Global tech cooperation key to tackling cross-border challenges: Josephine Teo in China

SUZHOU – Singapore hopes for more international cooperation on technology, as the impact of technology, which is also needed to address global issues, transcends national boundaries, said Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo in Suzhou on Oct 11. 

Mrs Teo, who is also Minister-in-charge of Smart Nation and Cybersecurity, was speaking at the Lianhe Zaobao Singapore-China Forum organised by SPH Media’s flagship Chinese-language daily.

“The impact of technology on economies and societies cuts across national boundaries,” she said in Mandarin at a dialogue with Ms Lee Huay Leng, editor-in-chief of SPH Media’s Chinese Media Group.

“There are also many cross-border issues, such as climate change, that require the use of technology to fully address. So, international cooperation in the field of technology is essential, and I think many countries recognise this,” Mrs Teo told the audience of more than 300 people, including officials, business people, academics and university students, from China and Singapore.

Technology is increasingly being framed as a security issue.

When asked about the likelihood of international tech cooperation against this global backdrop, Mrs Teo observed that such collaboration had traditionally been the norm: Scientists and researchers regularly visited and studied at one another’s institutions; they also attended global conferences and read international journals to stimulate their own thinking.

But it is natural, she said, for countries to want to protect their most secret technologies and sensitive systems, and the greater the security concerns, the stronger the desire to protect.

The problem, however, is that these security concerns intensify when “we don’t know what the other party is doing”.

“The less we interact, the greater the anxieties, and the less we are willing to share – it is a vicious circle,” she added.

Mrs Teo said Singapore hopes to see an expansion of the space for international cooperation through dialogue, with mechanisms that are inclusive and open, and in which participants have a duty to work hard to make progress.

The Republic hosts many international tech conferences where everyone is welcome to participate, she later told reporters from Singapore. These are neutral platforms where “people can speak with each other to understand what’s happening in each other’s ecosystems”.

Asked by Ms Lee to comment on the impact of US-China technological decoupling, Mrs Teo said such competition would affect many countries, and the “chaotic situation” ensuing from an East-West split would continue for years. This would distract countries from focusing on important issues such as economic growth and social development.

“This is a situation that we should try very hard to avoid,” Mrs Teo said.

More bilateral and multilateral cooperation should be explored, she said, citing Singapore’s dialogue mechanisms with both China and the United States in the technology sector, and its involvement with multilateral agreements in the digital economy sphere.

A separate panel session during the forum saw a global ranking of countries’ artificial intelligence (AI) capacities by UK-based media outlet Tortoise Media being discussed. The Global AI Index 2024 placed the US first, China second, and Singapore third.

Urging a more nuanced view, Professor Zhu Xufeng, dean of Tsinghua University’s School of Public Policy and Management, said the US and China each had different strengths.

The US has been the leader thus far in the foundations of AI – from chips to algorithms – while China leads in AI applications, said Prof Zhu, who is also director of the university’s Science and Technology Development and Governance Centre.

China is also catching up with the US in areas such as chips, and has done well in specialised technologies such as facial recognition, he added.

Panellist He Ruimin, Singapore’s chief AI officer, said that such rankings were not a priority for the city state, as it is focused on the tangible benefits of AI for people and businesses.

“We are not here to compare nor compete,” he said.

The forum was held at the Shangri-La Hotel in Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP), the first inter-governmental project between Singapore and China that commemorates its 30th anniversary in 2024.

Mrs Teo said in her keynote address that she had been one of the first Singaporean government officials posted to Suzhou to participate in the park’s development, and was happy to be back.

She later caught up with some Chinese friends she had worked with on the SIP as an officer from the Economic Development Board in the mid-1990s, she said in a Facebook story on Oct 11.

She told reporters that the SIP – and Singapore-China cooperation – had developed well, transitioning from the “software transfer” of the early years, in which Singapore shared its development experience with China, to a relationship today that is marked by mutual learning.

“Both countries can continue deepening interactions, be it at the officials’, business or even people-to-people levels,” she said.