This is Part 2 of a four-part series. See Part 1, Part 3 and Part 4 here.
Over 500 government officials and senior technology executives from across the Singaporean government, banks, academic institutions and healthcare sector convened at the 5th Singapore OpenGov Leadership Forum 2019 on 16th May 2019 at Marina Bay Sands.
The OpenGov Recognition of Excellence (RoE) Awards ceremony was held in conjunction with the OpenGov Leadership Forum.
An integral part of the OpenGov vision, Recognition of Excellence Awards are a commendation for agencies that establish new benchmarks for government ICT innovation in the ASEAN and ANZ regions. An Advisory Board, made up of former and current Chief Executives, select and vet these projects and initiatives. There have been over 200 recipients of these prestigious awards since 2016.
Though small, Singapore has one of the most technologically advanced infrastructures in the world and is expected to further expand its influence in not only Asia, but the global landscape. The work and contributions that these agencies have done to the technological development of Singapore as a Smart Nation is commendable.
This year, OpenGov is recognising and celebrating 14 agencies from the public and FSI sectors for initiatives that have achieved excellence in the use of ICT.
The award winners for Singapore OpenGov Recognition of Excellence 2019 are:
Immigration and Checkpoints Authority
MyICA is a personalised portal where customers can access their personal information and ICA’s range of electronic services (e-Services) on a single and secure digital platform. This makes leaving and entering Singapore an easier, more efficient process and reduces administrative work for the authority and increases productivity.
Infocommunications Media Development Authority
OpenGov recognised IMDA for their ‘Start Digital, Get Connected and Be Trusted’ initiatives.
These inititatives are a follow up to the ‘Go Digital’ programme launched two years ago. These initiatives launched in partnership with Enterprise SIngapore helps encourage and assist SMEs to become digitalised, and to give these businesses digital support at any stage of their digitalisation journey.
The three initiatives were:
- The Start Digital initiative – launched with the view of helping businesses adopt digital solutions from the start
- E-invoicing – to make sure businesses are capable of transacting easily with others and that they have a platform to compete with locally and internationally
- Data Protection Trustmark – to certify that businesses are trustworthy and operate good data management practices
Land Transport Authority
LTA won the award for the Mobility Assistance for Visually Impaired and Special users (MAVIS) mobile application.
The app uses assistive technologies to help bus commuters with special needs. It has made public transport more accessible and inclusive for all Singaporeans and helps those working on public transport to better identify who has special needs and how better to support these passengers.
MAVIS will help provide commuters with personalised journey guidance, such as the estimated time of arrival and notifications to board or alight the bus. It will also alert bus captains that commuters with special needs will be boarding or alighting, enabling bus captains to offer assistance accordingly, and allow visually impaired passengers to activate the audio announcements at the boarding bus stop.