STACK Developer Conference 2024 showcases Singapore’s internal digital core

GovTech Singapore’s biennial STACK Developer Conference is unique in many ways – it is one of Singapore’s largest developer conferences and possibly one of the world’s only government-led developer conferences.

This was a key point made by Senior Minister of State at the Ministry of Digital Development and Information, Dr Janil Puthucheary, and GovTech Singapore’s Chief Technology Officer, Chang Sau Sheong, in their opening remarks at this year’s conference.

“We are certainly unusual in the world,” said Dr Janil.

What makes STACK distinctive on the global stage is the display of Singapore government’s robust internal digital core. STACK’s keynote speakers highlighted the critical role of developers in driving Singapore’s digital government, which was ranked third in the world in the United Nations E-Government Survey this year.

 “The real hard work is done by huge teams of engineers who devote themselves to this,” Dr Janil said.

Beyond sharing on Singapore’s approach to digital government, he recapped the government’s vision for Smart Nation 2.0, which includes tackling new online harms while achieving goals such as online trust, enhanced economic growth, and stronger communities.

“STACK as a conference has grown from strength to strength, increasing the numbers, deepening the quality, and broadening the areas of interest that we bring to bear here over the next two days, a community of practitioners with a shared interest in using technology for the public good,” Dr Janil said during his opening address at the conference on Wednesday.

To subscribe to the GovInsider bulletin click here.

Ambitious approach to AI

The opening speeches at STACK further highlighted Singapore’s ambitious approach to building AI capabilities within the government to support both technical and non-technical staff.

Dr Janil shared that the government is increasingly using AI to automate routine processes and enable developers to focus on “the qualitative”, “the complex”, and the “creative” aspects of development.

He described AI as a “force multiplier” with the potential to supercharge the government’s efforts to address misinformation. For instance, GovTech’s recursive Machine Learning Site Evaluator (rMSE), which can evaluate hundreds of thousands of suspicious sites a day, has been adopted by the Singapore Police Force (SPF) to detect scam websites.

GovTech’s Chang said that the advent of AI has meant that “software development is not going to be the same again,” in his keynote. During his presentation, he spoke about the evolution of code assistants, dating back to the very first spellcheck assistant which debuted in 1971.

He noted that software developers generally hold a positive attitude towards AI coding assistants, citing research by Stack Overflow in 2024 which noted that 72 per cent of developers are favourable to AI tools, with 68 per cent not considering them a threat.

Nevertheless, he cautioned leaders looking to adopt these coding assistants to consider factors such as value, security, and compliance when implementing such tools.

On the second day of STACK, GovTech Singapore’s Chief Executive, Goh Wei Boon, shared that GovTech plans to introduce AI code assistants to boost developer efficiency within government – a key theme of STACK 2024.

Common platforms and tools

Dr Janil also shared GovTech’s approach to standardising central tools and components, to better empower developers across the government.

At the heart of this approach is the Singapore Tech Stack, which includes reusable, common components that enable engineers to build quickly and cost-efficiently.

One example of this approach is MyInfo, a service that residents can use to securely access and manage personal data and auto-fill forms with. Thanks to the Tech Stack, it only took four months to build the service, he noted.

These common products also provide “a consistent vibe” when residents engage with the government, he said, referencing the example of GovWallet, which facilitates access to government payouts across various platforms.

Underlying all these products and platforms is the Government on Commercial Cloud (GCC), which provides built-in agility, adaptability, and scalability, Dr Janil shared.

Singapore has successfully migrated 80 per cent of eligible systems to GCC – making it “one of the most successful cloud migrations in government around the world,” said Chang in his presentation, with more than 63 agencies onboarded.

In his keynote speech, Goh shared that GovTech will continue to modernise the government’s cloud infrastructure and build central platforms and components that support developer productivity and enable experimentation.

To subscribe to the GovInsider bulletin click here.

Innovative partnerships

The keynote speeches also touched on the role of partnerships in driving Singapore’s digital capabilities.

These include Google’s partnership with the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore to block risky apps within Google Play Store; the development of AI centres of excellence for various industry sectors in Singapore; and working with the wider developer community to build accessible tools, shared Dr Janil.

Similarly, Goh emphasised the need to continue fostering a vibrant developer community. For instance, hackathons such as Open Government Product (OGP)’s Build for Good work with developers from the public and private sector, as well as partner agencies, to identify problems and build prototypes to solve them.

GovTech is also introducing an “Open by Default” initiative to enable developers to view each other’s non-confidential projects and share modules to reduce duplication of work, as part of its broader innersourcing strategy.

Goh said that events such as GovTech’s regular STACK meetups also play a role in fostering this developer community.

STACK this year featured fourteen product showcases and over 40 lightning talks, as well as nine keynotes, seven plenary talks, and two panel discussions.

To read more of GovInsider's coverage of GovTech Singapore, click here.