Inside Singapore's AI Bet for 2030 with Kiren Kumar

About this episode

Bernard Leong discusses Singapore's AI strategy and future with Kiren Kumar from IMDA.

Fresh out of the studio, Bernard Leong sits down with Kiren Kumar, Deputy Chief Executive of the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) Singapore, for a conversation on how Singapore is building trusted AI at national scale. Kiren traces IMDA's arc from the 2018 Model AI Governance Framework to the Agentic AI framework launched at Davos this year, the four AI missions — advanced manufacturing, finance, connectivity, and healthcare — anchoring the next strategic bound, and the programs moving enterprises from pilots to production. He argues the real blocker is leadership rather than policy, that trust is Singapore's enduring competitive moat, and that the country must shift from 10% productivity gains to 10X transformation. The conversation closes with a preview of ATx Summit 2026 and what great looks like for Singapore's AI economy by the early 2030s. "What would be amazing to see in Singapore is, number one, we have our large companies truly transforming themselves and becoming way bigger than they are today in the global competitive landscape—in manufacturing, in finance, in healthcare, and in connectivity. That's one. The second one is we are known globally as an…

People in this episode

Host: Bernard Leong

Guest: Kiren Kumar

Topics covered

• AI development
• Singapore economy
• technology leadership
• productivity transformation
• AI governance

Keywords

• AI
• Singapore
• IMDA
• Kiren Kumar
• technology
• governance
• economy
• transformation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Infocomm Media Development Authority

Products: Model AI Governance Framework, Agentic AI framework

Places: Singapore

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