S'pore pledges $880M for public sector IT projects

SINGAPORE--The government is looking to maintain its 2011 public sector IT spending budget as local ICT regulator, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), sets aside S$1.1 billion (US$880 million) for tenders this financial year.

According to the press release issued Thursday, IDA said continued investments in the ICT sector will drive productivity and innovation within the public sector.

Last year, the Singapore government awarded 647 contracts worth S$1.12 billion (US$896 million), excluding the S$850 million (US$680 million) investment for the Schools Standard ICT Operating Environment project, it noted.

The government will also continue to work with the industry to explore new and innovative ways to enhance service delivery across different sectors. IDA Chief Executive Ronnie Tay said in a media statement: "Toward that end, we will continue to facilitate adoption of infocomm across sectors, as well as continued engagement and collaboration between public and private sectors."

According to the IDA release, the Ministry of Defence (Mindef), for one, revealed that it is looking to implement an improved healthcare system. It aims to streamline business process and integrate military healthcare records with the national healthcare systems to provide better quality healthcare services to Mindef and Singapore Armed Forces employees.

The government last year had focused its investment efforts on various emerging and growth markets including mobile services, cybersecurity, cloud and analytics.