Singapore’s new PM has his work cut out for him

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Hello reader,

Singapore has a new prime minister, and boy do I not envy him.

It’s a massive job leading a country, after all, even if it’s one of the smallest in the world. In the grand scheme of things, I think Singapore is doing fine, but this is one of those responsibilities where things will start going sideways the moment you take your foot off the pedal.

There are so many areas to look at and so many differing opinions and advice. Today’s premium article is just about the tech scene, and already we have a myriad of suggestions from various corners of the industry.

Multiply that by the many different areas – education, healthcare, and so on – and you can see why I’m not envious of his lot. He’ll need some supreme analysis and filtering capabilities.

How should Singapore approach its tech future? Maybe you’ll have your own ideas after reading the article.

Today we look at:

• The tech challenge that lies ahead for Singapore’s new prime minister
• The US$1 billion series F round of an AI data foundry services firm
• Other newsy highlights such as a possible buyout on the cards for PropertyGuru and Paytm’s latest financial figures

Premium summary

This is why I’m not the prime minister

Image credit: Timmy Loen

To continue my point from my opening spiel – man, I got a little tired just reading the thoughts and suggestions of the interviewees in the article. They come from various niches in the founder and VC scenes, and together they provide a great, well-rounded picture of the hopes and concerns of the tech industry as a whole.

Ultimately, it just goes to show the amount of planning and work that lies ahead for the new Singapore leadership if it wants the country to keep succeeding.

• Singapore’s got talent (issues): There’s a shortage of local talent in technical and operational areas, and hiring junior software engineers is a pain point. At the same time, hiring foreigners is expensive and leads to other knock-on effects in the economy and socially.
• They took our jobs: Carro CEO and co-founder Aaron Tan worries that Singaporeans – like any workforce – are losing their competitive edge with the increased usage of generative AI and robotics. While a higher education level as well as proficiency in English and a Mother Tongue language used to be advantages, technologies like genAI are fast eroding that edge.
• How deep can we go? Questions remain over Singapore’s ability to build successful firms in deep tech – a keen focus for the government – given the lack of talent in this field. Jussi Salovaara, co-founder and managing partner in Asia for Antler, hopes to see public-private partnerships in which the government helps seed a few deeptech funds, particularly in the early stages, when international capital is lacking.

A development befitting its name

Are you excited for next week just like we are?

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