Singapore's Industry Transformation Roadmap launched at Dentsu's new APAC headquarters
Singapore unveiled its industry transformation map (ITM) on Wednesday that will see thousand of jobs created for professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMET) in sectors like advertising.
Senior Minister of State for Law and Finance Indranee Rajah at iProspect’s VoiceLab.
Senior Minister of State for Law and Finance Indranee Rajah launched the ITM, which also identified key high-growth areas in various sub-sectors, such as data science, analytics and artificial intelligence, at the opening of Dentsu Aegis Network's Asia Pacific headquarters at Guoco Tower.
Part of the roadmap will also see a data-sharing consortium with the likes of Google, Grab and Adobe to help businesses drive marketing innovation through smarter data use.
The Economic Development Board has also created more than 10 Professional Conversion Programmes (PCPs) under the Workforce Singapore’s Adapt and Grow initiative, which was set up to help Singaporeans adapt to changing job demands in a restructuring economy and in areas such as programmatic advertising.
"The professional services sector is a growing industry with tremendous potential for job creation," said Rajah. "The ITM is an integrated plan that will enable our firms to scale, innovate and increase their productivity, while preparing Singaporeans to take on exciting new jobs such as digital product developers, data modellers and risk advisory professionals."
Rajah then toured Dentsu’s new 100,000 square feet headquarters, which houses all of its 10 network brands under one roof, and visited its innovation labs and R&D centres like Isobar’s NowLab, iProspect’s VoiceLab, and the Global Data Innovation Centre.
“We are excited to launch our Asia Pacific headquarters, co-locating all our teams within one building for increased collaboration opportunities and the ability to provide integrated solutions for our clients,” said Nick Waters, chief executive of Dentsu Aegis Network in APAC.
“This reflects our unique operating model with all agencies in the Group managed under one P&L, and is consistent with our ongoing strategy to co-locate our offices across the Asia Pacific region. We are pioneering agile working in our Asia Pacific business to foster a culture of empowered innovation to meet the demands of the fast evolving digital economy.”
“This is crucial in enabling us to deliver continually strong work and results for our clients, innovate our products and services, and drive our long-term performance,” added Waters.
The agency also announced that the office was designed with the concept of ‘agile working’ in mind and Singapore will be the first location in APAC to pioneer this concept, which aims to provide a balance between work and personal needs, as well as to facilitate collaboration.
The focus on work-life balance has intensified after Dentsu was previously charged over illegal overtime practices following the death of an employee in 2015 in Japan.