Interview with Barry Sim of Singapore's Economic Development Board

INTERVIEW:

Barry Sim, Director, Electronics Industry Development Division

As part of its overall vision of turning Singapore into an information and communications hub, the country of Singapore has played a singular role in facilitating the implementation of wireless data technologies . Singapore is on the leading edge regarding the deployment of High Speed Circuit Switched Data and GRPS, and is pioneering programs to facilitate the development of Third Generation technologies such as W-CDMA. For the next few years it's possible that whatever happens in wireless data will happen in Singapore first.

The Economic Development Board of Singapore is charged with driving Singapore's transition into a knowledge-based economy. Barry Sims discusses the vision, current trials and partnerships with international companies.

GDT: From the EDB's standpoint, how is mobile technology viewed in the Asia Pacific region overall?

BS: I think from a regional standpoint, it has been long recognized that mobile technology is the technology of tomorrow. I think it’s seen that an infrastructure for telecommunication offers a very important means to facilitate business. Fixed lines take time and a lot of investment -- mobile technology offers an opportunity for regions in this part of the world to leapfrog into deployment of a telecommunications infrastructure.

I think by and large, most countries recognize that this is a very important infrastructure that you cannot just let go by. You have to persist and continue with it, or else be set back many years. I think this is going to go on despite the current Asian financial crisis.

BS: Part of our vision is to develop Singapore into an information and communications hub. We want people to be exposed to modern technology, including information technology. That’s the way business is done all over the world - it’s really important in terms of business-to-business communications. With many vendors and customers, it is already the prevalent mode of communication. We want to exploit information technology as a productivity tool, in the way we conduct business, and in the way we operate as a nation. So the government is committed that information technology is the way to go in enhancing overall competitiveness and to be more efficient and productive.

In many ways, we are leading the way in implementation and deployment. Singapore is not known to be a big market, but the government is very committed to investing in the infrastructure. The government has already invested in excess of $80 million in broadband networks.

We can offer a lot of opportunities for companies to come in here to test-bed some of their implementations and deployment of broadband multimedia applications and services.

GDT: The EDB has been very involved with the introduction of high speed circuit switched data by SingTel Mobile in partnership with Ericsson. Singapore will be among the first operators in the world to break the 9.6 kbps speed barrier for wireless data transmissions. Why is the EDB involved in this effort, and what does it hope to gain for Singapore?

BS: From our standpoint, we are committed to implementing and deploying next generation technology, whether it is HSCSD or it is third generation W- CDMA -- we are technology neutral. From an industry development standpoint, our adoption of such forefront technology allows for leading edge companies to engage Singapore for testbedding. If a technology is not deployed elsewhere, you have an opportunity here to try it out with relatively speedy governmental approvals. Also, our interest is also to expose our engineers and our infrastructure to the forefront of leading edge technologies, telecommunications technologies in this case.

GDT: Along those lines, a press announcement was made recently that four Japanese firms are training Singapore engineers, so that Singapore can be used as a base to pursue third generation wireless technology. What does this mean for Singapore?

BS: I think this is an area we want to embrace as part of our long-term vision to develop Singapore into an information and communication hub. Third generation wireless communication is an area identified as the next high growth technology. As part of this, NTT DoCoMo of Japan, together with our Centre for Wireless Ccommunications (research institute for wireless communication) and SingTel jointly will be conducting Wideband -CDMA trials here early next year.

As for the training of Singapore engineers in the four Japanese companies, this again is another mechanism for us to help integrate our infrastructure in the area of manpower capability. This is something that is in the forefront for the Japanese as well. This is only the second R&D center outside Japan that NEC intends to develop, the other one being in the U.K.

So there again, our engineers are being exposed to leading edge technology of third generation wireless communication. We are very encouraged by doing things like this. These companies’ training means our engineers will be sent to the various companies involved directly in the development of 3G wireless communication technology -- in the infrastructure, in the software side, and so on. We see this as another form of preparation for the infrastructure.

The Center for Wireless Communications (CWC), a government-sponsored research institute, serves as a sponsoring organization.They help to identify suitable candidatesand assign them to these companies for extensive training. The government has built some fifteen research institutes in different technologies -- in microelectronics, in data storage, for instance. It isour commitment to build centers of competence, so that technology, manpower, skills, and so on can be harnessed to the research institutes and they can serve as resources for the industry to tap on.

GDT: How do you expect the implementation of third generation technology to impact Singapore?

BS: From the industry standpoint, third generation Wideband CDMA is perhaps going to evoke new systems and new equipment -- whereby companies will have to undertake many other types of related activities such as applications and services and including manufacturing of equipment. Downstream, we see that all these are motivators or drivers for what some see as potential benefits from economic activity from manufacturing, testing services, design activities, and so on.