Singapore Updates AI Strategy With Aim to Contribute Globally Valuable Breakthroughs
Singapore has updated its national artificial intelligence (AI) strategy with the aim of becoming a world leader in AI, contributing to “AI breakthroughs and products that the world values”.
The new strategy lays out 15 courses of action over the next three to five years. These include AI-specific training programmes, a dedicated physical space for AI, and the allocation of a sufficient carbon budget for data centres.
“We aim to scale up AI for compelling use cases in sectors like advanced manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, education and public services, and bring benefits to ourselves, and others outside Singapore,” said Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong at the Singapore Conference on Artificial Intelligence on Monday (Dec 4).
Singapore Hotel Room Rates in October Down Again Amid Falling Tourist Arrivals
Singapore hotels’ performance in October fell from September highs, with average room rate (ARR) and other key measures posting sequential declines for the month, latest data from the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) showed on Monday (Dec 4).
The latest figures came amid a continued downward trend in tourism arrivals, with 1.13 million visitors to Singapore in October.
ARR slipped 14.6 percent to S$278.08, from September’s S$325.46. It was down 2.6 percent from the year-ago period, marking the first such on-year decline since March 2021.
Singapore Business Confidence Continues Recovery in Q1 2024: SCCB
Local business sentiment is improving for the second consecutive quarter in the first quarter of 2024, amid mixed sectoral outlooks.
Data from the Singapore Commercial Credit Bureau (SCCB) released on Monday (Dec 4) showed that the Business Optimism Index rose slightly for the second straight quarter to +4.48 percentage points in Q1 2024, from +4.35 percentage points in Q4 2023.
Despite the sentiment index still being lower than the +4.73 percentage points in Q1 2023, it is recovering from the two-year low registered in Q3 2023.
