Remarks by Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan at Estonia and UAE's Virtual Global Business Summit

Excellencies,

Friends, 

1 Let me start by thanking my friends Minister Urmas Reinsalu and Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan for convening this Summit. I wanted to speak very briefly about our TraceTogether programme, which is a digital contact tracing solution for dealing with COVID-19.

2 Let’s start with three facts. First, every infection has a transmission chain. Breaking that chain earlier will not mean zero increase in infections, but it will certainly avert an exponential increase in infections. Second, in order for digital contact tracing to be effective, you really need a large critical mass of adoption. But not everyone owns a smart phone or knows how to use mobile apps. The third fact is that digital solutions need to address legitimate concerns about privacy and data security. Without public trust and cooperation, all efforts, no matter how brilliant, will fail.

3 We believe that TraceTogether has addressed these fundamental concerns. First, TraceTogether has enhanced both the speed and accuracy of our contact tracing efforts. Initially, in Singapore, our contact tracing efforts were done entirely manually. We relied on people’s memories, which we all know are imperfect, and sometimes our patients were too ill to be able to communicate and to recall every person whom they might have met. TraceTogether has cut the amount of time needed to identify and quarantine close contacts. It used to take us about four days, we’re now down to less than two days, and often within one day itself. This has helped to rapidly isolate potential infections and to cut short that chain of transmission.

4 Second, we introduced the TraceTogether token for the digitally excluded – so those who might not have a smart phone or might not know how to use an app, would also be included and would enjoy the protections from this programme. Containing COVID-19 is a national effort, and digital inclusion is a national priority. This token makes digital coverage available to everyone. 

5 Third, TraceTogether is privacy-preserving by design. The system works on Bluetooth. TraceTogether does not consist of tracking devices or electronic tags, and this is worth emphasizing. There is no GPS or location tracking built into the system. Instead Bluetooth proximity signals are exchanged between users who happen to be in close physical proximity. And I would emphasize privacy-preserving, because the data would be provided to contact tracers only if you are a confirmed COVID-19 case. And this would help us to notify others, in turn, who may have been potentially exposed. The data on the app and the token is encrypted, is stored on the device for only 25 days, and is automatically deleted thereafter. 

6 Perhaps most important, we ensured full transparency as we rolled out the programme. And this is key in maintaining public trust. Hence, we open-sourced the TraceTogether source code. We let developers, experts, and other members of the public and other governments, attest and check that there were no backdoors, no secret recipes baked in. There was nothing to hide. 

7 As of November 2020, the national adoption rate of TraceTogether is more than 50% of our resident population, with over 2.9 million app and token users. With the source code and the technical design for the app and the token publicly available, other governments elsewhere have also developed their own programme off our original protocols. This is our small contribution to our common global pool of knowledge, in the hope that by working together, we can enable safe re-opening, and a safe recovery.

8 Thank you all, and I hope that you enjoy the short video that follows. Thank you very much.