1987 ECONOMIC SURVEY OF SINGPORE (Copyright)

Mr Chng Hee Kok asked the Minister for Trade and Industry why the 1987 Economic Survey of Singapore is accorded copyright protection which effectively discourages the wider dissemination of the information contained in the report.

The Minister for Trade and Industry (BG Lee Hsien Loong): Mr Speaker, Sir, dissemination of the information in the Economic Survey has never been a problem. The international practice is to copyright publications of this nature. Annual reports and surveys published by organizations like the IMF and World Bank are invariably copyrighted.

Even though the Survey has been copyrighted, portions can be reproduced with prior permission from MTI. This is how the newspapers pick up the major facts in the report. Besides this, the Copyright Act also allows anyone to copy parts of the Survey for his personal use.

Mr Chng Hee Kok: First, will the Minister confirm that this copyright notice is not found in the previous year's Economic Surveys? Second, who gets the profit from the sale of the Economic Survey of Singapore?

BG Lee Hsien Loong: On the first point, it is true the previous Economic Surveys were not copyrighted but in all previous years the Quarterly Surveys which are published in the first, second and third quarters have been copy-righted. So the Annual Survey was left out as an anomaly which has now been put right.

As for who gets the profits from the sale, I do not know whether any money accrues, but I should imagine either the printers get their share or its goes back to Consolidated accounts. Anyway, MTI does not keep the money.

Mr Chng Hee Kok: But the Economic Survey of Singapore is licensed by the MTI. So I assume some money must have gone back to the MTI.

BG Lee Hsien Loong: Mr Speaker, Sir, I do not think that is a Government fiscal practice.