As part of its post COVID-19 phased economic recovery, Singapore is creating the SG Digital Office (SDO) with the aim of driving the government’s push to accelerate digital adoption in the community.
Working under the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), SDO aims to mobilize a “whole-of-nation movement” to accelerate Singapore’s digitization by equipping every individual and business – including seniors and small businesses – with digital tools and skills. It will recruit 1,000 digital ambassadors who will be full-time staff and volunteers to help in its work. They will encourage stallholders and other small businesses to adopt SGQR codes for e-payment in order to avoid having to handle cash. The ambassadors also have a target to raise the digital skills of 100,000 seniors by March 2021.
Mr. S. Iswaran, Minister for Communications and Information, said, “COVID-19 has irrevocably changed the way we lead our lives. While some of us have been able to make the necessary adjustments to work, learn or socialize from our homes because we are digitally connected, that is not the case for some of the elderly and vulnerable among us. Their lives can be better if they too are as digitally connected. The Government recognizes that in the wake of COVID-19, digitization is now both an imperative and an opportunity. Digitization can significantly improve the lives and livelihoods of our people. We are therefore seizing the moment, by establishing the new SG Digital Office and doubling down on our efforts to help every individual, worker and business go digital. For a start, SDO will recruit 1,000 Digital Ambassadors to help stallholders and seniors go digital. Working with like-minded members of the community, corporate entities and individuals, SDO will drive Singapore’s national digitization movement, to ensure that everyone has a place in Singapore’s digital future”.