Information, Communication & Society

Plugging into the wired world: perspectives from Singapore
Margaret Tan

Abstract: Singapore's vision of a smart city or the 'intelligent island' is becoming a reality at the turn of the millennium. With the recent launch of Singapore ONE (One Network for Everyone), a nationwide broadband high-speed network, it will deliver interactive, multimedia applications and services to every home, school and office in Singapore. Today, the provision of the one-stop non-stop business and government services; on-line shopping, cyberbanking and stock trading; and the virtual college and library are some implementations of the island's IT initiatives. Singapore's readiness to brave the cyberworld is the result of its concerted efforts to embrace information technology and communications as important milestones to boost its economic structure since the early 1980s. Like any developments of physical infrastructures that have tremendous impact on the nation's ability to succeed, the nationwide information infrastructure was strategically planned and implemented to support the emerging electronic commerce and cybersociety.This paper provides an analysis of how Singapore builds its national information infrastructure, promotes the adoption of information technology, and establishes electronic commerce to create the digital economy to ride into the twenty-first century. Its success in building its high-value added information technology hub is due to considerable efforts of the policy-makers. However, Singapore's experiences may not be directly transferable to other countries. It is nevertheless interesting to understand the basic ingredients used to diffuse and infuse the island's sophisticated national IT strategies.