Breaks for project 'intelligent island'

Breaks for project 'intelligent island'

SINGAPORE (AFP): Singapore offered yesterday tax and other incentives to foreign firms which take an early stake in an ambitious project to lay high-technology cables across the entire city-state and transform it into an "intelligent island."

Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said 14 multinational corporations (MNCs) had committed to invest a total of more than S$100 million (US$70 million) in Singapore ONE, or One Network for Everyone.

He said the government had set up a "pioneer club" for all companies which commit to launch a commercial service or apply to join the ONE project by June 30, 1998, entitling them to grants, tax relief and other benefits.

The project involves linking all homes, offices, commercial establishments and government offices in Singapore with a high- capacity cable system that can carry voice, data and video into computers.

With a click of a computer mouse, residents here would be able to "chat" with a government official, pay bills, conclude a business deal, do research, order pizza or surf the Internet.

Public computer kiosks would be set up offering access to the system.

The network is expected to be completed by 2001, turning Singapore into the world's first fully multimedia-cabled "intelligent island."

The city-state of three million people already has one phone for every two residents, and the highest density of Internet users in Southeast Asia. It is aggressively promoting information technology (IT) to enhance its competitive edge in the next century.

"The Singapore ONE project aims to further promote the pervasive use of IT in Singapore, and is an important part of our IT industry development strategy," Lee said Thursday at a signing ceremony for partners in the project.

He said the project would give MNCs further reasons to continue to invest in Singapore, which now serves as a regional hub for Asian, North American and European companies.

With the ONE network, Singapore could be a "test bed" for new technology before it is applied to the rest of the region, he added.

A rival IT project has been launched by neighboring Malaysia, which is fast catching up with Singapore in the economic race.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad returned recently from an international roadshow to attract MNCs to a "multimedia super corridor" being built off the capital Kuala Lumpur.