| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : JUNE 14, 1999 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| INTERNATIONAL -- ASIAN COVER STORY
Michael Yap, CEO, National Computer Board, Singapore (int'l edition) EAGER SINGAPOREAN COMPUTER WHIZ MICHAEL YAP started drafting a blueprint to wire Singapore into an ''intelligent island'' back in 1990. The goal was to put a computer in every household and office and connect the whole population to the Internet. He sent the 54-page plan, called IT2000, a few pages at a time by E-mail, to a colleague in Silicon Valley, who sent them back with corrections. ''We were the first in Singapore to use the Internet for work,'' Yap recalls. Now, Yap, 38, has the chance to make his dream a reality. In March, he became Singapore's wired policy chief--CEO of the National Computer Board, the government agency responsible for IT2000. With a $200 million annual budget, his goal is to make Singaporeans so computer-literate that multinational software, hardware, and Internet companies will use Singapore's 4 million people as a testing ground for new products. In the process, he expects to give the economy a badly needed boost. To do that, Yap is fervently promoting Internet use, beefing up infrastructure, and subsidizing Net-related small businesses. The University of Maryland economics and computer science graduate talks and looks a little too cool for a Singaporean bureaucrat. He usually keeps his hair just a tad long, although his barber shortened it an inch for his promotion. Moreover, Yap has a conspicuous amount of fun at his job. The reception area at his office has a wall-size computer monitor and a wireless mouse at the ready on the coffee table. The monitor usually displays a colorful Web game site for the entertainment of guests. Yap's vision is coming into focus. Already, 40% of households have a computer. Moreover, 40,000 people are logged onto his latest pet project: S-ONE, a broadband network that offers much that the slower Internet does not, including video-conferencing, mahjong games, video on demand, and visual medical examinations. The lack of diverse cultural opportunities in Singapore make it fertile ground for a wired generation. ''We definitely have the Home Alone effect,'' Yap says. ''We don't have many places to go out and enjoy ourselves.'' To be sure, some critics see sinister shades in Yap's brave new Singapore. Ultimately, computerization could allow the authorities to monitor and restrict freedom of speech even more efficiently than at present. Yap is the first to recognize the limits of the Internet as a mode of creative expression in a country that restricts freedom of speech. ''We're struggling to find a balance,'' he says. In the meantime, IBM, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems have ramped up their operations in Singapore. For Yap, that's a good start. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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