UK and Singapore government services to collaborate on digital government services

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed by the UK’s Government Digital Service (GDS) and Singapore’s GovTech Agency to strengthen collaboration between the agencies for the design and delivery of digital government services.

GDS and GovTech will build government official’s digital skills and work towards the adoption of open standards for data and software through sharing of knowledge and best practices, according to an announcement.

The announcement calls GDS “a world pioneer in introducing digital government services,” and says Singapore’s Smart Nation program, spearheaded by Prime Minister Lee Hsien, takes in digital government services as one of six national initiatives related to technology. The partnership was brokered by SIN Singapore, which co-ordinated visits between the countries, secured UK participation in GovTech’s annual Digital Government Exchange, and worked with GovTech to organize a lecture by the Director General of GDS as part of the Singapore Smart Nation Speaker Series.

The agreement is the first international partnership GovTech has signed.

The UK government recently put out a call for comments on the development of digital identity, and GDS’ Gov.uk Verify launched biometric payment for government services earlier this year. Meanwhile, GovTech announced plans for a National Digital Identity platform SG-Verify in May.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital government  |  digital identity  |  government services  |  Singapore  |  standards  |  UK