Speech by Minister S Iswaran at the opening ceremony of Fraunhofer Singapore

​SPEECH BY MR S ISWARAN, MINISTER FOR TRADE AND INDUSTRY (INDUSTRY), AT THE OPENING CEREMONY OF FRAUNHOFER SINGAPORE, RESEARCH TECHNO PLAZA (RTP), NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY, ON 6 JUNE 2017 AT 10.30AM

His Excellency Dr Michael Witter, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Singapore

Professor Bertil Andersson, President, Nanyang Technological University

Professor Dieter W. Fellner, Director, Fraunhofer IGD

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Introduction

1.            Good morning.  It gives me great pleasure to join you today at the launch of Fraunhofer Singapore. This event marks another important milestone in Singapore’s journey to the digital economy.

Companies need to embrace digital technologies to remain competitive in an increasingly networked and digitalised global business environment.

2.            Digitalisation has fundamentally transformed businesses around the world.  We are seeing exponential growth in the proportion of businesses using digital means to execute, control and monitor their operations. In PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC’s) 2016 Global Industry 4.0 Survey, 70% out of the 2000 companies surveyed across 26 countries and 9 industry sectors expected their digital capabilities to dramatically increase by 2020. These capabilities include digitalising essential functions within their operations, enhancing their product portfolio with digital functionalities, or introducing data-based services to augment their product offerings.

3.            The impact of digitalisation will be pervasive, cutting across many industries. In manufacturing, trends such as data analytics, industrial internet of things (IIoT), and automation have accelerated the move towards a new manufacturing paradigm, sparked by Germany’s launch of the “Industrie 4.0” initiative at the Hannover Messe in 2011. Envisioned to connect data, machines and systems throughout the supply chain from production shopfloor to final distribution, the future of manufacturing is expected to be smart and self-optimising, leading to disruptions in business models, revenue sources, and productivity.

4.            Retail and Lifestyle is another sector riding the digitalisation wave. In 2015, American sports apparel manufacturer Under Armour launched its “Connected Fitness” platform, allowing consumers to connect their mobile devices to apparel and shoes to collect behavioural data such as running patterns, and use the insight from this data to become better athletes. PwC envisions the post-2020 retail landscape to feature extensive use of virtualised customer interfaces, as well as intelligent algorithms to augment human decision making.

5.            At home, the Committee on the Future Economy (CFE), in its Report released early this year, has called for Singapore to build on the Smart Nation vision to promote the adoption of digital technologies across all sectors of the economy. Strong capabilities in areas such as data analytics and cybersecurity will be needed, to leverage data as a source of competitive advantage and enable Singapore to fully reap the benefits of digitalisation.

Singapore has built strong capabilities and infrastructure to enable our economy and society to reap the benefits of digitalisation.

6.            Under the Smart Nation Singapore initiative, we have created a conducive environment for the development and adoption of digital technologies. This includes putting in place the necessary infrastructure, creating an enabling regulatory environment, and ensuring the presence of the requisite talent base and expertise. We now have some of the fastest connectivity to every home and business. In the 2016 Akamai State of the Internet report, Singapore topped the world in terms of average peak connection speed at 146.9 Mbps.

7.            At the same time, we are strengthening the pipeline of computational talent. From the IMDA Playmaker Programme which exposes young children to technology, to the Smart Nation Fellowship Programme which invites experienced data scientists and engineers to work on national challenges, we are developing the talent pipeline at all stages to help Singaporeans excel in digital solutions. We are also tapping on the collective talents and capabilities of our citizens to co-create value. Our “Open Data” framework aims to enable citizens to work on datasets and application programming interfaces (APIs) released by the various Government agencies, to uncover useful insights and create applications which can improve public services.

8.            Digital technology will be a key enabler to drive societal benefits, with healthcare being one crucial domain. The Smart Nation Singapore initiative is supporting tele-health trials at the national level, to help caregivers to monitor the daily activities of their elderly loved ones. The system also alerts caregivers when the elderly meet with difficulties. Originally conducted with only ten households, these trials were extended in April 2016 to 3,200 households in the Yuhua estate, after receiving positive feedback.

9.            We have also intensified our efforts to help companies to adopt digital technologies. A*STAR has launched two “Model Factories” to allow companies, particularly our SMEs, to experience and test-bed digital technologies in a learning environment, without affecting their existing business operations. The Model Factories will also allow companies to collaborate with stakeholders to test-bed and jointly develop innovative solutions for their processes.

10.         IMDA has worked with SPRING to launch the “SMEs Go Digital Programme” which was announced at this year’s Budget.  Under this programme, SMEs can access IMDA’s pre-qualified Infocomm and Media (ICM) productivity solutions for applications such as supply chain optimisation and resource management. To provide SMEs with a one-stop overview of these solutions, as well as other easily adoptable solutions from A*STAR, SPRING has expanded the SME Portal with the Tech Depot microsite, which went live in April 2017. Under the SMEs Go Digital programme, IMDA will also establish a new SME Digital Tech Hub to provide SMEs with specialist advice in areas such as data analytics and cybersecurity.

Strategic international partnerships such as Fraunhofer Singapore will enhance Singapore’s existing efforts to build deep digital capabilities and translate these technologies to benefit the economy and society.

11.         Today’s launch of Fraunhofer Singapore will enhance and give further impetus to our efforts to build deep digital capabilities.

12.         Fraunhofer Singapore builds on a two-decade long collaboration between the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft and NTU, which started as the Centre for Advanced Media Technology (CAMTech) in 1998. In 2010, this collaboration evolved into the Fraunhofer Project Centre for Interactive Digital Media at NTU (Fraunhofer IDM@NTU), which focused on interactive digital media technologies.

13.         With its expertise in cognitive human-computer interfaces and 3D modelling, Fraunhofer IDM@NTU has worked on several projects with potential industry application. An example is the project undertaken with LDR Pte Ltd, an SME specialising in learning resources, to develop a virtual 3D moulding machine for students from the NTU School of Materials Science and Engineering to learn about modern manufacturing processes. With the virtual machine, students are able to experiment with different materials and machine settings, to create different moulding outputs.  The visualisations show how raw material enters the machine, becomes heated up and compressed, and further processed to create the moulded product, without the need to conduct the physical moulding.

14.         Fraunhofer IDM@NTU has also developed solutions to benefit the public sector, in areas such as healthcare education. Using a high resolution 3D scanner, the institute developed digital models of plastinated hearts provided by the NTU Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCSoM). The resulting high definition 3D models were then annotated by medical experts and integrated in a multi-touch application. This application could help medical students grasp key anatomical concepts and has the potential to play an important role in medical education at NTU.

15.         Digitalisation technologies will be key in helping our companies capture new opportunities and remain relevant in the fast-changing global economic landscape. Fraunhofer Singapore will build on the existing applied research in interactive and digital media under Fraunhofer IDM@NTU to develop cutting-edge technology solutions and collaborate with our companies to tap new opportunities in the digital space.  NRF will be providing Fraunhofer Singapore with up to $23 million in funding, till FY2020, to continue its research and translation activities in visual computing.

Conclusion

16.         Let me close by congratulating Fraunhofer Singapore on its launch, and to the further strengthening of the collaboration between the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft and NTU. I look forward to the capabilities and solutions that will be developed by Fraunhofer Singapore, and the significant impact it will have on our economy and society.

17.         Thank you.

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