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.