Analyse Asia 56: SMART Nation & startups in Singapore with Steve Leonard

Steve Leonard, deputy executive chairman of IDA Singapore joined us in an interesting conversation on the SMART Nation initiative in Singapore & his thoughts on the startup ecosystem. Our discussion began with his reflections from an illustrious career in enterprise technology to a government role, and subsequently, we discuss why the Singapore government has embarked on the SMART Nation initiative to collaborate with the various stakeholders from public to private corporations, start-ups and also citizens. Steve also shared his thoughts on how far the startup ecosystem has evolved.

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Here are the interesting notes and links to the discussion (with timestamps included):

• Steve Leonard (@steveleonardSG, LinkedIn) – Executive Deputy Chairman, Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) and Adviser to National Research Foundation Singapore. 
• Reflections of his career from enterprise technology to Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore.

• How did he get started in technology? [1:00]
• Why has he decided to come to live and work in Asia? [1:25]
• With an illustrious career in the IT enterprise space from companies such as EMC and Symantec, how do those experiences help to shape his thoughts in his current role? [2:12]
• How has the enterprise market evolved in Asia for the past 20 years? [3:13]
• What is his current role and responsibilities in IDA as the deputy executive chairman? [4:14]
  • The role of IDA Singapore: regulator of the telecommunications & postal industry, chief information officer for the Singapore government and builder of the technology ecosystem with public and private sector and startups ecosystem with Infocomm Investments (IIPL)

• SMART Nation Initiative, Singapore 

• Based on the Smart Nation article in Forbes, part of the initiative’s goals are to tackle certain global challenges such as urban density, aging population, healthcare, mobility and sustainability. In IDA’s perspective, what’s the mission and goal for SMART Nation? [5:35] 
• How does SMART Nation as a platform work for different stakeholders: (i) government, (ii) public and private corporations and (iii) citizens? How do overseas companies who plan to expand to Asia get involved with SMART Nation? [7:33]
• How are different initiatives arranged under the banner of SMART Nation?
• Smarter communications and transport [8:30]
  • How does the government work with private corporations and developers to facilitate better data availability for communication in transport for example, taxi data? [9:57]
• Smart Living 
  • How does the government bring technologies into public housing estates? [10:50]  
• How are cyber infrastructure and security parked within the SMART Nation Initiative given their importance in the ICT industry? [12:53]