AustCham Digital & Cyber Industry Group

Singapore is uniquely positioned in South East Asia and is the head office for many organisations looking to grow and expand in the region.

Overview

Singapore is uniquely positioned in South East Asia and is the head office for many organisations looking to grow and expand in the region. Singapore also represents one of Australia’s major trade partners, which is reinforced through the trade agreements and bilateral relationship the two countries enjoy.

As technology and digital transformation touches increasing parts of people’s lives and transforms an increasing number of industries, the opportunity exists to bring together expertise across the Australian Business community in Singapore. The Digital & Cyber Industry Group has the goal of bringing together professionals to share opportunities and challenges being faced in Singapore and the region, building personal networks and connections to accelerate the meeting objectives.

Based on these insights, the group is involved in working with appropriate bodies to provide ideas that can accelerate investment in Singapore and the region to further improve the Digital operating environment.  Singapore continues to demonstrate its commitment to the Digital Economy as it invests in bodies and policy to capture the returns of transformation.

Chairs

  • Mr Ben Vella, Head of Enterprise Customer Hub, Telstra (Chair)
  • Ms Carolyn Chin-Parry, Digital Accelerator Leader, PwC (Vice-Chair)
  • Mr Daniel Spencer, Head of Business Development & Partnerships, Sleek (Vice-Chair)

Group LinkedIn page

Digital economy industry briefing

On the 13 August 2019, a special Digital Economy Industry Briefing was held at the Australian High Commissioner’s Residence in Singapore.

The briefing was attended by members of the Australian and Singaporean digital community who heard from visiting delegates from Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in a panel discussion that was chaired by Ms Carolyn Chin-Parry, Vice-Chair of AustCham’s Digital and Cyber Industry Group.

The catalyst for the briefing session originated from a bilateral announcement on 7 June 2019, when the Australian and Singaporean Governments publicly expressed a commitment to further strengthen the ties between our two great nations through the auspices of a new Digital Economy Agreement.

The intent and purpose set out for the new Digital Economy Agreement was to build upon the existing strong foundations of the Australian and Singaporean Free Trade Agreement, Joint Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and Double Taxation Agreement with the added objective to better leverage the digital economies of both countries for new efficiencies and opportunities.

The panel discussion and active audience participation uncovered several key focus areas for consideration within the initial scoping study for the agreement. These focus areas were summarised to seven key topics:

Topics

  • Digital Trade Facilitation
  • Impact of Digitisation across different industries
  • Cross Border Data Flows & Payments
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Technology StartUp Ecosystem in Singapore & ASEAN
  • Digital Standards, Research & Collaboration
  • Security, Digital Identity, Privacy standard and impacts

AustCham and the Digital & Cyber Industry Group would like to extend our thanks to the Australian Government for hosting this event and we are excited to continue our contribution towards this very exciting and worthwhile initiative.

For more information on Australia’s commitment to digital trade please refer to the DFAT Website.

If you would like to find out more or contribute to the ongoing DFAT scoping study for the proposed Singapore-Australia Digital Economy Agreement you can reach out to: digitaltrade@dfat.gov.au