Singapore’s Education Minister Ong Ye Kung recently revealed that the government there intends to bring in foreign talent in areas critical to Industry 4.0. Ong said that meanwhile, the country will work on rebalancing its education system to meet future demand.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution has seen many new and exciting concepts take place in the lives of human beings. This massive shift in terms of technological advancement and the role of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. Against this backdrop, a surge in the number of smart cities can be seen across the globe.

A smart city is one that adopts scalable solutions so as to take advantage of ICT in order to increase efficiencies, reduce costs and enhance quality of life, according to technology conglomerate Cisco. Smart cities can help to overcome the strain on urban resources brought upon by rapid urbanisation, an aging population, and a changing energy climate. This would help ASEAN meet its long-term sustainable development goals.

Smart cities, while not dominating discussions at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers' Retreat in Singapore earlier this month, was nevertheless talked about. Singapore, which chairs ASEAN for 2018 under the theme of innovation and resilience has been a strong advocate of a network of ASEAN smart cities to be formed as part of its chairmanship goals.

The recent joint venture between Baidu and Asia Mobility Industries (AMI) to develop autonomous driving technology in Singapore brings it one step closer to becoming the smart nation it hopes to be.

Sizing up the home-sharing industry in Singapore has become the economist’s puzzle as the aspiring “Smart Nation” grapples with resistance to next-door strangers.Despite government rules restricting the likes of Airbnb operating in Singapore, there are signs that home-sharing has become more prolific in the city state.