Singapore encourages other ASEAN countries to leverage digital connectivity with western China

SINGAPORE - The China-Singapore (Chongqing) International Dedicated Connectivity (IDC) launched in 2019 has enabled companies in ASEAN to better provide digital services for Western China via the connection through Singapore and vice versa, a Singapore official said here Monday.

Lew Chuen Hong, Chief Executive of Singapore's Infocomm Media Development Authority, made the remarks while delivering a speech at the Singapore venue of the International Dedicated Connectivity (IDC) Forum, which is part of the Smart China Expo 2021 held in Chongqing in western China.

Being the first point-to-point Internet connectivity between China and a foreign country, IDC links Singapore with seven districts across Chongqing.

He noted that IDC links the two sides with "high speed and low latency", adding that the sectors that stand to benefit range from media to video conferencing, education and healthcare.

The forum is not only attended by representatives from Chongqing and Singapore, but also those from western China's Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Moreover, it also drew participants from other ASEAN countries, including Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia and Thailand, said Lew.

He encouraged all participants to embark on the journey to digitally connect ASEAN and the western China region, which will benefit their businesses and countries.

A Memoranda of Understanding was signed between Singapore and Chongqing Businesses at the expo, with a view to furthering cross border digital collaborations in areas including manufacturing, trade and logistics, and healthcare.

One MoU was inked to facilitate the collaboration between Singapore startup EyRIS Pte Ltd and Beijing's Aurora International Trading to provide autonomous screening of retinal diseases faced by an ageing population through the indigenous use of AI algorithms.

EyRIS' Senior Vice President for Business Development Steven Ang K. H. said that IDC enables them a better access to apply their technology on the data so as to improve the performance of their system and allows them to explore the delivery of other products into China.