Debated in Parliament on 8 May 2017.
Assoc Prof Randolph Tan asked the Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) (a) what are the major factors preventing a large-scale adoption of digital ordering and cashless payment systems for small food stalls, such as those in coffee shops and hawker centres; and (b) how will the Food Services Industry Transformation Map push for greater use of such labour-saving technologies by this type of small businesses.
One of the focus areas of the Food Services Industry Transformation Map (ITM) launched last September is to reduce the industry's reliance on manpower. The use of digital services like digital ordering and cashless payments will help us achieve this.
As of March 2017, approximately 1,400 food outlets, or 20% of all establishments, have adopted some form of digital services. Most have done so recently, and we will actively encourage more to do so.
The key factors affecting the take-up of digital solutions are, first, habit; second, the cost of adoption; and third, the fact that many digital payment systems are currently not interoperable. We believe that all three factors can be addressed.
First, for greater convenience of use, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), along with other agencies, is working with payment service providers to make essential payment modes available in a single device.
Second, both the National Environment Agency (NEA) and the Standards, Productivity and Innovation Board (SPRING) provide grants to offset the costs to stallholders of adopting digital service solutions. NEA is also progressively rolling out cashless payments infrastructure at hawker centres. At the same time, SPRING and NEA are working with MAS to study how to lower the cost of digital service systems by using models which do not require separate equipment or which use existing equipment. This could include the use of Quick Response (QR) codes for payment.
Third, we are looking to directly promote adoption. Last year, the Government launched two tenders for productive coffee shops in Tampines and Choa Chu Kang, which included productivity considerations in their requirements. More productive coffee shops will be launched, and we have set a target to have 100 of these by 2020.
Through all of these initiatives, our goal is to achieve 50% adoption rate of digital services across all food and beverage outlets by 2020.
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