Government as the driving force toward the information society: National computer policy in Singapore

Abstract In an attempt to make Singapore an economic power in the post‐industrial information era, the Singaporean government is implementing a series of national computer plans designed to farther the country's efforts to move up the value‐added chain by driving information technology into all sectors of society, these plans can be divided into three distinct phases with the goal of the first phase to computerize the government sector; the goal of the second phase to computerize the country; and the goal of the third phase to turn Singapore into an information society with global connections. In looking at IT (information technology) policy for Singapore, we see that the government has had a high level of involvement in the computerization and informatization of Singapore. The Singaporean government has taken a large participatory role and a smaller but significant regulatory and coordinating role in the development and diffusion of information technology throughout the country. While production and use of IT started out as equal priorities, over time the emphasis has shifted to promoting IT use as a means of increasing the competitiveness of all sectors of the economy. The government has played a strong role in developing the necessary IT infrastructure and maintaining a favorable investment climate to attract IT producers and sophisticated IT users to the island. Ironically, it is the strong government participation that has taken Singapore so far so fast, and which might now be a constraint to reaching the next logical stage of development.