Singapore announces new road map to improve standards and conformance capabilities, partnerships

[SINGAPORE] Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) has launched its Standards and Conformance (S&C) 2035 road map.

It is setting out steps to strengthen the Republic’s S&C capabilities, deepen international partnerships, and enable businesses to compete and grow amid increasing global complexity.

Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong announced the new road map at a dinner organised by EnterpriseSG on Thursday (Jun 11), where he laid out its three pillars.

Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations Grace Fu, who spoke separately at an S&C summit on Friday, elaborated on the strategies to implement the road map.

Globalisation is changing, said DPM Gan, who is also minister for trade and industry, in his speech.

He pointed out shifting supply chains and rapid technological advancements.

Businesses also face unclear rules and requirements, as well as duplicated testing and certification when entering new markets. These create cost and uncertainty for companies, he said. 

For regulators, this raises the challenge of protecting public interest while keeping pace with innovation, he added.

Meanwhile, consumers question whether products, services and technologies can be trusted.

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He noted: “In this environment, standards and conformance, or S&C, takes on renewed importance.”

The new road map thus aims to “build and deepen trust, so that assurance earned in one market can be recognised, understood and accepted in another”, said DPM Gan.

Growth, ecosystem and partnerships

The 2035 road map is anchored to three pillars – driving economic growth; building a future-ready ecosystem; and strengthening Singapore’s role as a trusted partner in regional and global S&C ecosystems.

First, the road map will leverage S&C to enable growth and competitiveness, not just compliance, by embedding standards early into products, services and processes.

EnterpriseSG will encourage partners in key and emerging sectors, including artificial intelligence, clean energy and offshore wind, to leverage standards and accredited testing, inspection and certification services.

It will also work with incubators, accelerators and venture capitalists to position early adoption as a competitive advantage for startups and early-stage companies. This is to encourage S&C to be built in from the start, rather than retrofitted later.

The agency will also leverage “queen bee” companies to drive S&C adoption across these anchor firms’ supply chains.

Second, EnterpriseSG will strengthen and scale Singapore’s S&C ecosystem, to support innovation, talent development and regulation.

This will be done in emerging frontiers such as AI, carbon services and precision medicine – areas where S&C frameworks must be developed ahead of the market.

Pre-standardisation prevents fragmented systems that will be difficult and costly to reconcile later.

EnterpriseSG will pilot regulatory sandboxes – where new frameworks can be validated and refined before formalisation – while managing risk, to shape standards in emerging areas.

It will also develop local expertise in strategic sectors, as well as work to attract, anchor and build testing, inspection and certification capabilities.

Finally, the third pillar is to strengthen Singapore’s role as a trusted partner in regional and global S&C ecosystems, as the global landscape becomes more uncertain and fragmented.

The Republic will deepen collaborations with regional and international stakeholders to shape standards, drive harmonisation and expand mutual recognition.

This includes expanding cooperation in South-east Asia to ensure the relevance and coherence of industry practices for emerging technologies, and addressing cross-border technical barriers.

EnterpriseSG will also strengthen bilateral and multilateral agreements, lowering compliance costs to accelerate market access and secure trade opportunities.

Adapting to remain relevant

On Friday, Fu, who is also minister for sustainability and the environment, said that Singapore’s standards and accreditation ecosystem has built trust in its products’ safety, services’ reliability and companies’ credibility. 

But the world is changing, and S&C demands are changing with it, she added.

“If our S&C infrastructure is to remain trusted and relevant, it must keep pace.”

Five memorandums of understanding signed between EnterpriseSG and its international and regional partners were also formalised at the gala and summit.

These include agreements to deepen collaboration for critical and emerging technologies; advance AI pre-standardisation; expand regional collaboration on regional AI standards; and enhance assurance frameworks for carbon projects and credits.