Speech by SMS Tan Kiat How at Legal Industry Digital Plan (IDP) Launch Event

16 OCT 2023

Madam Rahayu Mahzam, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Law

Mr Jason Chan, President, the Law Society of Singapore

Colleagues and friends

  1. I am delighted to join you here today to launch the Legal Industry Digital Plan together with my Parliamentary colleague, Madam Rahayu. 

  2. The Industry Digital Plan or IDP in short, was conceived in 2017 by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) to support businesses, in particular SMEs across industry sectors in their digitalisation journey. The IDP provides a step-by-step guide for firms to identify and adopt digital solutions that are relevant to their needs and for their stage of digital maturity. 

  3. Six years on, more than 20 IDPs have been developed with inputs from the industry. These plans have gone on to benefit some 90,000 SMEs in Singapore. 

  4. The digitalisation of our enterprises is making good progress. More than 9 in 10 enterprises have adopted at least one digital technology in 2022 compared to only around 7 in 10 enterprises in 2018. 

  5. Besides benefiting the firms, digitalisation contributed significantly to our economy. The value-added from digitalisation in the rest of the economy has also demonstrated robust growth, increasing from S$38.6 billion in 2017 to S$72.8 billion in 2022, equivalent to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.5% per annum.

  6. However, as Mr Chan pointed out just now, our competition and competitors are not standing still, and technology is evolving rapidly. We are updating our IDPs to be relevant. 

  7. First, IDPs will incorporate the latest technological developments, especially disruptive technologies that can potentially benefit firms, sectors, and our workers. One example is AI.

  8. Second, we will ensure that our IDPs include a new roadmap on Cybersecurity and Data Protection to help our firms stay cybersecure. This roadmap will guide firms on the cyber tools and data protection practices that they could adopt at different stages of their digital growth. This is especially important for sectors handling confidential and sensitive information like the legal and healthcare sectors. 

  9. Third, our IDPs will place greater emphasis to ensure our workers are equipped with the necessary skills to use digital tools in their workplaces. We have updated the Digital Skills Training Roadmap in the IDPs. Firms can refer to the roadmap to identify training needs and make plans to upskill your employees.

  10. Emerging technologies such as AI are becoming more accessible to companies and our workforce. For example, the work of our Singapore Law Practices or SLPs is being re-shaped, including how legal professionals conduct legal research, draft contracts, and deliver legal services. 

  11. AI is infused in many LegalTech solutions used by SLPs to streamline workflows, reap productivity gains, and improve decision-making. I am very heartened to see firms experimenting and using AI in their practices.

  12. For example, Rajah & Tann is now using Generative AI to integrate a ChatGPT-type Q&A interface into its Knowledge Management (KM) system called “Project Ask Mohan”. This AI-backed KM system, when ready, will allow employees to conduct precedent case searches with greater efficiency and less time, enabling them to focus more on strategic work.

  13. Ghows LLC has started leveraging on AI solutions. Having incorporated the AI driven Document Review Software, this has helped employees finalise contracts in under an hour, saving several hours for most contracts.

  14. Singapore Academy of Law and IMDA are collaborating to transform legal research. By integrating capabilities like natural language search to their digital tools, this has the potential to reduce hours spent on legal research, improve productivity, and freeing up time for employees to focus on higher-value work.

  15. Let me conclude by agreeing with what was said earlier, that this is an important milestone for the legal fraternity as well as professional services. As part of the overall sectoral plans, IMDA will also be working with the other industry partners to launch more IDPs. For example, a new tourism IDP will be launched soon, as well as refreshing the security sector and retail sector IDPs. These sectoral initiatives complement other ecosystem programmes such as the SMEs Go Digital programme that IMDA has been working on for a number of years. 

  16. We will also be launching the Digital Enterprise Blueprint in 2024 to bring together our various efforts into a comprehensive roadmap that charts the next bound of enterprise digitalisation, ensuring that our firms remain competitive in a digital world, ensuring that our workers have new opportunities, while keeping ourselves cybersafe online. 

  17. I encourage all companies to leverage these resources and continue with your digital transformation journey. I wish all of you a pleasant session and look forward to a productive conversation later on.

  18. Thank you.

PDF version of the speech