SINGAPORE, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's Minister for Communications and Information S. Iswaran announced two initiatives for data protection on Wednesday at the seventh Personal Data Protection Seminar.
The two initiatives are expected to advance Singapore's digital economy and bring Singapore closer towards realizing its vision of a regional data protection and data innovation training hub, according to Singapore's Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC).
The first initiative is a new Data Protection Officer Competency Framework and Training Roadmap, which provides clarity on the core competencies and proficiency levels a data protection officer needs.
The new framework, developed by the PDPC with inputs from industry experts, will serve as a resource to better support organizations in their hiring and training of data protection officers based on identified competencies and proficiency levels. It combines both data protection and data innovation competencies.
The second initiative is the appointment of the Info-communications Media Development Authority as Singapore's Accountability Agent for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Cross-Border Privacy Rules and Privacy Recognition for Processors Systems certifications.
The PDPC said that the initiative will enable organizations in Singapore to be certified, which allows more seamless data flows within the APEC region, for accountable data transfers across borders to other certified organizations.
Singapore is the third economy after the United States and Japan to operationalize the system, and certifications are now open for applications by all companies.
