Debated in Parliament on 9 Sep 2026.
Dr Neo Kok Beng asked the Minister for Digital Development and Information what is Singapore's strategic option and positioning with respect to the Pax Silica AI coalition and the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation.
Mr Speaker, my reply will address the questions raised by Dr Neo Kok Beng in today's Order Paper, as well as the question filed by Mr Louis Chua filed for tomorrow's Sitting relating to the same subject. If the Member is satisfied with the reply, he may wish to withdraw his question after this session. [Please refer to "Singapore's Position on Joining WAICO, Implications of Pax Silica Signatory Status and ASEAN Consensus on AI Governance Initiatives", Official Report, 10 September 2026, Vol 96, Issue 37, Written Answers to Questions section.]
To Mr Chua's specific questions, Singapore has received an invitation to participate in the World AI Cooperation Organization (WAICO). There is no Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) position on either WAICO or Pax Silica. Singapore will therefore consider the invitation alongside our broader engagements with China and other international AI coorperation initiatives.
More broadly, to Dr Neo's question on Singapore's strategic positioning, we engage different countries through a range of multilateral, plurilateral and bilateral platforms. The engagements arise at different times, serve different purposes, and evolve as our interests and circumstances change.
For example, a few years ago, Singapore initiated a digital pillar for the Forum of Small States, a grouping of 108 United Nations (UN) member states first founded in 1992, which also looks at capacity-building through sharing experiences among its members. Earlier this year, I became a founding member of the AI for Good Global Commission initiated by the International Telecommunications Union. It has members from the United States (US) and China.
Bilaterally, we have a Cyber Dialogue with the US. With China, we have a Digital Policy Dialogue.
These various mechanisms are not identical. Whether we participate in any particular initiative depends on its objectives, the substantive areas of common interest, how it complements our existing engagements and Singapore’s overall interests.
It is therefore less meaningful to make one-to-one comparisons between individual initiatives. What matters most is the overall relationships we have with each of our partners and how we can continue to work with them in ways that advance Singapore’s interests and contribute constructively to international cooperation in AI.
Dr Neo.
Thank you, Speaker and the Minister for the reply. I have one supplementary question. Since AI is of a national concern and significance, and I understand we have an AI National Committee which brings in the various stakeholders from the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Singapore Standards Council, especially working on the ISO 42000 series, so can we position more efforts into the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) series, so that it becomes the international standards that we push, rather than trying to cater to different treaty organisations?
Mr Speaker, I thank Dr Neo for his question. The landscape for AI governance is still evolving. At this stage, it is hard to say for certainty which standards bodies will become the most prominent and influential.
Singapore does seriously work with our colleagues in the ISO. In fact, some of the work that went behind our ethical principles that were articulated earlier as well as the development of our testing and certification frameworks did contribute to how the ISO is thinking about AI governance. And we continue to monitor the useful publications that ISO has put forward and assess their relevance to Singapore.
We will continue to engage in a meaningful manner with different organisations in order to continuously be in touch with the evolving landscape.
I want to assure the Member that we keep a close watch on the standards development. In particular, our interest is to ensure the interoperability of the standards. Most of the companies operating in Singapore will also have other international footprints and it becomes very difficult when, across the borders, the standards differ very greatly. So, whether it is through our work in ASEAN or other international organisations, we will continuously seek to expand the space for interoperable standards.
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