Suchergebnisse

I was intrigued by the theme of this conference about the social futures of Singapore. I believe that Singapore is at a tipping point of thinking about its future. This is not because it was Singapore's 50 years of independence last year and we are now looking at the next 50 years. It is simply because Singapore has become a very mature and rich society. It probably has to start thinking in a very different way about its future. I had, at other occasions, mentioned my belief that Singapore's resilience will be one of the key requirements for it to be successful in its future. In this presentation, I will share my views on what it means and takes to be a resilient society for a global Singapore.

What is the role of government in the digital economy? It is not our intention to go into an in-depth ideological debate on whether governments should intervene in the business sector. We will try to adopt a pragmatic approach and explore what already happens in practice. It is up to the reader to make a judgment to what extent the governments should be involved in the ICT sector. There is enough indication that, due to network externality effects, governments need to take on an active role in stimulating an e-environment to jump-start the move toward a higher level of e-readiness.In this chapter, we will argue that the government can play an important role in at least four areas: stimulating the enhancement of the infrastructure that enables e-Europe; investing in improved services (e-government); stimulating an e-friendly business environment; and creating an all-inclusive information society. For each of these areas we will provide in-sights into how the government can play an effective role.