MINISTRY OF LAW

Prof. S Jayakumar Minister for Law

Legal Branch

1. The Ministry of Law and Attorney-General's Chambers will continue to enhance the legal infrastructure of Singapore as a foundation of our social and economic progress. We will promote more awareness of applicable legal principles in public administration, and improve the quality and efficiency of legal services for the public.

2. Our laws and legal system will continue to reflect the values, traditions and aspirations of our community. Substantive laws must continue to address particular Singaporean needs and problems. We will improve mechanisms for resolving social and community conflicts through mediation and other non-court-based systems. We will uphold and strengthen our justice system to protect our citizens.

3. We will make publicly available the Electronic Database of Statutes and Subsidiary Legislation currently being developed by the Attorney-General's Chambers. We will draft legislation in plain English to make them more easily understood. We will use information technology to ensure more comprehensive legal research, better documentation, and quicker response to requests for legal advice.

4. We will set up databases of precedents of legal opinions, strengthen links with legal agencies in other countries, and emphasise the training of legal service officers. We will conduct courses in Constitutional and Administrative Law for senior civil servants. We will ensure that the public service implements policies fairly and firmly in accordance with the laws, and regularly update legislation to keep pace with changing social and economic circumstances.

5. We will work for greater harmonisation of areas of laws with ASEAN and other countries, where we have common interests, such as trade, investment, commerce, banking, shipping and intellectual property. In the ASEAN Free Trade Area, we will work to harmonise custom regulations governing codes, procedures and valuation. These will benefit our businessmen and help foreign investors.

Land Branch

6. We will work closely with planning and economic agencies to safeguard the value of state land, and allocate it efficiently and optimally to end-users.

7. We will update our policies and practices on land allocation, alienation and pricing to keep them relevant, clear and consistent, to meet economic changes and maintain our competitiveness.

8. Because land is scarce, we must manage state land and buildings earmarked for interim uses carefully, to maximise returns and preserve planning flexibility. The Land Data Hub will become a central depository of digitised land data. We will use faster, higher band-width Wide Area Networks to build up the Hub into a Land Information Network infrastructure linking all land data, including geographic, cadestral, buildings, roads, drainage, sewerage, utilities and housing data, for sharing and planning across the entire public sector.

9. We will share non-confidential land data with the private sector to enable them to produce innovative products and services, including digitised street directories on CD-ROM, interactive kiosks, in-vehicle digitised road maps, and remote access of integrated graphic and textual information on housing plans and lots.

10. We will also review the Land Titles (Strata) Act in consultation with the relevant agencies and the private sector, to improve the management and administration of strata developments. This will benefit the increasing numbers of Singaporeans who live in strata title housing.