MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS

The geographic and strategic importance of Singapore gives us an edge in the field of transportation and communications.

Marine

Last year, a record number of 28,496 vessels or 117.3 million net registered tons of shipping used our port facilities. Singapore became the No. 1 port in the Commonwealth and moved from 5th to 4th port in the world.

Proper terminal facilities for ocean-going container vessels at the East Lagoon have been under construction at a total cost of over $77 million. They will be operational by 1970.

The efficiency and productivity of our port, both workers and management, must be demonstrated in quicker turn-round of ships.

There has been considerable progress in shipbuilding and ship repairing business at the Port of Singapore Authority Dockyard, at Jurong, Kallang and Tanjong Rhu shipyards. This is a highly labour intensive industry. The naval base at Sembawang will be converted into a commercial dockyard, even whilst the Royal Navy is using the Base. This conversion work may commence this year.

Telecommunications

Singapore has long been a major regional and world centre for telecommunications. To keep abreast of satellite communications, we have decided to install an Earth Satellite Station in Singapore to be operational by 1970. This station will be supplementary to the Seacom cable system. It will enable Singapore to obtain direct link via the Indian Ocean Satellite with other similarly equipped countries from Japan and America in the East to Britain and Europe in the West.

In addition to normal telecommunication facilities, the Earth Satellite Station can provide a means for the reception and transmission of television programmes, thus enabling Singapore viewers to link up with the main centres of civilisation the world over.

The Singapore Telephone Board has over 108,000 telephones and 76,000 direct lines are in service. 98 per cent of subscribers are now connected to the automatic Subscriber Trunk Dialling Service (STD). The Singapore Telephone Board will have not only to expand its services to keep pace with the increasing demand for its services but also to improve its standards of maintenance and efficiency.

Aviation

1967 was a record year with 964,244 passengers (25 per cent increase over the previous year) 8.6 million kilos of air cargo (11 per cent increase) and 1.8 million kilos of mail (26 per cent increase) being handled by our airport authorities.

Twenty-one international airlines run scheduled services through Singapore and work is in progress for the extension of the runway from 9,000 feet to 11,000 feet to get Singapore Airport to receive the jumbo jets.

Modern equipment such as Visual Approach Slope Indicators, Instrument Landing System and an Airport Location Beacon have been or are being installed to maintain high standards of safety and efficient operation. An aircraft engineering facilities building is nearing completion.

Postal Services

A record 192 million articles of mail were handled by our Postal Services during 1967. We must maintain high standards of efficiency under even heavy loads of mail traffic.

The following agency services were continued during the year, namely: -

(a) collection and payment of Central Provident Fund contributions,

(b) payment of Social Welfare Public Assistance allowances,

(c) payment of civil pensions and allowances for Army and Air Force personnel.

Legislation is being drawn up to permit renewal of driving licences at post offices, on behalf of the Registrar of Vehicles.

Five new Post Offices (2 of which will be replacement offices) will be built by 1969, thus bringing the total number of Post Offices to 44.

Road Transport

The offices of the Registrar of Vehicles at Middle Road will be reorganised in order to streamline work procedures and to ease congestion for large numbers of licence holders who regularly pay their dues at this office.

A new driving licence testing centre is being built in Queenstown expected to be completed by November this year. This should relieve the present congestion at Maxwell Road centre.

To help reduce traffic congestion, the services of 2 officials from the London Transport Board have been obtained under the Colombo Plan Technical Co-operation Scheme to advise on possible solutions to our growing passenger transport problem.

There will be an intensification of the campaign to stamp out the smoke nuisance (air pollution) from motor vehicles and to improve Road-Safety consciousness amongst road users to reduce unnecessary heavy casualties on the roads.