This is Singapore’s bold plan to mold the world in its image

Singapore has a plan to build a tech utopia – a real-life tomorrowland where inhabitants lead blissful lives under the auspices of all-seeing tech overlords. It calls this the Smart Nation initiative.

There’s nothing quite like it. It’s an ambitious government project to use technology from public research and the private sector to improve the lives of Singaporeans, generate jobs, and – in the words of Vivian Balakrishnan, the geeky minister overseeing Smart Nation – create a “cohesive” society.

For months, the state’s public relations machinery pitched Smart Nation as the country’s future, a silicon add-on to the garden city. That, I think, is just phase one. What Singapore is really working towards is becoming the model city for the world – an exporter of expertise to anyone who aspires to the same goal.

Singapore’s unspoken talent

Singapore exporting Smart Nation is inevitable. The country ranks 12th in the world by export value. With a tiny population of 5.4 million, it can’t rely on domestic consumption to fuel its economy.

The country’s tiny size makes it ideally suited as an exporter of livable cities. It has one layer of governance (unlike India or the United States), little political opposition, and massive influence on the economy through state-owned enterprises.

Relative to other countries, it can test, roll out, and adjust initiatives rapidly. It can form consortiums at will and expand Singapore Inc abroad. It used this tactic extensively to land lucrative contracts to build industrial parks and cities beyond its borders. It has a Center for Liveable Cities, an organization which aims to spread knowledge about city building.

Singapore made the news recently by landing a contract to build a city in India ten times its size. Local companies can win business by providing their services and products to these future cities. This is one aspect of Singapore’s aircraft carrier strategy, which I articulated in a previous article.

So Smart Nation is simply enhancing what Singapore has been successful at since independence – building cities. Now that Singapore has the basics nailed down, it wants to build cities augmented with technology to enhance efficiency. It’s the logical next step.

In other words, Singapore is no longer a startup like it once was, but a successful incumbent reinventing itself. But unlike the messy, libertarian approach of Silicon Valley, Singapore’s attempt to innovate is more managed. It has identified several areas it thinks will be ripe for a technological shift in the next few years: education, transport, health care, homecare, and community development. It’s calling for startups to get involved in these areas (think water purification company Hyflux).

Can a state really innovate?

The government promises to be nimble. Balakrishnan says Singapore will quickly jump into previously hidden areas that emerge as the next big thing. It has created a Smart Nation Program Office, parked within the Prime Minister’s Office, in an effort to override bureaucracy.

Here’s the problem: big technological shifts are difficult to divine, not even with an army of data scientists and the smartest brains in the room. Venture capitalists know this. That’s why they anticipate many failed bets, hoping for one wild idea that can earn the fabled 1,000x return. In fact, most VC firms fail to make enough returns to justify the capital put in.