Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

Singapore has always been deeply committed to the Rule of Law. One of the requirements of the Rule of Law is that the laws must be transparent and ascertainable. For this reason it is a fundamental principle of our legal system that no law can come into effect until it is published officially in the Government Gazette.

Flowing from this principle, our citizens have always been able to ascertain the contents of our laws by purchasing copies of it from the Government Printers. Since 1999 the public has had free access to the electronic Government Gazette for 7 days after publication, through the eGazette website. In addition, a selection of Acts has been made available for free through the LawNet website. However, comprehensive access to all Statutes, for free, has not hitherto been available. The effort and expense involved has deterred many ordinary citizens from looking at our laws. The launch of the Singapore Statutes Online today will change this. It marks and important step in consolidating our tradition of transparency and rule of law, by bringing the laws closer to the people and increasing access to justice through the provision of easier access to legal information.

For the first time, the Government is placing all of our 400-plus Statutes on the Internet for free access by the public. Anyone with access to the Internet will be able to get to the Singapore Statutes Online website at the click of a mouse and view the Statutes of Singapore for free. For the convenience of the public, several access points to the Singapore Statutes Online website have been created. Besides getting there from the Ministry of Law website, you can also reach there from the e-Citizen website and the newly revamped Attorney-General's Chambers website.

Singapore has been pursuing the e-Government agenda for several years. Our vision is to be a leading eGovernment to better serve the nation in the digital economy. We have been steadily putting as many government services on line as possible. The provision of free laws on the Internet is an integral part of our overall vision for e-Government vision. As part of the Government's e-Government infrastructure, the Singapore Statutes Online will allow citizens to search, find and read any one of the more than 400 Statutes of Singapore quickly and easily, from the comfort of their own homes. All this is available to everybody at no cost other than that of dialing up to connect to the Internet. The launch of the website at this juncture is also particularly timely, given the recent release by IDA of the Survey on Infocomm Usage in Households which indicates that 50% of Singapore household already have access to the Internet.

Another notable point about this Singapore Statutes Online is that, not only is this free service the first of its kind in Singapore, it is also the first in ASEAN. It will make Singapore laws readily accessible to our regional trading partners, thus promoting greater mutual understanding of our legal systems and provide for more effective exchange of ideas about the development of ASEAN legal systems.

Having our laws available for free to our people through the Internet will also place Singapore in the same league as other advanced economies and leading e-Government countries such as United States and Australia. This is, in all aspects, a significant move towards meeting the expectations of an increasingly sophisticated and IT-literate population.

Finally, I thank the Attorney-General's Chambers and the Managing for Excellence Office of the Ministry of Finance for the successful implementation of the Singapore Statutes Online. The Attorney-General's Chambers completed the website in a short space of two and a half months. MOF provided the funds to develop this public infrastructure for the benefit of the public and continues to provide funds operate and upkeep this public service. Credit must also go to the staff of the Ministry of Law for helping to coordinate and collaborate on this project.

This initiative is really only the first step towards bringing the laws and legal system closer to the people through e-Government. Looking ahead, the Management for Excellence Office of the Ministry of Finance is already in discussion with the Ministry of Law and the Attorney-General's Chambers on the creation of a new legal portal in the e-Citizen website to make knowledge and information about our legal system more readily available to the people.

It is now my pleasure to officially launch the Singapore Statutes Online.