High level delegation visits Singapore on digital transformation mission
September 03, 2022
The Minister for Finance, National Planning and Trade, Naadir Hassan, headed a high level delegation to Singapore, on a mission to learn about its journey towards a digital society.
The Minister for Investment, Entrepreneurship and Industry, Mrs. Devika Vidot, was also part of the delegation.
During the five-day mission, the Seychelles’ delegation has visited and held discussions with various Singaporean partners, to know more about the Singapore’s experience, knowledge and best practices, on the digital transformation.
The high level South-South mission is being facilitated by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Seychelles, in partnership with the UNDP Global Centre for Technology, Innovation, and Sustainable Development in Singapore.
According to Minister Hassan, “establishing and implementing a robust digital transformation strategy for Seychelles requires learning best practices from front-runners. Being an island nation, Singapore provides an important opportunity to enable us to discover our potential”.
Seychelles is currently embarking on a digital transformation, to enable the country to build a resilient economy and society.
The Covid 19 pandemic, has been a wakeup call, to the world, especially Seychelles, that it can no longer rely on one economic sector, in this case, tourism, to sustain its economy.
Since, 2021, a steering committee, headed by Minister Hassan, has been set up to pave the way forward, with the objective of working on a national digital economy strategy, which will serve as a roadmap for the development of the sector.
Minister Devika Vidot pointed out that ‘attracting private capital in part, will require learning how successful countries such as Singapore are utilising the power of digitalisation to effectively create an enabling business environment for the private sector to thrive”.
This partnership with the UNDP, centers on the organisation’s ‘digital transformation programme in the country is to strengthen national capacities and expand the knowledge base by learning from countries and institutions that have walked this journey.
On the sideline of the learning mission, Minister Hassan also met and held discussions with the: Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies of Singapore, Mr. Heng Swee Keat, Permanent Secretary of the Singapore Public Service Division, Mr. Loh Khum Yean, and Minister of State for Ministry of Trade and Industry, Mr. Alvin Tan.