Pitch
Data Analytics would enable government to anticipate citizens' demand and tailor its response based on individual's characteristics.
Description
Make life easier/more difficult for Singapore?
Easier
Describe the change
Leon Fuerth and Evan Faber surfaced the idea of anticipatory governance through the Project on Forward Engagement. They recommended three changes to the U.S. Executive Branch so that the "existing U.S. Government systems and processes (could be) more anticipatory, adaptive, and resilient."
Moving forward into 2030, the Singapore Government should be ready to make sure of high resolution data of the population and advanced predictive analytic tools to derive timely insights, even up to individual level. This means that the policy could be made adaptive to different social groups and individuals. The issue of "sandwiched class" could be resolved with a sharper policy instrument.
The public communication of policies would also be changed. Rather than having the citizens to identify those policies that would impact them, a system could be in place to deliver a summary of policies that would affect the individual, based on their demographic profiles and personal preferences.
How will this change impact Smart Nation Singapore in 2030?
The creation of a central database that integrates demographic information of the citizens with real-time data from various sensors will allow the government to make well-informed policies. Simultaneously, predictive analytics could be mature enough for public officers to model and predict the impact of various policies on different social groups and individuals, as well as their potential responses (through advanced forms of Game Theory).
This "personalized governance" approach, enabled by advancements in data analysis and predictive analytics, will allow the government to assess and address the needs at individual level. In other word, we could have a Nation that is Smart enough to cater to individuals.
However, there are concerns such as individual privacy. While the ability to build demographic profiles of individuals could be very useful for crafting effective and personalized policies, it could be subjected to misuse by hackers or corrupted public officers.
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