ST Engineering has announced that it has made a donation of $1m to the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) Digital Access Programme (DAP), to help low-income households and seniors to gain access to digital and connectivity tools for their task. The amount comprises donations from employees and other donors raised through the Community Chest of Singapore, with a top up by the company.
This collective donation is the single largest contribution to DAP to date, and is expected to enable about 4,500 individuals to have equal digital access over the next 12 months.
“COVID-19 has redefined how we live, learn, work and play, making going digital more salient and more relevant than ever before,” said Vincent Chong, President & CEO, ST Engineering. “Through this contribution, we hope to drive positive impact by bridging the digital divide for families and seniors in need, so that they can keep pace with the use of technology for their daily lives. I am grateful to our employees who supported the campaign and who have demonstrated that in times of need, they stand ready to lend a helping hand.”
“COVID-19 has underscored the importance of ensuring that vulnerable and low-income households, have access to the digital tools needed for their daily activities. We have therefore enhanced our Digital Access Programmes to provide more students with subsidised PCs and free fibre broadband, as well as needy seniors with subsidised smartphones and data plans. I am very heartened to see industry partners such as ST Engineering stepping forward, and I hope to see more of our community support this important effort. This is key to our resilience as a society and a nation” said Mr Lew Chuen Hong, Chief Executive, IMDA.
Mr Phillip Tan, Chairman of Community Chest, said, “We are deeply grateful for ST Engineering’s support in enabling households in need to be digitally connected. Their efforts in uniting staff to give has been exemplary and their invaluable support will help to close the digital divide for low-income families during this COVID-19 situation.”
This initiative began when Singapore announced more stringent Circuit Breaker measures and the need to help low-income households overcome the digital divide became more acute. ST Engineering rallied its management and employees to contribute towards the DAP, helping households and seniors gain access to digital and connectivity tools such as subsidised computers, devices and broadband services for their daily tasks, whether for work, home-based learning or accessing information and entertainment. ST Engineering then topped up the over 1,000 contributions to reach $1m.