Opportunities and Challenges in Maintaining Position as Tech Hub with Recent Lay-offs in Tech Sector

Mr Saktiandi Supaat asked the Minister for Trade and Industry in light of the layoffs in the tech industry recently (a) whether the bursting of the dot-com bubble in the early 2000s presents any lessons to guide our approach towards the tech industry today; (b) what are the new opportunities and challenges in maintaining our position as a tech hub; (c) does the Ministry consider it a cyclical issue; and (d) if so, is there a medium- to long-term response for the sector’s outlook and demand for resources.

The dot-com crash reminds us that we must always be prepared for market volatility. We must consistently strengthen our fundamentals and take a long-term view. This means building the capabilities of our enterprises and people and ensuring that Singapore remains an open and trusted location for companies to anchor their operations, innovate and hire.

We remain optimistic about the long-term prospects of the tech sector, notwithstanding the recent layoffs. Even after accounting for the recent retrenchments, the Information and Communications (I&C) sector remains one of our economy’s fastest growing sectors. The sector’s resident workforce has been growing by more than 40% in the last five years. This reflects strong underlying optimism for the future.

We will support the sector’s growth in several ways:

(a) we will continue to build our tech ecosystem by attracting tech companies, talent and investments into Singapore and investing in our local tech companies;

(b) through initiatives such as the Partnerships for Capability Transformation (PACT) programme which supports projects in areas including business development, co-innovation and capabilities improvement, we will strengthen partnerships between our multinational companies and local small and medium enterprises. We will also facilitate collaboration and partnerships between companies to help them grow, innovate, and pursue new business opportunities at home and abroad;

(c) we will continue to invest in training and upskilling our tech workforce so that they can take on these tech jobs that we have created. For example, IMDA’s Tech Skills Accelerator (TeSA) has trained and placed more than 13,000 individuals into good tech jobs with another 180,000 trained in emerging tech areas including cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and data analytics;

(d) we are also establishing forward-looking digital trade rules through Digital Economy Agreements with our partners to connect our tech ecosystem to the world.