Your face could soon be your passport at Singapore's checkpoints

SINGAPORE - Instead of being screened by immigration personnel, travellers at Singapore's checkpoints could be cleared in future by a facial recognition biometric system - which will allow entry into the country at record time.

Called the Flexi Immigration Clearance System, the project is the first of its kind in Singapore and will allow the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) to toggle between automated and manned immigration counters.

It will particularly benefit checkpoints that experience a high traffic, and the ICA plans to implement the technology at the coming International Cruise Terminal.

This is one of a number of infocomm projects the public sector is embarking on and the Government gave a preview yesterday of an estimated S$1.1 billion worth of tenders it will award to the industry this year.

The ultimate aim is to make infocomm technology a part of Singaporeans' everyday life - at home, at work and during travel.

For instance, centralised remote building technology will be called for to monitor the lighting, lifts and water pumps in public housing blocks.

Meanwhile, the Singapore Police Force plans to acquire systems to enhance road-safety enforcement such as a Digital Traffic Red-Light System and Digital Speed Enforcement Camera System.

The Home Affairs Ministry, Housing & Development Board and National Environment Agency (NEA) were just some of the agencies that presented their coming projects at the industry briefing organised by the Infocomm Development Authority.

Several projects look set to improve public engagement.

The NEA's use of real-time sensors in its Smart Environment System, which is estimated to cost between S$3 million and S$10 million, will leverage on crowd sourcing technologies so the public can submit environmental information, such as the weather, at their location. The NEA hopes to react and deal with environmental challenges as they occur.

The Ministry of Defence, it wants to offer better healthcare services to Mindef and Singapore Armed Forces personnel by streamlining business processes and integrating military healthcare records with national healthcare systems.

IDA chief executive Ronnie Tay said the overall outlook for the infocomm industry remains positive, with increased spending in IT and demand for infocomm services.

"The Singapore Government continues to invest in infocomm to drive productivity and innovation within the public sector," he said.

"This is a strong testament to the Government's commitment to continually improve the delivery of services and information to citizens and businesses, and the important role of infocomm in fostering economic growth in Singapore."

Last year, the Government awarded 647 infocomm contracts worth more than S$1.12 billion, excluding a one-off S$850 million invested in the Schools Standard ICT Operating Environment programme. Two-thirds of the contracts went to local companies.