructure and become a major hub
city of the world. (Mahizhnan 1999). A smart Singapore aims to be energy-
efficient and eco-friendly. (Lee 2016) These aims were reexpressed in Innovating for
a Smart Nation (IIR 2016)
"Singapore strives to be a Smart Nation, in which our people are empowered by technology to lead
meaningful and fulfilled lives. By harnessing the power of networks, data and info-comm
technologies, we endeavour to improve living, create economic opportunity and build a closer
community. We have the conducive environment to experiment, prototype and deploy innovative
solutions that can be shared with other global cities."
 One major challenge in developing an E-Commerce hub, in addition to the
systems, is the building and maintenance of trust. In much the same way
Switzerland became pre-eminent in banking trust and security, Singapore will have
to compete with many other hubs to establish itself as a high trust environment.
(Mahizhnan 1999). A smart Singapore aims to be energy-efficient and eco-friendly
(Lee 2016)

4. What does it comprise?

It will be seen from the above description that many of the elements of a smart
city were in place or being developed before the 2014 Smart Nation
announcement.

As part of its Smart Nation program, launched by Prime Minister Lee Hsien
Loong in late 2014, Singapore is deploying an undetermined number of sensors
and cameras across the island city-state that will allow the government to monitor
everything from the cleanliness of public spaces to the density of crowds and the
precise movement of every locally registered vehicle. (Watts and Purnell 2016). In
theory, a central control system could be used by local government to check on a
wide variety of conditions detected by the low-cost wireless sensors measuring
roadway congestion, water pressure, air pollution, crowds at bus stops, smelly
garbage cans, snow on the streets, torrential flooding, the health of the home
confined elderly and more. The data would be presented, under most scenarios, on
a single console. Behind that single console view would be artificial intelligence and
analytics applied to data from different silos. This is the so called "city brain". A
city's traffic management system, perhaps years old, could be compared with air
pollution readings running in a separate silo, for example. Such a system could
permit the most congested traffic artery associated with the worst pollution to be
freed up by giving green lights to the cars that are waiting the longest and are
pumping out the most pollutants (Hamblen 2016). However, the state of the art of
urban analytics is not yet sufficiently advanced nor are there coherent systems to
determine the appropriate trade-offs that will be necessary e.g between traffic
pollution and accessibility. In the case above it could pay to pollute as your traffic
lane would then be freed up. In practise, most city officials would be happy simply
to be able to monitor what's going on in disparate areas of a big metropolis more
or less in real time, instead of waiting days or weeks to hear about conditions from
various public works department heads. (Hamblen 2016)
 Some idea of the operation of such a system is available from the LIVE
Singapore! project (Kloeckl et al 2012) The goal in LIVE Singapore! is to allow
users to quickly combine various real-time data sets. (Kloeckl et al 2012). This has
ben achieved in some areas (weather, traffic etc.). These visualizations are state-of-
the-art explorations of the city’s hidden dynamics, but they are produced by a team
of highly specialized computer scientists and visualization experts. They
investigated correlations between electricity usage and ambient temperature to
better understand (and demonstrate) how exhaust from air conditioning increases
the urban heat island effect, thus creating a vicious cycle that drives further energy
consumption. The also mapped rain data overlaid with real-time location and
availability of taxis and found that taxis tended to avoid areas with heavy
rainstorms despite the ease of picking up a quick fare. We then confirmed this
finding analytically and shared it with the Singaporean government for
consideration in future policy decisions (Ratti and Claudel 2014)

The next phase of LIVE Singapore! is intended to put the same power—data
analysis, manipulation, and graphic capability—into the hands of the public at large
(Ratti and Claudel 2014). However, the challenge remains of how to integrate
disparate data streams in such a way that decisions based on them can take into
account their linkages and associated trade-offs.

Transport

The most developed smart services in Singapore is within the Transportation and
urban mobility sector; the development of Intelligent Transport System (ITS) has
been going on for more than 10 years. Singapore also has a strong e-governance
foundation, which they have been incubating since the early 80s. There is a broad
spectrum of smart services that the Singapore Government wishes to provide for
the public but their journey is still at an early stage as most of the services have
only been launched (many of them as trials) recently in the early 2010s, and many
services are at the planning stage, to be implemented along with cross-cutting
efforts of the Smart Nation initiatives. Sensors are being using them to track bus
fleets. The data is used identify problem areas and formulate solutions. Identifying
where more buses were needed has already "resulted in a 90 percent reduction in
crowdedness" and has reduced waiting times on popular services three to five
minutes. Singapore has taxed cars using an electronic road-toll-collection system
for over a decade, but the next step calls for a government-mandated satellite-
navigation system in all vehicles. The system will silently monitor where a car is at
any given time, opening a wealth of data for analysis. Authorities will be able to
monitor traffic conditions nationwide, from volume to average speed, highlighting
congestion and issues with road layout. This level of traffic monitoring -- knowing
exactly where every car on the road is at any given time -- is unprecedented
(Soupporis 2016) Public buses may be unmanned in the near future as autonomous
vehicles or self-driving cars become a reality. Autonomous driving may be applied
to cargo trucks operating only at night, reducing road congestions during the day.
The MyTransport.SG smartphone application provides real-time information for
commuters. including real-time bus location, and hence it provides more accurate
bus arrival information. Bus loading information is also available for selected bus
services. Commuters are able to see colour-coded space availability information to
help them decide whether to board the arriving bus or choose to get on the next
bus. A plan for a full-size robotic bus serving Nanyang Technological University
has been announced. The first self-driving taxis began cruising around Singapore
(Dent 2016) in 2016. The free test rides will be confined to the "One-North" area
in an effort to reduce congestion in the city.

Utilizing ITS components, Singapore provides a number of smart transport

services for citizens. One.Motoring is the comprehensive portal serving all drivers
and vehicle owners using traffic information collected from surveillance cameras
installed on roads and taxi vehicles with GPS. It provides information on current
Electrical Road Pricing rates, sections where road works are in progress, traffic
images of major expressways, traffic news, a travel time calculator, road maps and
street directions, and parking information. It also offers information and guidance
for citizens regarding buying, selling and maintaining their vehicles. The Land
Transport Authority (LTA) uses surveillance cameras to detect road incidents and
activate vehicle recovery to tow vehicles to the nearest designated car park outside
the expressway. Your Speed Sign is a smart, live electronic device which displays
the real-time speed of vehicles alerting drivers to stay under the limit and drive
safely.

The LTA has provided the Parking Guidance System since 2008 giving drivers
realtime information on parking availability. It is thought that this will reduce the
amount of circulating traffic searching for available spaces and encourage efficient
use of spaces. Information is delivered via an electronic sign board or the One
Motoring Portal, or on mobile phone. However, where parking information
suggests few spaces are available it could concentrate speeding traffic trying to get
there first with consequent dangers to road users.
Emergency Services
The Police force can be reached by dialing ‘999’, and has a separate police hotline
as well as a traffic hotline. There is an SMS service called the Emergency Short
Messaging Service Helpline, or SMS 70999 , which is designed to offer the deaf,
hard-of hearing and speech-impaired another avenue of communication.

The Police also provides a web based electronic police centre (through Electronic
Police Centre, ePC) for citizens to conveniently gather information, file police
reports online, and handle administrative affairs such as applying for certified copy
of police reports, criminal records, etc. For example, CrimeStopper on ePC
provides an alternative online avenue for citizens to make less urgent reports, or
submit information to help Police in combating crime.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force(SCDF) provides fire-fighting, rescue and

emergency medical services; deals with hazardous materials incidents, and
implements and enforces regulations on fire safety. The Emergency Medical
Service (EMS) is operated by the SCDF and it can be reached through dialling
‘995’. The 995 Operations Centre can also be reached through a mobile
application that SCDF provides in collaboration with iDA, designed to increase
survival rate from incidents such as out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The application
so-called myResponders has been alerts users to nearby cases of suspected cardiac
arrest, guiding them to respond before the SCDF arrives. Since the application was
launched, there have been more than 2,000 downloads, although the number of
registrations to become responders did not reach the similar level so far. ‘mySCDF’
allows citizens to provide feedback to SCDF, instructions for use of fire
extinguisher, how to perform CPR and AED, as well as access for SCDF annual
reports. (Lee 2016)

Health

An initiative for tele-medicine aims to promote the widespread use of wearable

technologies such as fitness trackers, smart watches and even smart clothing which
can monitor the well-being of a patient to not only record vital signs such as blood
pressure, heart rate and body temperature and but also transmit the data via the
Internet to designated healthcare professionals or family members. (lEE 2016). A
telehealth project aims to offer stroke patients the chance to rehabilitate without
travelling to health facilities. In this case tablets guide patients through exercises
whilst sensors and cameras capture footage for therapists to review remotely. Once
a week, the tablets are used for face-to-face video conferences between doctors
and patients. (Souppouris 2016)

The Smart Health-Assist pilot project in the Jurong Lake District supports the
aging population of Singapore. It is designed to record data from user-friendly
sensors in the houses of the elderly and the patients suffering from chronic
diseases to be sent securely online to healthcare providers, allowing them to
monitor individuals, receive alerts, and respond to any emergencies (Lee 2016).
The effort seems as much about reducing the cultural stigma of not "doing your
familial duty" by constantly checking up on people as it is about risk. During the
trial period, the government is handling costs, but it is expected that residents with
the means to pay will do so when the service goes into full operation.
Commercialization of initiatives is seen as key for driving Smart Nation forward --
the government supplies the "laboratory" for businesses to flourish in. (Souppouris
2016)

IBM has worked in the past with Singapore's environmental agency to compare
weather and moisture data with intelligence about its omnipresent high-rise
housing to help predict outbreaks of Dengue fever, a mosquito-borne virus that
causes severe illness and death in tropical countries. Now, IBM expects its
purchase of weather.com and other digital assets from The Weather Co., finalized
earlier this year, to prove valuable to many cities, including Singapore. Singapore's
"city brain" project aims to connect weather data with traffic information, diverting
cars away from an impending thunderstorm, for example. (Hamblen 2016). It is
not clear if this weather data will link to that used in the Singapore LIVE! project.

Environment and Energy

Water shortage is going to be a continuous challenge for Singapore with ever-

increasing demand. The National Environment Agency (NEA) controls air and
water pollution, handles waste management, promotes energy efficiency and public
hygiene, etc. while the Public Utilities Board (PUB) deals with all matters regarding
water in Singapore. To involve citizens in increasing water-use efficiency, the
national water utility sends water efficiency messages to the public. Singapore
Power also provides a mobile application that allow citizens to view their
outstanding bills and payment status, gain better understanding of their usage and
submit meter readings. This leads consumers to audit their home usage to manage
their water consumption.

In the Yuhua estate, one of the first neighborhoods to "go smart," thousands of
sensors have been installed to keep tabs on individual apartments. Authorities are
able to measure energy consumption, waste production and water usage in real
time. Sensors provide residents with feedback on their behaviour, helping them to
use less water and electricity. The government aggregates this data, using analytics
and computer simulation to improve the planning, design and maintenance of
public housing estates. (Souppouris 2016)

In 2015, smart waste bins were introduced as a part of smart waste management
program. The sensing monitors attached on bin lids collect information on
contents and location and this is notified to a garbage team through a central
server. This helps the waste collection team to optimize their route planning and at
the same time, constantly keep the public spaces clean.

The pollution level are monitored by the NEA and this information is available for
the public on its official website. For example, citizens can easily access online
information on the 24-hour PSI value, the integrated air quality reporting index.

A smart Singapore aims to be energy-efficient and eco-friendly. With smart sensors

embedded inside, household appliances such as lights can be automatically turned
off when no one is at home. Smart lighting systems in office buildings that detect
motion and adjust automatically are available. For more efficient energy use,
Singapore’s Intelligent Energy System (IES) attempts to improve network
operations and facilitate active participation among consumers. Smart meters that
are equipped with communication capabilities play an especially vital role in
allowing the system to be two-way channel. They provide both consumers and the
grid operator with information on how much electricity they are using.

In 2012, as a part of IES project under phase 2, smart meters were installed at
some 1,900 households in Punggol. Some selected residential households were
given in-home display (IHD) units, which is a portable device that provides
households real-time information about their electricity consumption. The pilot
project was considered to create positive impacts and now through smart meters
placed at home, consumers are able to monitor their energy consumption, select
their electricity retailer, as well as choosing their own energy package that best suit
their needs.

Not all aspects of the smart city need to be data or technology intensive. In
Singapore the Oasia Downtown Hotel is a high rise building designed to support
an ecosystem of vegetation and insect life at all levels. This allows it to become
more self sufficient in water and to avoid the need for mechanical ventilation
(Bock 2017)

A central control system ("city brain") could also be used to coordinate results
from a variety of pilot smart city projects. For example, Changi General Hospital
in Singapore has a technology research branch that is testing the use of sensors in
homes of elderly people. These sensors can tell how often doors open or close,
how often a toilet is used, or detect a loud sound, should someone fall or yell out.
Sensors in the homes of the elderly alert only a doctor or a loved one at a remote
location about an elderly person's condition. Officials said the alerts will not be
added to a person's official electronic medical record, which include only entries
made by a doctor. But conceivably a central control system could aggregate
anonymous data from the alerts to better detect patterns affecting health among
the aging population. For example, if the alerts found that falls by the elderly were
correlated with certain housing units, it could point to a fault with interior design
or lighting or carpets. Or it might help detect a pattern of how a virus affecting
patients' balance had spread. (Hamblen 2016)

Education

Singapore’s economic success between the 1960s and 1980s could be partly
attributed to the industrial skills the schools and vocational institutes developed in
those years. In the new era, IT skills will be required; the Ministry of Education in
Singapore launched its Masterplan for IT in Education in 1997, which lays out a
comprehensive strategy for creating an IT-based teaching and learning
environment in every school. (Mahizhnan 1999). Its success is evidenced by its
high levels of performance in the international PISA tests (OECD 2016)

Outside the formal Smart Nation programme, Singapore has a highly joined up
approach to lifelong learning with its Skills-Future initiative. Employers spell out
expected industry changes in the medium term, identifying skill needs. These form
the basis of industry transformation maps to inform career decisions. Since
January 2016 those over 25 get a S$500 credit for approved training courses which
individuals choose. The returns on spending matter less than encouraging
continuous reskilling. (Economist, 2017 p16)

E Government

Launched in June 2011, data.gov.sg provides dashboard style access to publicly-

available Government datasets. It gives access to a data catalogue and allowsthe
download of Government data.

OneInbox launched in December 2013, provides an official Government platform

where individuals can receive their government-related correspondence
electronically. This free digital service is accessible for anyone with SingPass. It
offers a choice of e-letters, forwarding and downloading or printing of e-letters,
forwarding of e-letters to personal email accounts, etc.

SingPass was launched in July 2015, providing an authentication system to access

all Government e-services.

Other programmes for citizens include: a charity portal that provides efficient
services for charities and donors and e-Visitor that provides information for
tourists and other visitors.

Some programmes are provided for business through the e-Government Platform.
Launched in February 2004, the Business Incentive Profiler provides businesses
with a one-stop access for applications for all Government grants available to
businesses. The Online Business License System (OBLS) allows business to apply,
update, renew or terminate any online business licenses issued by government
agencies online. It was due for replacement in 2016 by the LicenceOne portal
which will allow multiple licences to be sought in one application. Other
programmes include Government Electronic Business (GeBIZ), which is a one-
stop eprocurement portal and OneMap, an integrated online geospatial platform
where reliable and accurate location-based information and services are provided
to the public.

Programmes for Government include The Government Cloud (G-Cloud) that

provides a secure ICT shared environment for government agencies, Cube that
provides a social networking platform among public officers to assist in the
exchange of ideas. (Lee 2016).
5. How is it to be contracted/ implemented?

Singapore’s e-Government is run by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and the iDA
(Infocomm Development Authority) acts as the Chief Information Officer for the
Government. The iDA provides technical advice and recommendations, master
planning and project management services to MoF and other Governmental
agencies for management and implementation of e-Government services
(programmes). E-Government Programmes are divided into as three categories,
programmes for citizens, programmes for businesses, and programmes for
Government.

All funding related to the Smart Nation Vision is provided by the Singaporean
Government. So far, no external funding has been exploited. The Government has
not allocated a specific budget for the Smart Nation Vision, but the cost of
initiatives are embedded in each of the agencies. Just like any other projects, if an
agency is to set off a new smart city initiative, a funding proposal is required to be
submitted to the Ministry of Finance for an assessment.

Commercialization of initiatives is seen as key for driving Smart Nation forward --

the government supplies the "laboratory" for businesses to flourish in. (Souppouris
2016). The Singapore government saw multinational corporations as a means to
kickstart its industrialisation programme and as a source of jobs, capital,
technology, management know-how, and, equally important, as a link to world
markets. (Mahizhnan 1999). Consequently various stakeholders such as
technology builders and entrepreneurs around the world are to be invited to be
involved in the Smart Nation vision to use the nation as a ‘living lab’ to try out new
ideas. (Lee 2016)

The underlying idea is to avoid physically integrated platforms and instead, to agree
on rules and regulations for data integration(Lee 2016) so interest in an Integrated
Operation and Command Centre (IOCC) (like the "city brain") is no longer high a
In fact, such an approach is perceived to have higher risks due to variations in the
sensitivity of data. (Lee 2016). Jacqueline Poh, managing director of the iDA, also
thinks that problem solving approaches with big vendors can get stuck with
proprietary standards and may not develop beyond small trials. Mayor led
approaches however, may work because they pull city departments together. (Jaffe
2016). Poh does not think that academic pilots commercialise well or get traction.

“I think for Smart Nation, there is a sense in which we’ll never get there. If you think about how
technology keeps moving on, and expectations of users keep moving on, there is a sense that it is a
 journey really without an end. That doesn’t make it not worth embarking on. It’s still worth
embarking on even if it doesn’t quite have an end. I think we’re also looking for metrics we can
actually push out in terms of citizen satisfaction with government services enabled through digital
means. These are metrics we are looking to deploy. We need to know that our digital government
experiences are satisfactory. Increasingly, we’re seeking that feedback within the app itself, or
within the digital experience itself we see that feedback. If you had any advice on how to metricize
a smart city, how you know you’d get there, we would really be open to inputs we could get. We
think it’s not an easy question.” (Jaffe quoting J. Poh)

So far, Singapore’s implementing agencies have been working very discretely and
independently of each other. (Hamblen 2016)

6. Have those affected been consulted and if so, how?

The Singapore government organisation GovTech is laying the groundwork for a
smart nation, exploiting the fibre and power points already available island wide for
a quick deployment of sensors. This is just one of many ways it can enable
government agencies to get their smart nation projects off the ground more
quickly. It is also the master planner for how sensors are deployed for the public
sector. At the same time, it provides a wireless sensor network for agencies to
access data from sensors. A smart nation is one that makes sense of the data.
GovTech, assists in the sharing of video feeds from cameras islandwide. It plans
that end users share useful data with the Government too. It does not pretend to
have answers to every question but works with the private sector – companies big
and small as well as research institutes and academia – to find solutions.
Strengthening this relationship, it seeks to co-create or innovate the next big
technology. From helping to fund proof-of-concept projects to matching
government agency users to technology innovators, GovTech aims to help find
user-centric solutions. It also collaborates on research projects and the transfer of
expertise through secondment. (GovTech Singapore 2016). It does however, seem
to liaise more with suppliers than with citizens.

a. Vivian Balakrishnan, Singapore’s foreign affairs minister and minister-in-charge of

the Smart Nation project, commenting on the Singapore Smart Nation deployment
of sensors said “The big, big elephant in the room is protection of privacy and ensuring security.
 We don’t have the answers.” Although he also stated that government was studying
the issue and is dedicated to ensuring citizens maintain privacy. The government
has not held a public discussion on the issue, but has said that data will be
anonymized to the greatest extent possible, and that it already has measures in
place to protect the data it collects. The project appears to be popular in
Singapore, where faith in the government is high and citizens have accepted limits
on behavior, including restrictions on public speech and the press, in return for a
more efficient state (Watts and Purnell 2016) and Singapore has a strong
foundation for e-governance, which they have been incubating since the early 80s.
(Lee 2016). Nevertheless, the example of sensors used in elderly housing has
already set off concerns about data privacy and personal privacy -- issues facing
every city that keeps information on citizens. Under Singapore law, collecting
resident data is legal and does not require court orders. However, an empowering
act must first be approved before this can be done (Trendmicro 2017). This act
must be specific to the type of data to be collected (e.g., installing CCTV cameras
in specific locations.) Singapore passed a data privacy protection act nearly two
years ago, which is considered fairly strict by privacy experts and could be a model
for other cities (Hamblen 2016).

Speaking at Singapore’s World Cities Summit in July 2016, Minister Balakrishnan

said the government would need to change the way it operates and interacts with
the nation’s people, and highlighted five fundamental points for smart-future
development: openness to experimentation, open standards, open source, open
data and open society. “We are taking full advantage that we are a city-state with a single
layer government” he said. He is also quoted as saying "The protection of privacy and
maintaining security remain the biggest issues" (Provada 2017). To this end the
Code::XtremeApps:: 2017 Hackathon (IMDA 2017) will involve the Cyber Security
Agency of Singapore and programmers of differing age groups in addressing the
challenges of sharing data derived from the internet of things across the
community to develop greater awareness of their surroundings.

Open data sources, such as data.gov.sg and the LTA DataMall, have been
developed as a means to encourage co-creation and the exchange of ideas between
the government and the public. (Tanner 2016)

7. What are its costs and benefits and to whom do they accrue?
Governmental agencies such as LTA, SPF, URA, SCDF, PUB, etc. have their own
Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that are reviewed periodically. Although
specific KPIs are not open to the general public, the Singapore Government
regularly publishes the Singapore Public Sector Outcomes Review, known as
SPOR. The biennial SPOR, which is open to the public, takes stock of how
Singapore has performed in key areas of national interest. Coordinated by the
Ministry of Finance, with inputs from all Ministries, the SPOR divided into five
chapters, giving an overview of the following:

1. A nation of opportunity

1.1. Quality economic growth

1.2. Work and education opportunities

2. A caring and cohesive society

2.1. Population policies

2.2. Affordable healthcare

2.3. Aging population

2.4. Community

3. A city to call home

3.1. Public housing

3.2. Social spaces

3.3. Environment

4. A safe, secure and credible Singapore

4.1. Nation security

4.2. Home safety

5. An effective and trusted Government

5.1. Governance

5.2. Public service

5.3. Fiscal system

 It is interesting to note that unlike some other countries, the benefits of smart city
services are not commonly quantified in monetary terms. Such quantification
manner is not prevalent and agencies do not tend to be interested in such statistical
figures. Instead, more focus is on improving the current services and satisfaction
level of the general public.

8. How have/can lessons be transferred?

Some lessons may be learned from Singapore’s cautious method of smart city
construction. For example, Singapore seems to make good use of pilot projects
before implementing smart services nationwide. This allows them to test factors
such as whether the service provided is useful for citizens, the actual cost at
implementation, and it also reduces risk of installing inappropriate smart systems
across the entire nation. Singapore has particular advantage in terms of carrying
out pilot projects in selected areas, partly due to its extensive ownership of public
housing, where approximately 80% of the resident population live, making it easier
for them to test services like in-house displays.

So far, the relative independence of implementation of Singapore’s agencies

suggests a degree of silo thinking. . But as smart solutions expanded in their scope
and as services begin to overlap between various fields of the city (across various
agencies), the need for a common platform to maximize the utilization of smart
devices, the effectiveness of data sharing, and to minimize cost may become clear.
Singapore, under the Smart Nation initiative, is cautiously striving to search for
optimum method of integration. Without a common platform to share
information across different sectors of the city, maximization of effectiveness in
managing the smart services may be challenging (see section 5) but more flexible.

The potential frictions in cross departmental interactions contrast with the

readiness of Singapore to export its ideas. Municipalities as far away as Kansas
City, Mo., are contemplating legislation similar to Singapore's data protection act
and Singapore ONE (One Network for Everyone) a nationwide broadband
network that delivers interactive and multimedia applications and services has
already established broadband links with Canada, Japan and the United States and
is in the processes of extending this network to other countries.
Conclusions

The city within a conventional state may experiment without any failure
threatening the state. Singapore as a city state could find such failures more of an
existential threat. They therefore proceed cautiously. This approach seems to have
paid dividends and the tie up with multinational corporations may be seen to
provide some sharing of risk. The dangers of being tied to proprietary standards
seem however, to be understood.

This cautious approach means that much of what passes for a smart city initiative
is already embedded into the departmental structure of government – a situation
which may slow down or prevent knowledge transfer within Singapore. The
initiatives may also appear familiar to Western city dwellers which implies that
Singapore is well abreast of developments in the West, but only in a few cases is it
ahead. The planning of Intelligent Nation and Smart City initiatives has its origin
in the master planning for land-use and transport that began after independence.
But Harminder Singh, Auckland University of Technology,(Vaswani 2017)
suggests that this tradition of centralised management and implementation may
constrain the ability of the Smart Nation project to innovate.

The democratic deficit evidenced by the OECD represents a trade off by the
citizen of security and employment against freedom. This manifests itself both in
the lack of citizen engagement in developing smart city initiatives and in the
relative secrecy of government departments over the performance of smart city
investments. This may work well enough when the projects are successful but
rather less well in the event of failure or underperformance which is likely to be
visible. So far the initiatives seem to have worked well but the more ambitious
projects such as for autonomous vehicles may present greater risks. The tension
between risk and reward is evidenced in an ambivalence towards pilot projects
which are being used but their potential to scale up and be rolled out is questioned.

The success of the Singapore education system is little mentioned in their smart
city programmes although it is clear that a well educated citizenry is a vital
component of their economic success. A well educated workforce would be well
placed to engage in the development of smart city initiatives but might also be
more critical of them, particularly in relation to privacy and security.
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