Advice to EDB on an Aggregated Data Sharing Portal

On 24 January 2014, the Economic Development Board ("EDB) proposed the development of an aggregated data sharing portal for the Process Maintenance (“PM”) sector that provides maintenance services for manufacturing plants operating in the Energy & Chemicals industry. The aim of the portal is to reduce overlaps in project scheduling among Energy & Chemicals companies which would in turn help to smooth out the manpower peaks and troughs, and make better use of the labour employed in the PM sector.

Working closely with EDB, CCS met several Energy & Chemicals companies to better understand the competition impact of the aggregated data sharing portal, the benefits of the initiative and any potential competition concerns that might arise. In its assessment, CCS recognized the potential benefits that the initiative may bring and in turn, recommended a number of safeguards to ensure that such benefits could be realised while mitigating any potential competition risks. EDB has incorporated CCS’s recommendations in its implementation of the initiative. It will also monitor the impact of the initiative on market competition in Singapore.