Ranked among the world's top three e-governments by World Economic Forum in 2003, Singapore adopted the vision of e-government even some two decades ago and has since paved the way on under the direction of several action plans.  

The island state started its efforts towards a mature e-government from the computerization in the public sector in 1980 as the Civil Service Computerization Program (CSCP) aimed to improve operational efficiencies in government departments and agencies.

Along with the rapid evolutions of the information and telecommunication technologies in the past decade, the concept of service delivery has been undergoing significant changes.

Taking advantage of its advanced IT industry and bearing the fruit of the CSCP, Singapore launched the first E-government Action Plan in 2000 with a customer-oriented approach to delivering public services.

The four-year plan, which consumed the government 1.5 billion Singapore dollars (about US$920 million), mandated the public sector to create integrated electronic services to the citizens and echo to their needs with feedback at an "Internet speed."

New infocomm technologies were emphasized in the plan in creating, delivering and upgrading e-services by the public sector so as to enhance the capabilities and capacities of an e-government and bring about an e-based society in the digital economy.

To realize these goals, a high-level e-government policy committee has been formed for the purposes of coordination and supervision, while the Ministry of Finance and the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) have been contributing financial and technical management respectively.

In the infrastructure front, as smooth and satisfactory e-service delivery involves complicated interfaces among different government departments, which may be using different computer systems, the private sector has been playing a key role in this aspect.

Taking Ecquaria Technologies, a local software company, as an example. According to its portfolio on the website of the International Enterprise Singapore (IE Singapore), Ecquaria is the chief architect that designed the entire Public Service Infrastructure (PSi) solution and has successfully implemented a number of e-government projects in the island state.

Among the projects was the business licensing requirement system. Thanks to Ecquaria's solution, any Singaporean who wants to start a business may get all the necessary information and even have his license application done online with but a few clicks of the mouse, instead of laboring to go to various government departments.

This is just part of the convenience the e-government has presented to the people. Based on the PSi, a round-the-clock e-citizen portal enables Singaporeans to interact with the government on a wide range of matters through a single Internet access point.

The IDA figures showed that the monthly hit rates of the portal have increased from 240,000 in October 2001 to 14.4 million in June 2003, or, four times of the country's total citizen population.

Further, the Singapore Personal Access (SingPass), launched two years ago, enhanced the security of e-service transaction by requiring the user ID and password for the access.

For businesses, e-government means not only time-saving, but also less charge.

For instance, the fee for incorporating a new company has been cut from at least 1,200 Singapore dollars (about US$736) with manual processing to a flat amount of 300 Singapore dollars (about US$184) through e-service, while time required shortened from two days to two hours.

As Singapore has adopted the second E-government Action Plan for 2003 to 2006, the government hoped to forge an e-lifestyle, with which a networked government would connect its citizens closer by including them in the policy making and review process through virtual communities, as well as deliver accessible, integrated and value-adding e-services to both individuals and businesses who prefer online transactions.

(Xinhua News Agency March 1, 2005)