Singapore Grows Trust in the Digital Environment
Launches the National Digital Trust Centre and co-creates the future of AI standards and governance with global partners through A.I. Verify
Singapore, 1 June 2022 — At the ATxAI conference, a part of Asia Tech x Singapore (ATxSG), Mrs. Josephine Teo, Singapore’s Minister for Communications and Information announced the launch of the Digital Trust Centre (DTC) to lead Singapore’s research and development efforts for trust technologies, and support talent development in this space. She highlighted that as technology evolves, new risks will emerge. Therefore, it is important to invest in trust technologies[1] such as Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) that preserves data privacy while the data is being analysed, as well as trustworthy AI technologies which help verify and explain the expected performance of AI systems.
About the Digital Trust Centre
The Centre is funded by a S$50 million investment from the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) under the Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) 2025 plan[1]. Hosted by the Nanyang Technological University, the Centre is a national effort to focus on four key areas of trust technologies. To achieve this, DTC will embark on the following:
- Trust Tech Research – Enable Institutes of Higher Learning and Research Institutes to pursue research excellence in Trust Technologies and drive local and international collaborations.
- Trust Tech Innovations – Encourage academia and enterprises to co-develop and mature research ideas into market-ready solutions.
- New sandbox environment – Enable businesses to experiment with Trust Technologies to alleviate challenges with data sharing.
- Deepen local capabilities – Nurture 100 R&D talents in digital trust.
Singapore stepping up its contribution to GPAI through the DTC
Singapore is a founding member of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), which is a multi-stakeholder initiative that fosters international cooperation to bridge the theory and practice in AI. Singapore contributes actively to GPAI through expert groups such as data governance and commercialisation. Singapore plans to step up its contributions to GPAI through the DTC.
To this end, IMDA and the International Centre of Expertise of Montreal for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (CEIMIA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding today for one of the world’s first cross-border collaboration on PETs. Under this, solutions will be developed to demonstrate how PETs can overcome privacy and compliance challenges for organisations building novel applications that leverage cross-organisation and cross-border data. The experience will guide future research and development, business adoption of PETs and contribute towards the development of international standards.
The DTC will be the implementation partner for this collaboration between the IMDA and CEIMIA, which is one of the two centres of expertise for GPAI.
Singapore furthers regional cooperation
Singapore and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members won the top award at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prizes Ceremony 2022 in the category of “International and Regional Cooperation” for its ASEAN Data Management Framework (DMF) and Model Contractual Clauses for Cross Border Data Flows (MCCs).
This initiative was led by Singapore as Chair of the ASEAN Working Group on Digital Data Governance, and developed in consultation with ASEAN businesses. The toolkits will help businesses in ASEAN transact and collaborate in the digital economy with ease and confidence. DMF provides a step-by-step guide for SMEs to put in place a data management system with data governance structures and safeguards. MCCs are template contractual terms and conditions that may be included in the binding legal agreements between businesses transferring personal data to each other across borders. This reduces compliance costs and saves time required for lengthy contract negotiations, especially for SMEs while ensuring personal data protection when data is transferred across borders.
Minister Teo also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on digital cooperation with H.E. Abdul Mutalib Yusof, Brunei’s Minister of Transport and Information, as part of Singapore’s robust network of digital economy government-to-government MOUs in the Asia Pacific region and beyond, to advance collaboration in the digital economy and digital connectivity.
Highlights of ATxSummit Day 2 – Inspiring Women in Tech
At ATxInspire - SG Women in Tech, Minister Teo was joined by H.E. Bolor-Erdene Battsengel, Secretary of State, Ministry of Digital Development and Communications, Mongolia, H.E. Makishima Karen, Minister of Digital Agency. Japan and Ms. Jessica Tan, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Ping An Group. They spoke on the changing roles of women in tech as well as efforts to attract, retain and develop women to support the tech sector.
About the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA)
The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) leads Singapore’s digital transformation by developing a vibrant digital economy and an inclusive digital society. As Architects of Singapore’s Digital Future, we foster growth in Infocomm Technology and Media sectors in concert with progressive regulations, harness frontier technologies, and develop local talent and digital infrastructure ecosystems to establish Singapore as a digital metropolis.
For media queries, please reach out to:
Sangeetha Kannan, OPRG for IMDA
Tel: +65 8769 5324 | Email: sangeetha.kannan@omnicomprgroup.com
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Resources:
Annex A: Digital Trust Centre Factsheet
Annex B: A.I. Verify Factsheet
Annex C: MoU with CEIMIA Factsheet
Annex D: WSIS Prize Award and MoU Brunei Factsheet
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[1] Trust Technologies help augment systems in the areas of privacy, accountability, identity, integrity, fairness, safety, and compliance. For instance, technologies for the privacy-enabled exchange of data and to evaluate the trustworthiness of digital systems.
[2] Under the RIE 2025 plan, the Singapore government has committed S$25 billion to research, innovation and enterprise, to take Singapore to the next stage of its development, www.nrf.gov.sg/rie2025-plan
[3] Amazon Web Services, DBS Group, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Singapore Airlines, Singtel-NCS/LTA, Standard Chartered Bank, UCARE.AI, and X0PA.AI.