The handful of Government agencies have come together to launch a competition that requires participants to think of the best mobile app that revolves around public data.

Participants will have to draw on information available on data.gov.sg, a portal that has a database of 8,000 different sets of information including traffic information, census data and maps, collated from over 60 public agencies and ministries. The apps which are created should be useful and improve the lives of Singaporeans.

The competition was announced by Minister of State (Finance and Transport) Josephine Teo on Wednesday at the inaugural PlugFest International Programming Competition, "We want to continue to improve our public service delivery, but we cannot do it alone. The government does not always have the best ideas," she said.

The competition, which is called Apps4SG, is organised by the Ministry of Finance, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore and the Singapore Land Authority.