The changing demographics of the citizens, their increasing aspirations and expectations demand a responsive, transparent and accountable government. Good governance, effective policy development and quality decision-making must reflect the knowledge, experiences, expectations and values of citizens. Recent events from all over the world, from the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street to the Open Government Partnership, are calls for deeper engagement with citizens.
Collaboration and co-creation of solutions were the key themes of Singapore Government’s eGov 2015 plan, which leveraged technology platforms to reach out and engage citizens in proactively soliciting their views on new policy formulation, as well as feedback on government performance and services. Reaching Everyone for Active Citizenery @ Home – REACH (www.reach.gov.sg and www.data.gov.sg) are examples of such initiatives.
“The future of Singapore depends on what Singaporeans make of it together”, Singapore's Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, said on 29 November 2015, at the launch of Future of Us exhibition. The Government will be launching new citizen engagement series, SGfuture, two years after the conclusion of the nationwide feedback-gathering exercise, Our Singapore Conversation.