Singapore Promotes Sustainable Development In The ICT Sector
Data centres urged to adopt the green standards for energy efficiency.
Speech by Mr Lui Tuck Yew, Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts at the opening ceremony of SGX Data Center on 11 April 2011.
Mr Magnus Bocker, CEO of SGX,
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, Good Morning:
I am delighted to join all of you here this morning to officially open the SGX Data Centre, which is a new state-of-art high-performance trading facility that will connect Asian companies to global markets.
Developing infrastructure and initiatives to enhance the financial sector
First and foremost, I would like to congratulate SGX for the successful completion of this significant milestone, which aptly manifests the role of infocomm technology, or ICT, as a key enabler to enhance the productivity and competitiveness of our economy, including the financial sector.
I note that just last month, SGX has been trading at a daily average volume of $1.6 billion in the securities market, while the derivatives market has witnessed an average daily volume of more than 380,000 contracts. This is a record high figure that SGX has achieved.
With the continued growth of SGX, there is a need to manage the ever increasing trade volumes effectively and efficiently. The new SGX data centre deploys ICT to shorten order response time such as through the ultra-low latency trading, to help boost the competitiveness of SGX both locally and abroad.
The Singapore Government is cognizant of the need for us to continually enhance the infocomm infrastructure as well as to implement sound infocomm security and capability development initiatives to strengthen our repute as an international financial centre which the SGX is a key player.
Let me elaborate on some of the efforts undertaken by IDA to achieve this.
We recognise the importance of providing a secure ICT environment to safeguard and protect the interests of companies and their customers. As the Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network, or NGNBN, is rolled out to more businesses, the IDA is also fortifying its efforts to ensure a secure national infocomm infrastructure.
This is done through the Infocomm Security Masterplan 2, which includes initiatives like the ISO27001 Certification Grant Scheme and the Secure and Resilient Internet Infrastructure Code of Practice.
The ISO Certification Scheme is internationally recognised, and helps organisations develop their information security management systems in a systematic and comprehensive manner, while the Code of Practice is intended to protect core Internet infrastructure and critical network components.
In view of the importance of infocomm underpinning the financial services industry, IDA also sees a need to groom hybrid professionals who are equipped with strong infocomm skills as well as in-depth industry domain knowledge.
To achieve this, IDA will be working with reputable local and overseas institutions to develop specialised courses through the Hybrid Skills Development programme.
Promoting sustainable development in the ICT sector
With the growth of e-services, there has been an increasing number of data centres set up to manage the increase in volume. As we continue to grow our digital services, we will need to ensure that this growth is sustainable. To this, the IDA has begun its efforts in sustainable development by seeking to improve the energy efficiency of data centres.
Green initiatives jointly developed by IDA, fellow government agencies and the industry, have also been introduced to help businesses reduce costs and reduce environmental impact.
The first initiative, a joint collaboration between IDA, SPRING Singapore and the IT Standards Committee is the Singapore Standard for Green Data Centres.
This is a certifiable standard that helps data centres establish policies, systems and processes to improve energy efficiency. A pilot batch of companies, including Keppel Datahub, the National Library Board and SingTel, have already attained this certification.
The second initiative jointly developed by the Building Construction Authority (BCA) and IDA, is the BCA-IDA Green Mark for Data Centres, a rating system to allow data centres to assess and benchmark the energy efficiency and other green features with one other. This will be implemented in a year’s time.
I am pleased to note that SGX is looking into incorporating green features into their data centre. This is a step in the right direction. I would also like to take this opportunity to encourage all other data centres to incorporate sustainable development initiatives as well as to adopt the green standards in energy efficiency.
Conclusion
In closing, I would like to once again extend my warmest congratulations to SGX and your partners on the completion and opening of the SGX Data Centre.
Thank you.
Topics: 2011, Asia, business, communications, data center, derivatives, economic development, economic growth, Economy, employment, energy, energy efficiency, environment, financial sector, global markets, Governance, government, green standards, ICT, IDA, infocomm, infrastructure, internet, investment, ISO Certification Scheme, jobs, lT Standards Committee, Lui Tuck Yew, moniter, monitor, news, Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network, online, Pacific, securities, SGX Data Center, Singapore, SPRING Singapore, sustainability, technology, trading
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