I am pleased to join you this morning for your biennial conference. Let me also extend a warm welcome to all our foreign visitors, especially to those who may be visiting Singapore for the first time. I hope you will find the opportunity during your short stay here to savour the sights, sounds and tastes of our island nation.

2 Some five years ago, my friend who was working in Kenya got lost in the Kenyan jungle. He took out his handphone and called, not the nearest police station, but his wife in Singapore. That incident, which he later told me, has stuck in my mind. It shows how small and inter-connected the world has become. And the world is getting smaller and changing more rapidly every day.

3 We are all part of the global village. There is no escaping this fact wherever you may be. Some countries feel threatened or resentful and try to insulate or shut themselves from the outside world. They run the risk of being left behind as the world passes them by. Even North Korea and Cuba are finally opening up ever so gradually.

4 Technological breakthroughs are transforming the world. In the areas of computers, life sciences and nanotechnology, some new developments seem like science fiction but they are true. They offer enormous potential for growth and for alleviation of human suffering but they may also threaten society and the individual and pose troubling issues of ethics and morality.

5 When computers were first invented, they were huge, clumsy machines which were treasured for their number-crunching abilities in scientific, engineering and other similar applications. I wonder how many people could have realised then that the computers’ ever-increasing power to process, store and transmit binary signals at mind-boggling speeds would make them indispensable as communication devices. Computer chips are present in a multitude of applications today, some of which we are barely aware of. However their most pervasive presence is in the world of info-communications.

6 The internet is rapidly linking up the world, wherever users can afford computers and telephone lines. Information is available from all over the world but especially from the US, at the touch of a button.

Much of it is useful but there is also an enormous amount of trash. Individuals and societies have to decide what to do with the information explosion, to navigate and seek out what they need and protect themselves, if possible, from the misleading and the harmful.

7 Businesses are busily reinventing themselves to take advantage of the internet or to protect themselves from its negative consequences. Myriads of portals are springing up to try and cash in as supermarkets for all kinds of products and services. Others are trying to cut out or take over the roles of traders or brokers to facilitate direct transactions between buyers and sellers or to achieve economies of scale through bulk-purchasing. Many are trying to raise advertising revenue through attracting more eyeballs, to the extent that some are prepared to pay net surfers to view their pages.

8 The enormous energy concentrated on the internet, its explosive growth and diversity, its exciting potential, the noise and the dirt - these all resemble a gold rush. Stock investors, both laymen and professionals, were so caught up in the enormous potential of the internet that new start-ups were an instant success so long as they had a dot.com behind their names. Valuation methods were applied to growth stocks which paid scant attention to conventional wisdom that companies have to generate positive cash flow to survive. Fund managers who stuck to basics were overtaken by others who followed the market. The challenge was to stay with the herd and preferably ahead of it and not be trampled when sentiments change. The April correction to technology stock has made investors more sober and fund-raising more difficult for new start-ups.

9 Meanwhile researchers and designers are racing to find new applications of digital technology for both wired and wireless applications. The billion-dollar question is what products and services will sell and what will not. What products will take off like the cellular phones or handphones as we call them here? What products will remain technical marvels with not many users? Technology is racing ahead but human behaviour is changing slowly.

10 In the media industry, newspapers are holding their ground in the face of competition from on-line rivals. The New York Times and USA Today reported large profit and revenue increases last week. Both companies’ internet operations lost money. Most readers are still more comfortable with the printed page than staring at computer screens even though news online offers the advantage of more frequent updates.

11 Similarly television sets are dominating the home, with larger sets and better picture and sound quality. It remains to be seen whether video-on-demand or webcasting over the net will make a dent on TV viewership. With convergence of technology, digitisation and the increasing number of channels available, a critical element will be the quality of content. Carrier capacity is expanding rapidly but quality content is limited. With multi-media possibilities will viewers take to interactive TV or will they be content to be passive viewers?

12 Singapore, as a global city and a centre for trade and communications, is closely following these developments. Since independence in 1965, Singapore has thrived as an open economy which is plugged into the world grid. With a small population of less than 4 million people, Singapore can only survive and prosper by offering goods and services at internationally competitive prices to the world market. The value of Singapore’s external trade is about three times its GDP.

13 Singapore’s shipping, financial and communication facilities are highly developed. For many years it has served as a telecommunication hub for the region. This role has been enhanced with the recent total liberalisation of the telecommunication sector. The intense competition that this has unleashed has been a boon to domestic and business consumers.

14 Singapore aspires to be a media hub. There are 86 accredited media agencies based in Singapore including 68 foreign agencies. A total of 18 satellite broadcasters uplink from Singapore including BBC Worldwide, HBO Asia, ESPN Asia and Walt Disney Television. Over 5000 imported publications circulate in Singapore.

15 To harness the power of information technology, Singapore has built a broadband network known as Singapore One which is accessible to almost all the homes in Singapore. So far about 230,000 or 24% of the homes have subscribed to cable TV. The cable operator is also offering broadband internet services to its subscribers.

16 There are now 6 Internet Service Providers and about 100 Internet resellers. About 60% of the homes have computers and 40% have internet accounts. The first global survey on the Internet’s current and potential users conducted by Angus Reid, a Vancouver-based global market and social-research company, noted that Singapore is the second highest internet user among developing countries and the 10^th on the world list of internet usage.

17. Our schools, polytechnics and universities are busily equipping young Singaporeans with IT skills. By 2002, there will be one computer to every two students in Singapore schools. There is also an active programme to provide government services on-line and to reach out to mature Singaporeans at community centres and workplaces.

18 Recognising that it is almost impossible to regulate the flow of information through the internet, the Government has taken a pragmatic approach. Only 100 pornographic sites on the internet are normally blocked out as an expression of our values. Schools are provided with a sanitized version called the Family Access Network. Parents are informed about the dangers of the internet to their children and are encouraged to subscribe to this network.

19 There is a strong presence of international media in Singapore which report on regional developments. Occasionally they report on Singapore and offer an external perspective. Where their reports or editorials contain fallacies or misconceptions, the Singapore Government reserves the right of reply as a condition for the privilege to circulate in Singapore.

20 The local media industry in Singapore is facing increasing competition from foreign media in print, over cable TV and on the internet. To build up the local media, the Government has allowed the local players to cross into each other’s territory so that they can develop their skills across the range of media platforms. The increased competition will attract more talent to the industry and hopefully increase the quality of local content to keep the attention of Singaporeans. Our Channel News Asia, besides focussing on the local market, will be beamed to the region from September.

21 Singapore was the first country in the region to introduce digital audio broadcasting services last year. We will also be introducing mobile digital television to bus commuters. Various projects are being carried out to assess how best to introduce digital TV services to Singapore including multi-media applications. The main hurdle is still the high cost to broadcasters and receivers.

22 I have attempted to give a quick overview of the industry and what is happening in Singapore. We are living at an exciting and somewhat bewildering time of stunning scientific breakthroughs in communications and other areas. May I wish you an enjoyable and fruitful conference.

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