S'pore businesses benefit from e-govt success

SINGAPORE--Industry business leaders in the island-state have given the thumbs-up to Singapore's move to further develop its IT infrastructure and capabilities.

Speaking at the iX conference held here this week, Pek Yew Chai, chairman of Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF), said that local companies are benefiting from the success of Singapore's e-government services and expertise.

"The e-government and iN2015 programs bring a lot of branding to Singapore," he said. "This definitely augurs well for our companies, because we do well when we go overseas."

One example is the successful bid by Singapore IT services provider CrimsonLogic for the 20 million euro (US$26.9 million) Turkish e-government project in 2005, said Pek. In 2006, the company went on to clinch a S$3 million (US$1.9 million) deal to develop a central data repository as well as a public key infrastructure for the Indian state of Uttaranchal.

To help local companies gain visibility overseas, the SiTF has partnered IDA to launch Infocomm Singapore, a new global brand name for the local infocomm sector early this year, Pek said. "I encourage people to take up this brand name…it's easier to have this brand behind you when you sell overseas," he added.

According to the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) in a media briefing Tuesday, Singapore currently leads in Accenture's latest study on e-government and also takes the top spot in the World Economic Forum (WEF) global IT report 2007 on government readiness.

In other global rankings, Singapore holds the sixth position in the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2007 e-readiness rankings, up from the 13th position in 2006. It also ranks fifth on International Telecommunication Union (ITU) WIS digital opportunity index in 2007, up from No.16 last year.