Singapore’s heartland shops launch new initiatives to go digital

Government agency Enterprise Singapore has joined hands with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IDMA) and the Heartland Enterprise Centre, Singapore (HECS), to launch an initiative to ‘digitise’ mom-and-pop stores in the city-state.

Ten precincts in the country will be a testbed for the initiative, which was rolled out this week.

The initiative will partner local “mom and pop” stores with tech firms ConntectUpz, Dei, and Fave to help them get online as soon as possible.

Starting with Ang Mo Kio, Bedok, and Clementi in Singapore, the initiative aims to reach around 400 merchants, as reported by The Straits Times.

The initiative will implement a range of ready-to-use solutions, including loyalty programmes and payment methods, as well as online sales channels, depending on their stage of digitisation.

Element AI launched two AI collaborations in Asia Pacific

Element AI has launched new Artificial Intelligence collaborations with a South Korean investment advisory company and a Veritas consortium based in Singapore.

Element will integrate its AI tech with the investment advisory firm Shinhan AI’s platform Neo. It is aimed at simplifying and accelerating application and forecasting decisions for its index tracker with a new market prediction model.

Also Read: Canadian startup Element AI to support AI Singapore in its Smart Nation initiatives

According to a report by Beta Kit, Shinhan Financial Group was one of Element AI’s first partners and that the two had signed a memorandum of understanding in May 2019.

Element AI’s second collaboration is with the Veritas Consortium led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), which will look at Element AI assisting in developing a framework for driving the responsible adoption of AI in the financial services industry.

Element AI will take part in research and development activities aimed to support the consortium’s mandate for AI adoption.

Two traditional kiosks empowerment initiatives join forces to help guard Indonesia’s micro-economy

Mitra Bukalapak and GrabKios, two of the largest digital platforms that empower traditional kiosks/stalls in Indonesia, have announced a strategic partnership for provisioning and distribution of digital products in more than 5 million kiosks and agents located throughout Indonesia.

Through this collaboration, GrabKios will provide digital products on the Mitra Bukalapak platform, which can be sold by kiosk owners and agents to their customers to continue earning income amidst the pandemic.

By helping them sustain their incomes as demand for other products drops, both companies hope to safeguard economic stability at grassroots level, especially for warung kiosk owners whose income is affected during the implementation of Large Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) in several regions.

Teddy Oetomo, Chief Strategy Officer Bukalapak, explained, “Strengthening economy at kiosk level has a fairly extensive ripple effect. Warung’s presence in the society is deemed essential to help fulfill the needs of the local residence, while the revenue generated would be used to meet their own family’s basic necessities. At the same time, stabilising the economy at micro-level also means contributing to the country’s economic resilience. So, increasing their productivity and well- being can go a long way.”

Also Read: Kudo becomes GrabKios, marking new offers aimed at larger kiosk’s digitisation

The strategic collaboration is expected to increase the capability of nearly 5 million traditional kiosks and Bukalapak agents as well as bringing impacts to the society.

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Photo by Kirill Petropavlov on Unsplash

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