政务部长刘燕玲在AIMX新加坡的开幕主旨演讲

Good morning, everyone.

Thank you for having me here today at the 3rd edition of AIMX Singapore.

Many of you are here today, probably because you want to find out how AI can help your industry or company.

Or maybe you are keen to find out how others are using AI to help their companies, and you are trying to suss out the competition.

Most of you would have attended at least one other AI or technology conference this year, perhaps more. Some days, I feel the only thing growing faster than AI is the number of AI conferences.

Just in the past year alone, I’ve been at many of these technology conferences – but they don’t make me feel bored. Every month, when you go for a new conference, you see new developments being displayed – new tools and technologies.

The technology is moving very fast, but it can get very overwhelming when you hear so many perspectives.

So what do you do? You could turn to AI and try to ask, “can you recommend me some business strategies in the age of AI?” or “can you suggest to me which AI solution vendor is most suitable for my company?”

Now imagine, for a moment, if AI had existed when Singapore first became independent in 1965, and our founding leaders had asked AI at that point, how to build our economy – what would it have said?

I put the following prompt into ChatGPT: “Given Singapore's economic situation and political environment in 1965, what would have been the recommended economic strategy for Singapore based on economic literature and research?”

The response from AI was that:

It would have urged Singapore to play it safe. Stay cautious.

Protect your industries with tariffs and quotas.

Remain a modest trading port. Focus on low-cost manufacturing.

Depend on your larger neighbours for market scale.

Avoid bold bets on multinational firms.

But what AI would not have predicted, or seen, was our capacity as a small country to take improbable leaps.

In the 70s, we turned Jurong from swampland into an industrial town – we shifted from a simple trading post into a serious manufacturing centre.

In the 80s and 90s, we decided to connect with global markets and built ourselves up as a regional financial centre and shipping hub.

And in the 2000s, we invested in research and development, built up our biomedical industry and we aimed to be a global tech hub.

All of this was not what AI would have recommended.

Today, we are entering what we now call the intelligence economy.

We see how AI can amplify human ability so dramatically that small teams can build unicorns faster than ever before.

But this also creates an uncomfortable situation for us. Yes, AI has levelled the playing field across the economy. It also means that what once made Singapore exceptional is now easier for other countries and cities to replicate.

AI makes it simple to learn our best practices

As more countries recognise AI’s potential, it also means that many of these countries and companies will restructure supply chains and seek safer bases.

So the question that our Singapore Government is now posed with is: How do we stay relevant, competitive and confident in the new world?

Confidence is very important, because our people need to feel confident in the way that the Government leads Singapore in this new era.

We have an Economic Strategy Review committee on Technology and Innovation, which I lead together with Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Goh Hanyan. Some of my committee members are here with me today – Lai Yee and Tianyi. Thank you for joining us.

We don’t have all the answers yet, but I thought it would be a good chance to share our early thinking. We also want to hear your ideas today – if you do have any feedback, drop us a note anytime.

We are organising our thoughts around three areas – Application, Integration, and Trust.

First, application. Singapore has long been known for doing things well – systematic, reliable, efficient. But AI doesn’t just reward efficiency. It rewards people who are willing to experiment, and that means having the courage to do something new. AI rewards people who are willing to imagine what was previously impossible.

So, our leading sectors and companies must now ask more uncomfortable questions. They shouldn’t be asking: “How can AI make us 10% or 20% faster?”. But they need to be asking: “If we were starting from scratch today, what would this industry look like in an AI-native world?”

When we are talking about application, it’s not about building the next Large Language Model, because that's not where we think Singapore could best play. We think it's about applying AI in every industry and sector in Singapore.

I thought it would be useful to give you some examples. In logistics, are we simply trying to automate our port operations? Or could Singapore be the world’s intelligent command centre – where supply chains can be adapted instantly due to disruptions, weather, or demand spikes? Where systems detect faults and fix themselves before anyone notices?

Sounds a little bit scary and impossible, but that is the kind of vision that we want to start focusing on.

In healthcare, are we using AI only to improve diagnostics? Or are we building predictive and preventative care models that extend not just lifespans but health spans?

A lot of questions worth putting out there, and my hope for all of you today is as you walk through the exhibitions, ask yourselves, n your own companies, what would you be doing completely differently in this AI world?

These shifts require not just new technology tools but new mindsets and new partnerships. But these are the ambitions that will keep Singapore ahead — not by doing the same things better, but by doing completely new things entirely.

Second, integration. Singapore’s long-standing strength is getting different parts of our system to work together. Government, business, academia, research – we are quite good at coordination, based on international standards.

But in today’s intelligence economy, we need to think of Singapore not as a single ecosystem, but as an open network. A place where the best ideas from around the world can land, grow, and scale.

Our committee is thinking about how to keep Singapore as open as possible, in three ways.

Open infrastructure. Our compute, data, and AI models must be accessible to companies of all sizes – from all around the world. AI opportunity shouldn’t be limited to those who can afford it.

Open experimentation. We have launched many testbeds and sandboxes in government, finance, and healthcare. But we need a lot more of these.

Sandboxes where companies can trial AI solutions safely, and where promising ideas don’t get stuck in pilot purgatory. Some AI projects get stuck in pilots for so long, they should qualify for long service awards.

We need to think harder about how to move pilots into national solutions, how to scale them meaningfully, and how to ensure that the sandbox still exists, but for new pilots.

Open collaboration. We may not build the world’s biggest AI models. But we can bring together researchers, startups, mentors, and government to adapt these models from around the world, and make them work better, faster, and safer for us in Singapore, and in the region.

The third area that the committee has been focusing on is trust.

In an age where AI can be deployed anywhere, trust is the rare asset that cannot be replaced as easily.

It has taken us decades to build. Trust in our institutions, trust in our governance, and trust that when Singapore says something will work, it does.

But trust too, must evolve. When we move too slowly, trust becomes complacency. When you move too fast, trust becomes very fragile. We all know that when we lose trust, it’s very hard to recover.

Our committee believes we can convert trust into our strategic advantage for Singapore. We want trust to be our trade currency. We can embed Singapore’s standards into global agreements through Digital Economy Agreements and international collaborations.

In the future, products and services coming out of Singapore will be trusted all over the world.

We also want to offer trust as a Service. Tools like AI Verify or AI Assurance will allow companies worldwide to validate their systems against transparent, rigorous, Singapore-developed standards.

We want to elevate trust as our premium. Products and services built here should carry the “Singapore trust mark” – a signal of reliability, safety, and quality.

But our bigger challenge, is mindset.

Singaporeans are good at being careful and disciplined, but AI rewards those who are curious, brave, and agile.

We do need to get comfortable with that grey space, that ambiguity. We do need to take some calculated risks, and we must accept that not everything will work on the first try.

Some company leaders told me last week during a dialogue: “Do you know how it feels to face first mover disadvantage? I could be the first one to buy the technology and try and implement it, but I lose big if I go first. I want someone else to try it, and then if it works, I'll do it. And if it doesn't, thank goodness, I didn't do it”.

That's the kind of mindset that we do need to get over. We're not saying everybody in Singapore must be a first mover, but as a country, we do need a bit more of that mindset.

We also need people who don't just know how to use AI, but who can imagine new ways to solve problems.

We've reinvented ourselves many times before – from trading post to manufacturing centre to global hub. Now, our challenge is to make the next leap forward. From being efficient to inventive. From being well-run to world-shaping. From following best practices to setting them.

If we can do this well, Singapore will not just be a participant in the intelligence economy. We will help shape it with our ideas and imagination.

On that note, I wish you a fruitful event. Please immerse yourselves in the technologies on display today and challenge yourselves to be the first mover, if not the second.

Thank you.