The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT) is committed to fostering closer ties among its departments and institutions, as well as with other stakeholders, to preserve a vibrant and useful online environment. Johnny G. Plate, Minister of Communication and Information stated that MCIT had carried out the commitment by taking down illegal e-commerce and financial technology (fintech) platforms.
“The point is that we are also a clean digital space. If it is not clean, we will definitely take it down,” Minister Johnny said, citing the partnership with the Commodity Futures Trading Supervisory Agency (CoFTRA), which is part of the Ministry of Trade, in order to take decisive action against unlawful online businesses. The MCIT has expressed its hope that members of the public will take an active role in ensuring that the digital realm remains free of information or platforms that are unauthorised or illegal.
On the other hand, Minister Johnny intends to construct their digital economy with the help of legitimate online trade. He added that every citizen can exercise greater discretion by making use of legal fintech that is regulated by state organisations.
This would pave the way for the development of e-commerce platforms and digital banking. The Minister urged to use of legal fintech in the context of digital and cashless banking which is really good and provides support for their healthy economy and financial sector.
He added that the Indonesian government wants to help people learn more about digital technology and wants the next generation to be a generation of initiators, inventors, and innovators who can see opportunities in the digital age and use them for the good of the country and state.
Minister Johnny repeated President Joko Widodo’s message that, in today’s world, which is full of changes, the key to building an Advanced Indonesia is having the courage to change and make new things. This is because acceleration is also done by making the effect of education and industry work together better and by helping people learn how to be entrepreneurs through the Independent Learning Program.
This combined effect is expected to make it faster for the country to get the people it needs while also making domestic industries and products more competitive. He told them to keep working together and build on Indonesia’s strong human resources to make the country more developed, independent, and wealthy.
Combining technical and soft abilities to succeed in digital transformation
Minister Johnny said that learning both technical skills and “soft skills” will help people get the skills that are most needed in the 4.0 industrial revolution. He added that soft skills are known as 4C, which stands for critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication. Together, these four skills will be a big part of Indonesia’s successful digital transformation.
He also thinks that the same combination will make Indonesia’s digital talents more skilled and competitive, which is good for both domestic and international interests. The 4C soft skills are closely connected to what the Indonesian people do, especially the millennials and generation Z, who grew up with social media.
“Don’t let us grow into a nation that is only able to use social media but does not have adequate digital literacy and skills. Not only growing up as social media natives but also as a digitally literate nation,” he ended.
COVID-19 has affected everyone; it is a global phenomenon that has forced all sectors to rethink and strategise, prompting many businesses to implement emergency work-from-home plans and the use of various digital platforms.
Simultaneously, many organisations are looking for a solution that offers content design and development with data analytics that would speed up software adoption and serve clients more effectively.
A low-code software platform has been developed to enable organisations to measure, drive and act to maximise the efficacy of their digital transformation and accelerate the return on investment in software applications. This low-code software is a Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) that enables teams to add on-screen navigation hints to websites and apps without recoding them.
In an exclusive interview with Mohit Sagar, Group Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of OpenGov Asia, Rafael Sweary, President and Co-Founder of WalkMe, elaborated on the latest trends seen in digital transformation and innovation. The explanation was accompanied by a website demonstration during the interview.
Because of the numerous intricacies involved, digital transformation used to be a lengthy process that could take months to complete for businesses. Nowadays, the transition can be completed in a couple of weeks or even days.
“The goal of technology is to help people. Instead of you trying to understand systems and know-how to run systems, you would tell the programme what to do and the platform would walk you through the process and do it for you, making you much more efficient and focused on your task,” said Rafael.
WalkMe guides end-users through business applications used in today’s workplace, identifying pauses and hesitations to provide real-time assistance onscreen without having to toggle between interfaces. Rafael shared that digital adoption has three main objectives: 1) Data – we must unlock visibility into the tech stack and into the workflows required to complete a business process through the use of software, 2) Action–take action right on top of the application to automate mundane tasks, allowing end-users to focus on their most valuable work, and 3) Experience – Data and Action will drive the perfect experience for the end-user, no matter where they sit within the organisation.
Trends that drive the next normal
In his article – Focus on the Future: The Dawn of the Next Normal is Brighter Than You Might Think – Rafael discusses the transition from crisis to a new era. Long-term, he sees four significant shifts that will alter corporate conventions.
First is the new paradigm of business continuity planning (BCP). Continuity was typically done keeping in mind a short-term crisis, such as a data leak or an accident. Most businesses did not plan for an event on the scale of COVID-19.
The pandemic has altered the current context of planning, pushing organisations to accept and deal with a new reality. Most leaders, now, agree that BCP must address long-term type possibilities as well, ensuring that a company is agile and adaptable to any situation.
Second, remote capabilities are now an essential component of businesses to remain functional in any situation. When the pandemic began in 2020, most businesses were forced to implement a work-from-home policy, regardless of their readiness. Organisations quickly recognised that their reliance on technology was growing, and to assist their staff, they required the appropriate digital tools.
However, companies will need to examine their technology to enhance communication, onboarding and training, productivity, and employee engagement as the trend toward permanent remote work continues.
Rafael feels that the third major change is in corporate culture and that it will continue to evolve. Across the board, companies acknowledge that employees are their greatest asset. The more the investment and care for employees, the more likely the chances that a company will prosper in the next normal.
Undeniably, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a major and swift impact on the workplace, with companies making significant efforts to build a distinct culture that reflects their views and keeps the employees content, engaged, and feeling supported.
The fourth change, Rafael proposes, is that digital offerings will drive revenue in the future. Industries are entering into a contactless era where all goods and services can be obtained through technological means. To that end, companies will have to invest in digital offerings that are easy for their customers to navigate and their employees to use.
Businesses that cannot serve their customers digitally have suffered greatly and are struggling to recover. The Next Normal involves increasing the digitalisation of operations and the virtualisation of communication.
It is undeniable that technology priorities have shifted, Rafael opines. Companies may have dabbled with “nice to have” technology before COVID-19, but everything that isn’t critical to core business must go now. Budget cuts will affect all firms, requiring the need to make the best software options possible to maximise ROI. Companies that can find the best technology for their purposes will prosper.
Navigating the New and the Next Normal
Digital transformation is made up of several applications that must collaborate and focus on the outcomes rather than the implementing technologies. Rafael explained that most businesses fail to complete their digital transformation journey because they define it primarily by changing many software or platforms and they begin digitising everything simultaneously.
The fundamental changes in digital transformation are in how organisations work and, as a result, how value is added for customers. Rafael recommends companies begin with their desired results, deploy their chosen platform and understand what they want to achieve based on the benchmarks. He added that when considering digital transformation, avoid thinking about systems.
“Consider the bottlenecks, obstacles and financial opportunities. Then define success, act on it, start working on it, and evaluate whether you met your goal,” he advises.
Because there is a possibility of multiple outcomes, an organisation does not have to worry about just one transformation. Think about, as an alternative, the tasks that need to be completed and the aspects of their firm that they wish to alter.
Businesses employ new strategies and processes to stay relevant as technology rapidly evolves. This modification may need to be implemented promptly for the company to reap the benefits and it must constantly adapt, and experiment with new technology.
“We could help them manage the complete cycle, beginning with review and finishing with benchmarks identifying friction and detailing project action, among other things,” Rafael offers confidently.
WalkMe apart, he says, if businesses want to be more successful in their digital transformation, they must focus on outcomes rather than systems implementation.
Without a doubt, WalkMe is a highly successful option. Close to two thousand organisations around the globe utilise the system, from both the public as well as the commercial sector. Product managers and application owners can make use of the software and feature adoption tools, as well as the change management solutions, that this platform provides for internet, desktop, and mobile applications.
The platform aims to empower business leaders to achieve the potential of their people and technology investments, which he considers to be the most valuable assets of an organisation in the digital economy.
The enterprise-class guidance, engagement, insights and automation platform of WalkMe’s Digital Adoption Platform enables businesses to maximise the full value of their digital assets by providing executives with greater visibility into digital usage and making employees more efficient and productive.
“The Next Normal is different. We can’t ever ‘go back’, but we are being offered incredible opportunities for better business processes, better work experiences, and stronger companies and products. Jump on, the time is now,” Rafael advises.
The difficulties faced by businesses in accelerating the development and production of farmed meat and seafood through public-private partnerships are addressed by a multi-institutional research programme by A*STAR and its partners through the CentRe of Innovation for Sustainable banking and Production of Cultivated Meats or CRISP Meats.
The use of animal serum in the manufacturing process and high costs of culture media are key contributors to the challenging commercial viability of bringing cultivated meat and seafood products to the general population.
– Dr Ng Say Kong, Principal Scientist and Co-Director of CRISP Meats
Dr Ng added that projects are made to address the demands of the cultivated meat and seafood business, from the isolation and documentation of cell lines to the development of novel bioprocesses and animal serum-free growing mediums. It also addresses the high cost of animal serum and cell culture media. They use cutting-edge technology, such as multi-omics analysis to determine the metabolic needs of cells from various species to accelerate their growth rate, and artificial intelligence and machine learning modelling (AI/ML) techniques to speed up the media formulation process.
A diverse team of researchers is led by Dr Ng together with Dr Andy Tan, Senior Scientist and Co-Director of CRISP Meats in their collaborative efforts to develop various technologies that can support a profitable value chain for produced meat.
They also collaborate with cultivated meat companies to help them develop a variety of product formats, ranging from mincemeat products like nuggets and patties to whole-cut meat products like steaks and sliced meat parts.
The researchers intend to create a diverse range of cell lines to produce cultivated chicken, pork, and selected seafood, including fish, as these products are commonly used in Asian cuisines and are expected to gain popularity in Asian markets.
Sixteen (16) labs from A*STAR, the Singapore Institute of Technology, and the National University of Singapore are involved in CRISP Meats. The research teams focus on regional seafood, fish, and premium chicken breeds to identify cell lines from food species that cater to Asian palates.
Furthermore, in December 2020, the Singapore Food Agency approved the sale of the world’s first cultivated chicken nuggets, making Singapore the first country in the world to do so. The country is leading efforts to assist industry partners in making cultivated meat safe and affordable. This aligns with Singapore’s “30 by 30” food security national agenda, which aims to meet 30% of Singapore’s nutritional needs locally by 2030.
The demand for food is rising along with the middle class due to the expanding global population and rising protein intake. Alternatives to conventional protein sources, such as farmed meat and seafood, may be more durable and sustainable.
In addition, cultivated beef uses a lot less space for farming and is less prone to seasonal variation and climate change because it can be produced on demand in a lab. The commercial production of farmed meat and seafood will advance with research into reducing costs and increasing production and processing efficiency.
The Singapore Food Story Grant Call on Future Foods in 2021 funded the CRISP Meats, which was administered by A*STAR in collaboration with the Singapore Institute of Technology and the National University of Singapore to advance R&D in the cultivated meat and seafood industry. The goal is to attract companies for collaboration to develop integrated platform technologies across the value chain to support and anchor Singapore’s cultivated meat and seafood industry.
The Government of India recognises the contributions of the private sector in driving change and innovation in the logistics sector. The efforts of service providers in the country during the pandemic are a strong display of innovation, diversity and efficiency.
Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, referred to the PM GatiShakti digital platform which brings together 16 ministries, such as Railways and Roadways for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure projects across the country. He was keen that the “government and private sector should work together to bring down logistics costs, increase economic efficiency, and indigenous innovation.”
GatiShakti will benefit the logistics sector most with investment across roads, highways, ports, airports, multi-modal terminals etc. The Minister emphasised the expansion of infra spending from Rs. 2.5 lakh crore to Rs. 7.5 lakh crore (US$ 36.6 billion to US$109 billion) will help in efficient planning and implementation, thereby ensuring last-mile connectivity. He also informed the gathering that the government is considering the promotion of the manufacturing of containers and shipbuilding.
PM GatiShakti, the National Master Plan for Multi-modal Connectivity is a digital platform that was launched in October 2021 by the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi. Created to leverage technology and improve connectivity between infrastructure schemes and ministries, the 16 departments involved have visibility through the centralised portal.
This addresses systemic issues in India’s complex infrastructure management. Coordination between departments was distinctly lacking. For example, after a road had been constructed, it would be dug up to lay underground cables or gas pipelines. Not only was this a public inconvenience, but it also led to wasteful expenditure.
In addition to avoiding such issues in the future, PM GatiShakti also enables faster approval processes, reduces the number of regulatory clearances and creates a holistic outlook toward infrastructure and development in the country.
PM GatiShakti is based on six pillars:
PM GatiShakti will provide the public and business community with information regarding the upcoming connectivity projects, other business hubs, industrial areas and the surrounding environment. This will enable the investors to plan their businesses at suitable locations leading to enhanced synergies.
It will create multiple employment opportunities and give a boost to the economy. Moreover, the initiative will improve the global competitiveness of local products by cutting down the logistics costs and improving the supply chains, and also ensure proper linkages for local industry and consumers.
Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks Corporation (‘HKSTP’) and a Hong Kong-based banking and financial services company are deepening their partnership to drive business innovation and digital development in Hong Kong through a series of new collaborative solutions in the coming three years, including the establishment of Hong Kong’s first ‘Living Lab for the Branch of the Future’, an initiative to support innovative companies to expand in the GBA, and various other investment and incubation activities.
Over the past three years, HKSTP and the company have developed a diverse range of innovative digital banking solutions that have enhanced service experiences and outcomes for customers. The partners are leveraging the success as a springboard to take customer-centric banking to the next level, with a particular focus on further simplifying and expediting banking journeys for customers, and enhancing incubation support for innovative companies.
One of the signature projects of the partnership to date is the large interactive digital wall at the financial services company’s MOSTown Branch in Ma On Shan which came into operation in 2020. The interactive digital wall was developed in collaboration with IOIO Creative, a start-up that is part of the HKSTP ecosystem.
The wall provides a wide range of real-time market and financial information. Customers can interact with the wall by using their mobile phones to scan any of the QR codes to immediately receive information on areas of interest via their mobile phones.
The CEO at HKSTP stated that the three-year alliance with the bank is entering a new level of collaboration to drive more innovation with even greater impact for customers, businesses and the banking sector as a whole. The latest series of innovation initiatives between the two will define the future of banking for Hong Kong and the wider GBA region as innovation enables startups and the banking industry to shape a new era of financial services.
Meanwhile, the Head of Strategy & Planning and Chief of Staff to CE at the banking firm stated that by combining the respective strengths of both parties, the partnership will not only help advance the company’s innovation strategy, but also benefit all stakeholders in Hong Kong and the Mainland, and thus reinforce the leadership position of Hong Kong as the international innovation hub.
The Head of Retail Distribution at the firm stated that the interactive digital wall at MOSTown Branch in Ma On Shan is a good demonstration of how our alliance with HKSTP is advancing this objective. The collaboration with HKSTP to develop and launch more innovative and smart solutions that further enhance online-to-offline banking services and branch efficiency in support of excellent service experiences for customers.
One of the new collaborative initiatives, the ‘Living Lab for the Branch of the Future’ will provide a real-life commercial testing ground for technology trials and branch services to help develop customer-centric digital innovations. The Lab will bring together technology and industry partners to co-create banking solutions that facilitate seamless online-to-offline service experiences for customers.
Other elements of the alliance include Hang Seng providing a range of targeted banking and finance support services to HKSTP companies that seek to expand their operations and coverage to the GBA.
The bank was also the first among a number of market-leading corporations and start-ups that are now leveraging the benefits offered by HKSTP’s FinTech Centre at the Kowloon Tong InnoCentre. The dedicated fintech hub enables efficient and direct engagement with the fintech and technology community, enabling banks and other financial organisations to explore potential cooperation opportunities to advance fintech innovation in Hong Kong.
Fireflies became the inspiration of the researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to develop insect-scale robots that have electroluminescent soft artificial muscles for flying in which the tiny artificial muscles that control the robots’ wings could emit the coloured light during flight.
The robots could communicate with each other using electroluminescence. If a robot is sent on a search-and-rescue mission into a collapsed building, for example, it can use lights to signal others and call for help.
“This is a major step toward flying these robots in outdoor environments where we don’t have a well-tuned, state-of-the-art motion tracking system,” said Kevin Chen, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), MIT and the senior author of the study.
The ability to emit light also brings these microscale robots, which weigh no more than a paper clip, one step closer to flying independently outside of the lab. Because these robots are so light, they can’t carry sensors, so researchers must track them with bulky infrared cameras that don’t work well outdoors. They’ve recently demonstrated that they can precisely track the robots using the light they emit and only three smartphone cameras.
Large-scale robots can communicate using a variety of tools, such as Bluetooth and wireless, but the researchers were forced to consider new modes of communication for a tiny, power-constrained robot. This was accomplished by embedding tiny electroluminescent particles into the artificial muscles. The process adds only 2.5 per cent more weight to the robot without affecting its flight performance.
These scientists have previously shown how to construct soft actuators or artificial muscles, that move the robot’s wings. These robust actuators are created by stacking and rolling alternating ultrathin layers of elastomer and carbon nanotube electrodes. The electrodes on that cylinder squeeze the elastomer when a voltage is provided, and the mechanical strain causes the wing to flap.
The team incorporated electroluminescent zinc sulphate particles into the elastomer to create a glowing actuator, but they encountered several challenges along the way. Moreover, the researchers had to make an electrode that wouldn’t stop light from getting through. They made it with carbon nanotubes that are only a few nanometers thick and are very clear. This lets light pass through.
But the zinc particles only light up when a very strong and high-frequency electric field is nearby. This electric field gets the electrons in the zinc particles excited, which causes them to send out photons, which are subatomic particles of light. The researchers use high voltage to make a strong electric field in the soft actuator. They then drive the robot at a high frequency, which makes the particles light up brightly.
Adding zinc particles to the actuator prototype lowered its quality and made it break more easily while chemically combining zinc particles affects light colour that results in each actuator having a solid green, orange, or blue glow.
They altered the fabrication method so actuators could emit multicoloured, patterned light. After fine-tuning the fabrication process, they examined the actuators’ mechanical qualities and measured the light’s intensity.
They then conducted flight tests with a specially designed motion-tracking system. They intend to improve that motion tracking system in the future so that it can track robots in real-time. The team is working on incorporating control signals so that the robots can turn on and off their lights during flight and communicate more like real fireflies.
The study was supported by the Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT and joining Kevin’s team are Suhan Kim, lead author and Yi-Hsuan Hsiao; Yu Fan Chen SM ’14, PhD ’17; and Ningxia University associate professor, Jie Mao.
To mitigate the risks of cyber attacks and ensure greater protection of citizens and organisations, Vietnam is taking measures to secure corporate data and enhance overall cybersecurity.
Deputy Minister, Ministry of Information and Communications, Nguyen Huy Dung has been quoted as saying, ‘With more than 900 cyberattacks and 5 malicious codes generated every second, 40 vulnerabilities detected every day, we are facing severe cyber threats that could grow sharply in the near future. Our top priority nowadays is to strengthen cyber security for state agencies, organisations, and individuals towards a more resilient future together.’
According to the Government Information Security Commission, in 2021, more than 45,000 out of 76,977 cyber attacks on some key network systems were carried out in the form of exploiting vulnerabilities. There were about 14,000 network scanning attacks, more than 12,000 targeted attacks, more than 7,300 authentication attacks, nearly 7,000 malware attacks, and about 650 denial-of-service attacks.
In order to ensure information security in the future, Pham Minh Tuan, deputy head of the Cyber Security Assessment section under the Government Information Security Commission’s Centre for Information Technology and Cyber Security Monitoring, underlined that it is necessary to focus on ensuring the security of critical information at each level of the information system.
According to VINSA, there have been over 5400 cyber attacks on Vietnamese systems in the first five months of this year alone. Of these, approximately 68% were malicious attacks. This is raising the levels of vigilance and overall improvement in cyber security.
Vietnam is seeing some success in managing cyber threats, May showed a decrease in the number of cyber incidents. Similarly, after the Ministry of Information and Communications issued a warning, incidents were down 9.37% in April as compared to March 2022. Socio-economic stability and resumption of more economic activities initiated around the Party’s solutions and guidelines are behind this decline, according to the Information Security Department, Ministry of Information and Communications
In addition, the government has been proactive in raising vigilance, strengthening cyber information security as well as security and social order. This has made it difficult for bad actors to attack networks, spread infecting malicious code and run scams to steal and destroy information of users and organisations.
To ensure information security for information systems and Vietnam’s cyberspace, the Ministry of Information and Communications will continue to strengthen monitoring and proactive scanning; it will evaluate statistics and promote propaganda and issue warning in the mass media so that users know and avoid the risk of cyber attacks.
The Ministry of Information and Communications will address the situation by strengthening mechanisms for monitoring and proactive scanning, raising public awareness and providing advance warnings of expected cyberattacks. Simultaneously, the Ministry will continue to urge the review of vulnerabilities and communicate signs of cyberattacks.
This sector is vital to the country as OpenGov Asia reported that Vietnam’s digital economy revenue reached US$ 53 billion in the first quarter of this year. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, who is the head of the National Committee on Digital Transformation, said that digital transformation is a driving force for innovation and the foundation for a modern economy.
He pointed out several tasks that the committee must focus on, including developing digital transformation infrastructure, applying digital technology, mobilising resources through public-private cooperation, and improving the management capacity and quality of human resources. Creating a robust digital society is expected to make people happier, participate in more comprehensive social activities, and enjoy more favourable social security policies, contributing to making Vietnam a safe, secure, and connected country
From helping new parents keep track of their newborn’s milestones to creating a single state-wide medical record and supporting better patient outcomes and virtual care, the NSW Government is embracing digital solutions to help the people of NSW.
The Minister for Customer Service and Digital Government stated that digital innovations are crucial to aiding customers in keeping track of their health via new solutions like the NSW Health App, the Digital Baby Book and the Single Digital Patient Record are set to further assist the way people manage their health.
The NSW Government is among the world leaders in terms of delivering customer-centric digital outcomes and nowhere is this more important than supporting the health and wellbeing of the State’s residents.
Digital innovations like the NSW Health App will allow customers to access critical health information as well as relevant NSW Health services from the convenience of their phone. It will also help customers consider other healthcare services available in the community.
The Digital Restart Fund (DRF) has already committed $166.7 million to the new Single Digital Patient Record, which will mean clinicians can better support patients and their health no matter where they are in NSW.
Having a truly State-wide clinical information system will improve patient safety and continuity of care, while also reducing the burden on patients having to provide their information repeatedly when accessing NSW Health services.
The Digital Baby Book initiative has been supported with $4.97 million from the DRF and $53.7 million to develop its clinical interface. This will enable busy families with the digital tools needed to stay on track with childhood vaccinations, development information and checks.
An improved Mental Health Access Line is being developed, along with a new virtual care strategy aimed at accessing health and wellbeing support with the tap of a button.
Digital solutions are solving today’s problems by ensuring customers remain well informed and engaged with their healthcare providers. Future initiatives include the eReferral Hub, which will act as an electronic dashboard for referrals allowing consumers to view and be notified of their outpatient appointments, has also received AU$ 3 million in DRF funding.
NSW’s nation-leading work to introduce a digital COVID-safe check-in system made it easier for people to visit venues safely and access essential services during the COVID-19 restrictions, while also supporting NSW Health contract tracers.
Since 2020, almost 200,000 customers opted-in to receive their COVID-19 test results via the Service NSW app, with about 1.9 million results provided. Whether it is a COVID-19 test result, school vaccinations or using digital innovations to foster healthy, resilient, thriving families and communities, the NSW Government is here to make life easier and health services more accessible for everyone in the State.
The Digital Restart Fund is providing seed funding for many eHealth initiatives to support residents across the State. The NSW Government has allocated AU$ 2.1 billion across four years to invest in digital transformation projects through the DRF. The fund is administered by the Department of Customer Service and targets smart, simple technology solutions which create efficiencies for customers across the State.
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