NATIONAL COMPUTER BOARD (AMENDMENT) BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

The Minister for Trade and Industry (Mr Lee Yock Suan): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

The Bill will amend the National Computer Board Act, which I will refer to as the NCB Act in short. Firstly, the Bill expands NCB's charter to develop the Information Technology (or IT) industry and to carry out other functions which may be conferred upon the Board under any written law. Secondly, it removes the requirement for Ministry-or-agency-specific appointees as members of the Board.

I will now describe the proposed amendments in greater detail.

NCB's Enlarged Role

With the transfer of NCB to the Ministry of Trade and Industry, NCB's role was enlarged beyond the provision of computer-based services or data processing, as stipulated in the existing NCB Act. NCB is now also tasked to develop the IT industry and to harness IT to improve the performance of our economic sectors.

Rapid evolution in the IT environment has placed new demands on NCB. This is particularly evident in the rapidly growing area of electronic commerce, where the marketplace is being transformed and new enabling infrastructures and services are needed.

One new role of NCB is that of the Controller of Certification Authorities, as set forth in the proposed Electronic Transactions Bill, which is also before the House today. Clause 3 of the Bill amends section 11 of the Act to reflect NCB's enlarged role, and other new functions which it may assume in future.

NCB's Board Composition

To allow for greater flexibility in Board appointments, clause 2 of the Bill amends section 5 of the Act to remove the requirement that certain members of the Board be appointed to represent specific Ministries or agencies.

Sir, I beg to move.

Question proposed.

Mr Chuang Shaw Peng (Nominated Member): Mr Speaker, Sir, the proposed Amendment Bill on NCB's charter, at first glance, looks innocently simple and, that is, NCB is now to promote, with the amendment, Information Technology instead of computer science. As the Minister has rightly pointed out, the definition of Information Technology now is very wide. As such, the amendment would open up tremendously the scope of NCB's mission.

The term "Information Technology" nowadays encompasses a whole lot of technologies. It can be telecommunications, computer software, mass media, Internet-related innovations, e-commerce, etc. Such convergence of technologies makes the term "Information Technology" very much generic in nature. Hence, I would like to question whether NCB is embarking on such a challenging task of covering the wide range of technologies, especially in this amendment, it is stated that it is doing it without budget implication.

I notice that, currently, the National Science and Technology Board (NSTB) and Economic Development Board (EDB) are all involved in the promotion of IT industry. To many people, it appears that there is much overlapping between these three agencies. Any interested investor or entrepreneur in IT may be confused about whom to approach. With this amendment, the presumption would be NCB would be playing the key role in IT promotion and development, while NSTB would be focusing on other non-IT R&D, and EDB would be concentrating on the manufacturing aspect of the IT industry. I hope the Minister can clarify this point.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I think Singapore, on many counts, should have a vibrant IT industry. Some countries, including the small ones, like Taiwan and Israel, are experiencing strong economic growth partly because they have built up their IT industry earlier than we did. The need to diversify our traditional business is a must, as highlighted by BG Yeo, the Second Minister for Trade and Industry, not too long ago. And there is no dispute that NCB has done a superb job in promoting and developing world-class applications. But this is not enough. With NCB amending its charter, it can help to set priority by having a coordinating one-stop body to focus on the task of developing IT industry through working closely with the venture community, research laboratories, industries and various Ministries and to identify what is lacking and take aggressive steps to help develop the IT industry. Although we are a good deal away from having the critical mass, we can emulate Israel which has achieved amazing results in just a few years.

In summary, NCB, with its new charter, should take up the challenge to create an environment for our IT industry to grow and prosper.

Sir, I support the Bill.

Mr Lee Yock Suan: Mr Speaker, Sir, I thank Mr Chuang Shaw Peng for supporting the Bill and for making some very relevant points. It is true that IT is very wide; it is generic and covers a lot of areas, and it is also growing very fast. That is why the Government has in fact adopted a multi-agency approach.

The purpose of the Bill is really to give NCB the powers to be more involved in the promotion of IT, especially in the areas of setting up the IT infrastructure, developing software, and so on. But the task will not just be for NCB alone, but also EDB, NSTB and others. For example, EDB is involved in promoting the computer manufacturing sector, disk drives, and so on. So all the hardware, that basically is under EDB. And increasingly, EDB is also approaching companies to do software and they have got all the offices overseas. So by having both NCB and EDB under my Ministry, it facilitates coordination. At a higher level, there is a Committee known as the National IT Committee, chaired by Minister Teo Chee Hean, and this coordinates policies at the broad level. Also, the agencies hold regular dialogues and exchanges among their working level committees to coordinate issues at the operational level.

The Member also mentioned the National Science and Technology Board. NSTB also plays a role in this area. But NSTB's role is mainly to do with R&D on a very broad basis. So where it concerns IT, they are of course involved in the R&D aspects. NSTB is under my Ministry. So there is no problem of coordination. The essential point of this change is to broaden the scope of NCB so that it is not just a provider of computer services to the Government, which was its original role, but to broaden it and recognise that IT is a very big industry, and to put the focus on development of mainly the software and infrastructural aspects on NCB. In so doing, they will of course have to work with all the relevant agencies, including the Ministry of Communications, on the telecommunication aspects. NCB and the other agencies will be provided with adequate funding for their purposes. Already the funds are provided in the budget and, if need be, there could be other funds provided.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House.

The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. - [Mr Lee Yock Suan].

Bill considered in Committee; reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed.