Collaborating on privacy-enhancing technologies to strengthen digital economy growth

To strengthen digital economic growth in the Asia Pacific region, Ant International and NTU Singapore have announced a collaboration over the next five years to conduct breakthrough research to advance digital trust leveraging both Ant International's industry experience and NTU Singapore's research expertise on Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs).

Senior Minister of State Tan Kiat How, Ministry of Digital Development and Information, witnessed the signing of the Master Research Collaboration Agreement (MRCA) between Ant International and NTU Singapore, represented by Mr Jerry Yin, Chief Technology Officer of Ant International and Professor Lam Khin Yong, Vice President (Industry) at NTU Singapore. The signing was carried out on 16 July at the Personal Data Protection (PDP) Week in Singapore.

Under the MRCA, Ant International will collaborate with NTU Singapore's Digital Trust Centre to advance the development of PETs in Singapore and the region. These technologies aim to help businesses unlock greater value from their data and create more use cases. Additionally, the development of PETs for Artificial Intelligence (AI) will enhance digital trust and make AI more reliable. This will be achieved by minimising the risk of data leaks, allowing businesses to share data and gain valuable insights without disclosing confidential information.

Ant International will commit to contributing up to S$20 million over the next five years to support research on PETs.

Under this MRCA, Ant International will contribute a total funding amount of S$5 million for the five-year partnership until July 2029. In addition to providing research funding for the MRCA, Ant International also intends to contribute a further S$15 million to strengthen Ant's research capacity and subject matter expertise, enhance the country's overall research and development and drive responsible innovation in Asia by leveraging PETs.