Minister Grace Fu highlights parking app created by Li Hongyi’s team in Parliament

Yesterday (6 Mar), Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fu who is also in-charge of the Municipal Services Office (MSO) told Parliament that new services will be introduced through its online OneService app soon.

It will enable residents to perform simple transactions and engage one another more conveniently, she said. For example, residents would soon be able to book and pay for neighbourhood facilities such as barbecue pits through the app. They can also receive alerts on happenings in their neighbourhood, such as roadworks and hawker centre closures for maintenance.

In her speech, she also announced that the MSO would set aside an additional $25 million over five years to extend the Municipal Services Productivity Fund. The fund was first set up in 2017 to help government agencies provide better services to residents more efficiently.

She cited one example of a funded project, Parking.sg, which is a mobile app developed to eliminate the need for motorists to pay for parking using physical coupons. Ms Fu said besides making it more convenient to pay for parking, the app has also resulted in savings for motorists.

“Nearly half of parking sessions are ended early, with more than $3.3 million refunded to drivers for unused time so far,” she said.

PM’s son Li Hongyi led team to develop Parking.sg

Although Ms Fu did not dwell more into the Parking.sg app, the app was in fact developed by Li Hongyi at GovTech. Mr Li is the son of PM Lee.

He and his team developed the app which let motorists pay for parking through mobile devices. It was created with the support of the Ministry of National Development (MND), the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and the Housing and Development Board (HDB).

Speaking at the Public Sector Infocomm Seminar on 20 March last year, Mr Li took the audience through the app’s development journey, detailing his team’s thought processes, challenges faced and lessons learned. Ironically, he later said that his team’s “biggest mistake” was spending too much time on its features.