Sustaining Singapore's excellence in the fourth industrial revolution

Abstract

The Fourth Industrial Revolution brings with it a new set of challenges related to the power and influence of technology that governments around the world are still trying to adapt to. In Singapore, the government has been proactive in ensuring that the country rides the wave of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, through laying out the hard infrastructure and implementing policies like the Smart Nation Initiative. However, there were un-anticipated drawbacks that hindered the progress of this initiative, giving rise to the question of whether Singapore has other barriers that could prevent Singapore from sustaining her excellence within the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. To gain insight on this, interviews were conducted with people from diverse backgrounds, who were all in industries / had expertise central to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The interviews revealed that in addition to existing barriers, there are additional ones that have not yet been formally addressed.