Governments continue push for innovations in 2011

By Eden Estopace | Dec 19, 2011

The image of governance in Asia in 2011 is multifaceted. From the technology looking glass, there has never been a year perhaps as fascinating as the year just about to end.  Consider the Arab Spring in the Middle East and the images of war waged on Twitter, all sides of the political fences using technology alternately as an instrument of protest and a means of self-preservation.

Consider the varied approaches and strategies used by governments to engage citizens under the new terms of endearment: world leaders on YouTube, the town hall meeting on Twitter and Facebook, presidential speeches live streamed on smartphones, and local government updates on micro blogging sites.

Finally, governments have realized that the classic stiff upper lip is passé and decided: enough with the wires and cables, the way to go is mobile; let's get social and build an app.

Consider, too, the seductive lure of the new computing platform that promises almost zero capital expenditure and puts forward the notion of IT as a service, bought or subscribed to only when you need it and custom built for your unique requirements.

As in year's past, this year was filled with many stories of innovations, perhaps made more upbeat by the frenzy in the consumer tech sector and the equally bullish enterprise sector. Here are some:

Stealing the spotlight

China made headlines when it trounced the United States as the proud owner of the world's fastest computer. China's Tianhe-1A supercomputer (also called the Milky Way), which is said to be capable of carrying out more than 2.5 thousand trillion calculations a second, has taken over the United States' XT5 Jaguar that can carry out only 1.75 petaflops (one petaflop is the equivalent of 1,000 trillion calculations per second).

The race to the fastest machine is, however, not over. Shortly after the record-breaking steal, Japan unveiled its own K Computer with an even more impressive 10.51 Petaflops per second.

Asia rising

More Asian countries are making it to the top rankings in global surveys in ICT use and competitiveness. Singapore and Hong Kong were the top two best places in the world to do business in 2010, according to a World Bank report. Meanwhile, South Korea was named the world's most advanced ICT economy by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in another report. Hong Kong was ranked 6th globally, but second in the Asia-Pacific.

In the World Economic Forum's Global Competitive Index (2011-2012), Singapore trounced Sweden and tied with Switzerland as the top most competitive countries in the world. Japan is in 9th place and is the only other Asian country in the top 10, while Hong Kong retained its rank from last year in the 11th position.

Singapore likewise topped the recently released Networked Society Index, which ranks countries that aggressively use information and communications technology (ICT) to benefit society. Seoul was in third place, closely following Stockholm. These top three countries in the Index were said to be leading the charge toward a so-called "networked society", or a society that maximizes the use of ICT to help meet some of society's many challenges.

Clearly, Singapore is leading the charge in Asia, while Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan were consistently in the top ranks of global rankings.

Singapore leads 

In June this year, Singapore unveiled a new e-government masterplan, which sets the roadmap for the next phase of ICT implementation in the country in the next five years.

The eGov2015 masterplan takes on the vision of a more collaborative government and one that calls for fundamental rethinking and transformational shifts in  e-government, according to Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean in a  keynote address at the eGov Global Exchange 2011 forum held at the Marina Bay Sands.

"Governments must take on the roles of a facilitator and enabler to collaborate with the public, private and people sectors in creating new solutions, new businesses, and new wealth," he said.

Two new public services were immediately launched under eGov2015 -- the data.gov.sg portal that would allow the public to search and access publicly available data published by the Singapore government, and the mGov@SG mobile site that brings together more than 40 mobile websites and apps developed by Singapore government agencies.