Keeping digital economy on track

The inaugural report on Singapore’s digital economy recently published by the Infocomm Media Development Authority and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy contains important findings about what has emerged as a new driver of economic growth, and also some of the actions needed to sustain its momentum.

Defined as comprising the value-add of both the Information and Communications (I&C) sector and of digitalisation in the rest of the economy, Singapore’s digital economy grew at a compound annual rate of 12.9 per cent per year from 2017 to 2022, far outpacing the growth of the overall economy. As a result, its share of gross domestic product rose from 13 per cent to 17.3 per cent over the period, which compares favourably with highly digitalised advanced economies such as Estonia, Sweden and the United Kingdom.