SINGAPORE: Two existing Smart Nation initiatives – Moments of Life (MOL) and MyInfo – will be expanded in the coming year to address more citizens’ needs.
Minister-in-charge of Smart Nation Initiative Vivian Balakrishnan revealed these plans during the Committee of Supply debate in Parliament on Thursday (Feb 28).
The Moments of Life (Families) app was first introduced last June, helping parents manage their child’s early years. In an update, the Smart Nation and Digital Government Group (SNDGG) said that as of February this year, more than 2,000 births have been registered through the service.
READ: New Moments of Life app gets parents’ blessings, mostly
As part of ongoing improvements to the service, SNDGG said the electronic registration of births at KK Women’s and Children Hospital, Singapore General Hospital and National University Hospital will be expanded to private hospitals starting with Thomson Medical Centre this January.
Going forward, the MOL initiative will cater to citizens’ other key life moments. These include integrating relevant information and services that encourage seniors to lead active and engaged lives, as well as enabling citizens to plan ahead for end-of-life matters.
“MOL is a journey taken with citizens,” SNDGG said. “As citizens’ needs will evolve over time, this iterative process will continue, to further improve user experience and the suite of services offered.”
READ: What next for smart nation Singapore? Getting citizens and SMEs to embrace digital
Minister-in-charge of GovTech Janil Puthucheary added in his speech that the Government is actively engaging of citizens on Smart Nation initiatives through a project called Smart Nation Co-creating with our People Everywhere (SCOPE).
For instance, he said a series of engagements at senior activity centres, grassroots and NTUC events that reached about 3,500 citizens helped GovTech discover that the majority of seniors aged 60 and above have smartphones and are open to the idea of using digital services, according to preliminary findings.
These citizens also gave feedback on how to design the app in an easy-to-use manner and how to provide support to seniors using these service. “All these will help us to deliver a better product, service and experience,” Dr Puthucheary said.
MYINFO FOR BUSINESSES
Another Smart Nation initiative that will be expanded is the digital vault MyInfo, which is a key component of the National Digital Identity system currently being built.
SNDGG said in a factsheet that the platform will include MyInfo Business from the first quarter of this year, and this will enable smoother business-to-business transactions. For example, it will save business owners time and effort when submitting Government-verified data such as one’s corporate profile, financial performance and ownership information.
Singapore-registered business owners can log in through CorpPass, give consent and have their data pre-filled for participating services, it added.
Additionally, the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office and Government Technology Agency, in collaboration with the Monetary Authority of Singapore, are working on a pilot with three local banks to facilitate financial institutions’ credit assessment for small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs).
SMEs can use MyInfo Business to open a corporate account and apply from loans from the DBS Bank, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) and United Overseas Bank (UOB), the factsheet said.
There will be more B2B services added to MyInfo Business in the future, while developer tools will also be made available and more details will be shared at a later date, said SNDGG.
The Parking.SG app. (Photo: MCI)
Meanwhile, Dr Balakrishnan noted that Parking.sg is already used by more than 60 per cent of car owners, but the Government hopes to make it easier for motorists to find parking. As such, GovTech, URA and MSO will be testing smart sensors to provide real-time availability of kerb-side parking lots, he said.
A SNDGG spokesperson told Channel NewsAsia that the trial is part of its Smart On-Street Parking project under the Smart Nation Sensor Platform, and is expected to start in the first half of this year for a period of six months. It will be for on-street parking lots along Telok Ayer Street and Temple Street, the spokesperson added.
Motorists can find out parking availability information via the URA website and the “Find Parking” function in the OneService app. The outcome of the trial will be assessed and on-street parking lot information may be included in Parking.sg at a later phase, the spokesperson said.
