Good morning, distinguished Commissioners, colleagues, partners, friends. A very, very warm welcome to Singapore.
This week, we are delighted to host more than 2,500 participants from all over the world for our first Singapore Data Festival. This is held alongside the largest ever IAPP Asia Forum. More than 40 countries are represented here today, including 19 regulators. I am heartened to see so many familiar faces in the room, and many new ones as well.
Whether you are a privacy expert, an AI governance professional, a lawyer, a technologist, a regulator, none of the above, or all of the above, your presence today reflects a shared belief. That is more important than ever before that we come together to ensure technology remains a force for good.
Over the last few months, the question I’ve most frequently been asked is: What is top of mind for the PDPC? What are we watching, and how has that shaped our priorities? To be honest, it’s hard to choose just one thing. PDPC is 14 years old, and our job hasn’t gotten smaller. The data ecosystem around us just gets bigger. Technology is developing at a pace that stretches our laws, our institutions – even our imaginations.
Take agentic AI. AI agents don’t just answer questions; they make decisions and act on them. By this time next year, many of you might be using agents to book your travel to Singapore for this conference, negotiating flights, hotels, reservations – even coordinating with other agents to schedule meetings. Change is all around us. But to the public, it can create uncertainty and anxiety. So, in today’s context, trust is no longer optional. Society will reject innovation it doesn't trust. If innovation is the building, then trust is the foundation, and all of us here are architects.
To be clear, regulators do not have all the answers. But we believe regulating well means providing clarity. This enables society to adopt technology with confidence.
Over the course of this week, the IMDA and PDPC have launched a number of policy products. To improve accountability, there are the Advisory Guidelines on use of personal data for gen AI, and the chatbot transparency guidelines. To support AI development in a privacy preserving way, we launched the Federated learning guide and revised the Synthetic Data Guide. For better safety and security, we revised the guideline for safeguarding ICT systems, and to help companies build real-time representations to simulate scenarios and optimise operations, IMDA launched the Digital Twin for enterprises playbook. We do this work because we believe that clarity in rules, brings confidence in use.
Now at the same time, you should not be waiting for the regulator to give you all the answers. Handling data properly is your responsibility. Even as you embrace new technology to grow your business, and please do, you should also apply that innovation mindset to governance and trust.
This is also why our partnership with the IAPP is so important. As the leading organisation for trust professionals, the IAPP shares our commitment to international dialogue on frontier digital issues.
Today, I am happy to share that we are expanding our partnership with the IAPP by renewing our Memorandum of Intent. Over the next three years, IMDA and the IAPP will continue to bring this community together here in Singapore. Singapore looks forward to hosting many more Asia Forums for these conversations.
We will also work with the IAPP to expand access to their world-class training and certification here in Singapore, including the IAPP AI Governance Professional programme. This will equip professionals across Asia with the skills to navigate this new age of data and AI, so they can be confident leaders within their organisations.
On that note, I congratulate IAPP on its first AIGP training session in Asia, held here just yesterday. I look forward to more of that in the future.
Today, I am happy to share that we are expanding our partnership with the IAPP by renewing our Memorandum of Intent. Over the next three years, IMDA and the IAPP will continue to bring this community together here in Singapore.
Lastly, to everyone in this room: thank you for being part of these conversations. By being here, you are doing more than just listening, speaking, or collecting CPEs. You are choosing to help shape the future, and equipping yourself to do so. Together, we can build a future where data powers innovation responsibly. Where trust is not an afterthought, but the cornerstone that organisations can build on. Let’s make this future a reality for Singapore, for Asia, and for the world.
Thank you and I wish a wonderful Asia Forum 2026.