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Synopsis
What will Singapore’s socio-economic landscape be like in 2026?
How will the three issues of longevity, innovation and skills affect that future?
In August and September 2016, the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) brought together around 100 people from different sectors in a series of scenario-planning workshops to discuss Singapore’s future in the year 2026.
Participants were divided into three groups to discuss and debate three key themes that will shape our future. Each group was led by an IPS expert.
The themes were:
Longevity (led by Senior Research Fellow Christopher Gee)
What infrastructural, fiscal and social changes are needed to devise a whole-of-society approach for successful ageing?
Innovation (led by Senior Research Fellow Faizal Bin Yahya)
How can innovation and technological breakthroughs take place and be translated into thriving new businesses?
Skills (led by Research Fellow Teng Siao See)
Given technological disruption and economic volatility, what skills are needed for a future-ready workforce and what new types of industries and work will emerge?
In their three groups, the participants came up with the driving forces of change, possible scenarios around those driving forces and strategies that will help Singaporeans respond to the trends, opportunities and uncertainties that might emerge in these areas in the next decade.
Why scenario-planning?
The scenario-planning process of Action Plan Singapore aims to facilitate the development of strategic thinking. It is similar to the IPS Prism Project of 2012, when participants were asked, “How will we govern ourselves in 2022?” The project report can be found
here.
The scenario-planning method engages the diverse forms of expert knowledge as well as the creativity of participants to:
- Generate a deep and critical understanding of the drivers of change;
- Develop a set of plausible yet challenging alternative scenarios through the interaction of those drivers of change to provoke a re-perception of the future;
- Formulate robust and resilient strategies in response to the fresh thinking gained.
The process: The project proceeded in the following phases:
| Scenario-Planning Workshops | | |
| Workshop 1 | Longevity | 4–5 August 2016 |
| Workshop 2 | Innovation | 16–17 August 2016 |
| Workshop 3 | Skills | 23–24 August 2016 |
| | |
| Conference | Attendees included participants from Workshops 1 to 3 in August and additional participants | 5 September 2016 |
| | |
| Strategy-BuildingWorkshops | | |
| Workshop 1 | Innovation | 19 September 2016 |
| Workshop 2 | Skills | 20 September 2016 |
| Workshop 3 | Longevity | 21 September 2016 |
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Additional Information
Photos from the conference are on Flickr. Please credit the Institute of Policy Studies when publishing the photos.