RESTRICTION IN MEDICAL LEAVE FOLLOWING DELIVERY OF THIRD CHILD

Mr Zulkifli bin Baharudin asked the Minister for Law what steps will be taken to address the issues contained in the report from the Office of the US Trade Representative on the growing rates of piracy of intellectual property in Singapore.

Prof. S. Jayakumar: The Report to which the Member refers (the U.S. 1998 National Trade Estimate Report on Singapore issued by the USTR on 31st March 1998) claimed that there has been a recent upsurge in pirated software, video and music CDs and CD-ROMs into Singapore and that Singapore enforcement measures are inadequate to deal with them.

The fact is that Singapore has the best IPR protection regime in Asia according to an independent survey by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy or Perc last year. For three consecutive years, the International Institute of Management Development or IMD has ranked Singapore as the top Asian nation in the protection of IPR. In the same survey, Singapore was even ranked ahead of developed countries such as Australia, Japan, France and the U.K.

Government nevertheless recognises that changing circumstances and improving technologies pose new and different challenges in IPR protection and enforcement and we are committed to meeting these challenges by a combination of strict laws and enforcement.

Legislation

The Copyright (Amendment) Act 1998, which was passed on 19th February 1998 was brought into force last week (on 16th April 1998). It puts into effect Singapore's obligations under the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights or TRIPS Agreement. The Act also enables us to accede to the 1971 Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, a fact noted in the USTR Report.

Government has also a few days ago announced that manufacturers of optical discs will be licensed under the Control of Manufacture Act. A condition of the licence requires the manufacturer not to infringe intellectual property rights in its operations covered by the licence. In addition, under new regulations of the Regulation of Imports and Exports Act, only these licensed manufacturers will be permitted to import replicating and mastering equipment for optical discs. These controls will discourage the illegal replication of copyright materials.

The optical disc manufacturing industry has also come forward to support Government's efforts. Last Friday, optical disc manufacturers signed a Code of Conduct which puts in place operational procedures in their business to enhance protection against the piracy of intellectual property rights.

Enforcement

As far as enforcement is concerned, the USTR Report is not correct to say that we have a self-policing system where enforcement is left largely to the copyright owners. Our experience has however shown that effective enforcement requires more than just action by the Government. It is best carried out with the cooperation of the industry and the public and by a combination of their resources as well as those of our enforcement agencies. This is borne out by the experiences of other countries such as Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. and the United States.

Far from Government agencies being inactive, the Police have initiated 20 raids in the first 3 months of this year in Sim Lim Square and Bugis Village targetted specifically at retail pirates. These have resulted in the arrest of 21 people and the seizure of over 7,000 pirated articles. A further 49 police raids were conducted on the initiative of IPR owners and a further 47 persons were arrested. In the same period, the IPR Warrant Unit of the CID has seized infringing articles with an estimated retail value of over $880,000. Separate raids have also been conducted by the Board of Film Censors and the Hawkers' Department.

Let me conclude by reiterating what I said during the Second Reading of the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, ie that Singapore is fully committed to the protection of intellectual property rights. It is clearly in our interests to do so because our maturing economy will increasingly rely on attracting knowledge-intensive industries to invest here and on encouraging the development of such industries locally. We will monitor the situation, continue with our current efforts and introduce new measures if necessary.

Dr Lily Neo asked the Minister for Health whether doctors in the public sector are restricted from giving any hospitalisation leave or medical leave to patients following the delivery of a third child.

Mr Yeo Cheow Tong: All doctors including public sector doctors are not restricted from giving any hospitalisation or medical leave to a married woman following the delivery of a third child. The doctor will give the medical leave to the woman if her medical condition following the delivery of a third child warrants the sick leave.

However, under the Employment Act, a female employee is not entitled to paid medical leave during the confinement period if she has 2 or more children. She may use her annual leave if she is certified unfit to work or may be given no pay leave if she does not have any vacation leave left.