MDDI 演讲稿 · 2025-04-14
Janil Puthucheary 高级政务部长在中小企业商会与工教院 AI 卓越中心启动仪式上的开幕致辞
Opening Address by SMS Janil Puthucheary at the Launch of ASME and ITE's AI Centre of Excellence
要点
- • SME 是新加坡经济的基石——几乎是全部企业，雇佣约 70% 的劳动力。
- • AI 已不再是「未来感的颠覆者」——它是 SME 在快速变化中保持竞争力的「通用目的技术」。生成式 AI 与 LLM 把这些工具的成本与可获得性大幅拉低。
- • 「CTO-as-a-Service」平台已有 300+ 预审方案——约 30% 是 AI 加持。2024 年支持 33 万+ 用户、近 3,000 家 SME 采纳 AI 方案。
- • ASME 与 ITE 联合推出「SME@AITE」——把 AI 资源、动手工作坊、落地策略带给 SME；商业顾问陪同走 IMDA「Gen AI Digital Sandbox」等政府项目。
- • ITE 学生通过 SME@AITE 实习与产业派驻——在真实 AI 项目中获得经验——给他们在 AI 与数字行业的职业前景加分。
完整译文（中文）
MDDI 英文原文译文 · 翻译日期：2026-05-03
数码发展及新闻部高级政务部长 Janil Puthucheary 博士在 2025 年 4 月 14 日「ASME 与 ITE AI 卓越中心」（SME@AITE）启动仪式上的开幕致辞
各位早安。感谢邀请我出席今天的活动。
SME 是新加坡经济的基石与基础——它们几乎代表了全部企业，雇佣约 70% 的劳动力。它们的活力、韧性与创新——是我们经济保持活力的关键——为新加坡、为新加坡人创造工作机会。展望未来——这一点会延续。
看看世界——以及我每天早上的资讯流——「颠覆与变化」正快速成为常态。事情变得很快——这会影响我们的企业、我们的教学方式、以及我们的社会。但我们要应对这种快速变化，必须做的一件事是——拥抱技术。今天如此——过去几年也是如此。技术如何在社会与商业中被部署与使用——可以是竞争优势——也可以变成一种新的常态——就像我们的常态本身已经在变化。
AI 是一个例子。不久前它还被视为「颠覆者」——它仍然是——但它正快速演变成「我们的企业与社会真正理解 AI 及其对生存、增长与竞争力影响」的事。
AI 不一定关乎复杂、未来感的技术或机器人——那种科幻电影里的东西。它也是借助「智能工具，提升生产力、驱动创新」——许多企业主与经济中的人长期在谈的事。如今——我们有了与 AI 相关的新工具，能够在大量行业、领域与业务中做这件事。它是「通用目的技术」——和过去几十年的互联网通信一样——通用目的技术对整个经济产生影响。它的价值——在它被应用于经济中的行业与领域时——通过改进业务流程、改造运营、创造新的产品与服务——才被释放出来。所以——企业之间的竞争将超越「价格与就近性」——我们的 SME 必须为此做好准备。
最近发生的事——尤其是生成式 AI 与大语言模型——把这些工具的获取「民主化」——也包括对 SME。它把成本与上手门槛大幅拉低。
但在这个空间里穿行依然有挑战。AI 的获取确实改善了——SME 接入 AI 工具方便多了。但这些工具的采用、数字化业务流程、以及工作流与服务可能的转型——可能让人不知所措——并可能成为 SME 必须经历的变化的「障碍」。
在政府这一侧——我们已经构建起一套资源与工具——我们称之为「CTO-as-a-Service」——希望能支撑企业的数字化与 AI 采用。这里有 300 多个预先核准的方案。CTO-as-a-Service 平台上提供补助支持——其中约 30% 的方案目前已经是 AI 加持的。我们预期这一比例会继续增长。2024 年——超过 33 万名用户在 CTO-as-a-Service 平台上获取资源——帮助了近 3,000 家 SME 采纳 AI 加持方案。
今年——在「拨款总目」（COS）上——MDDI 也宣布了几项工具——帮助企业发现「AI 能在自家业务中怎样部署」。其中包括《面向企业的生成式 AI 操作手册》（GenAI Playbook for Enterprises）——一份务实指南——用真实世界例子解释 AI 如何让业务更高效——帮助你做出「自建 vs 购买现成方案」的明智决定——并提供管理相关风险的评估框架。
去年——我们推出《数码企业蓝图》（Digital Enterprise Blueprint）——以提升企业、升级员工技能——进入数字化旅程的下一阶段。作为其中一部分——政府把生态中的关键伙伴聚到一起——比如行业协会与产业——为企业与员工提供支持。这类努力的成功——需要众多利益相关方走到一起。
因此我很高兴——通过 ASME 与 ITE——他们正在合作为 SME 提供「AI 资源、动手工作坊、落地策略」。这将帮助 SME 走出「概念化」——进入真正的「落地」——把 AI 技术整合到业务运营中。
商业顾问将随时帮助 SME 走好相关政府支持项目——比如 IMDA 的「Gen AI Digital Sandbox」——确保 SME 获得必要协助、充分利用 AI 方案。这些事情我们都得做——并思考如何把这些技术与业务、流程与服务对接起来。
但即便有了这一切——任何技术的强大——最终取决于「懂得使用它的人」。我们持续的数字化推进要为所有人换来成果——就需要一支稳健的「技术领导者与员工管线」。在培育下一代科技人才方面——ASME 与 ITE 也将作为一个平台——通过实习与产业派驻——让 ITE 学生动手接触「AI 驱动的业务方案」。通过与 SME 一起做真实 AI 项目——学生将获得经验、提升其在 AI 与数字行业的职业前景。
致所有 SME——如果你们还没开始数字化旅程——现在就开始；如果你们已经数字化（就像今天在场的各位）——就探索 AI 如何把你的业务带到下一个层级。借力可获得的政府方案与生态资源——比如这里的 SME@AITE。投资于人、投资于我们的人——并持续培育「持续学习」的文化。拥抱 AI 等技术——加强我们的协作生态——携手——我们就能确保新加坡 SME 在面对全球竞争时，能够抓住新机会成长、创新、蓬勃。
非常感谢。
英文原文
MDDI 官网原始记录 · 抓取日期：2026-05-02
Opening Address by Dr Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister Of State of Digital Development and Information, at the Launch of ASME and ITE's AI Centre of Excellence (SME@AITE) on 14 April 2025
Good morning, everybody. Thank you for inviting me to join you here at this event.
SMEs are the bedrock and foundation of our economy. They represent almost all the enterprises, and they employ about 70% of our workforce. Their dynamism, resilience, and innovation have been vital in keeping our economy vibrant, creating opportunities for us here in Singapore and for Singaporeans to have access to jobs. This will continue to be so going into the future.
Looking around the world, and just looking at my newsfeed every morning, disruption and change are rapidly becoming the norm. Things are changing very rapidly, and this will affect our businesses, how we teach, and our society. But one of the things that we will need to do to cope with this rapidly changing world is to embrace technology. This is true today, and it has been true for several years. How technology is deployed and used in our society and businesses can be a competitive advantage and can turn into just the norm, just as our norms have changed.
AI is one example. It was seen as a disruptor not so long ago. It still is, but it is very rapidly becoming about our businesses and society truly understanding AI and its impact on our survival, growth, and competitiveness.
AI is not necessarily about complex, futuristic technologies or robotics—things that are in science fiction and in the movies. It is also about leveraging smart tools, improving our productivity, driving innovation—things that many business owners and people within the economy have been talking about. Now, we have the new tools associated with AI to be able to do this across a wide variety of industries, domains, and businesses. It is a general-purpose technology, and just like the internet communications in previous decades, general-purpose technology has an impact across the economy. The value in general-purpose technology comes out when it is applied to industries and domains across the economy, improving business processes, transforming operations, and creating value through new products and services. So, competition between businesses will go beyond price and proximity, and our SMEs will need to be prepared for this.
What has happened recently, particularly with generative AI and large-language models, is the democratisation of access to all these tools, including for SMEs. It has brought down the costs and ease with which we access these tools.
But navigating the space does continue to have some challenges. Access has certainly improved, and it is much more accessible to SMEs to access AI-based tools. But the adoption of these tools, the digital business processes, the potential transformation in your workflows and services can feel overwhelming and can potentially be a barrier to the sort of changes that SMEs need to undergo.
Within the government, we have built up a suite of resources and tools. We call this the CTO-as-a-Service, and we hope to be able to support businesses’ digitalisation and AI adoption. There are over 300 pre-approved solutions. There's grant support available on the CTO-as-a-Service platform, and about 30% of those solutions are already AI-enabled today. We will expect this to grow. In 2024, over 330,000 users accessed resources for our CTO-as-a-Service platform. These helped almost 3,000 SMEs adopt AI-enabled solutions.
This year, at our Committee of Supply, the Ministry of Digital Development and Information also announced several tools to help businesses discover where AI may be deployed in their businesses. There's a GenAI Playbook for Enterprises, a practical guide that explains how it can make business more efficient with real world examples and to help make informed decisions whether to build or buy an off-the-shelf solution, and provide an evaluation framework on how to manage associated risks.
Last year, we launched the Digital Enterprise Blueprint to uplift our enterprises and upskill our workers in the next phase of our digitalisation journey. As part of that, the government brought together key partners in the ecosystem, such as the trade associations and industries, in providing support to enterprises and workers. Success in these types of efforts require many stakeholders coming together.
So, I'm very glad that through ASME and ITE, they are partnering to provide SMEs with access to AI resources, hands-on workshops and implementation strategies. This will help SMES move past conceptualisation into the actual implementation—integrating AI technology into their business operations.
Business advisors will be available to guide SMEs through relevant government support programmes such as IMDA’s Gen AI Digital Sandbox, ensuring that SMEs get the necessary assistance and take full advantage of AI solutions. We must do all this and think about how we interface the technologies with our businesses and the processes with our services.
But after all of these, any technology is only going to be as powerful as the people who know how to use it. We will need a strong pipeline of technology leaders and workers for our continued push for digitalisation to reap success for all of us. In nurturing the next generation of tech talents, ASME and ITE will also serve as a platform to provide ITE students with hands-on exposure to AI-driven business solutions through internships and industrial attachments. By engaging with SMEs on real-world AI projects, students will gain experience and enhance their career prospects in AI and the digital sectors.
So, to all the SMEs, if you haven't started on your digitalisation journey, begin now. If you're already digitalised, such as the people in this room, explore how AI can take your business to the next level. Tap into the available government schemes and the ecosystem resources, such as what we have here at SME@AITE. Invest in people, in our people, and continue to foster a culture of continuous learning. Embrace technologies such as AI, strengthen our collaborative ecosystem, and together, we can ensure that SMEs in Singapore are able to seize new opportunities to grow, innovate and thrive in the face of global competition.
Thank you very much.