E-COMMERCE (Number of certification authorities)

Mr Chuang Shaw Peng asked the Minister for Communications and Information Technology if he will state the number of certification authorities for e-commerce and among these, how many have been licensed by the National Computer Board.

The Minister for Communications and Information Technology (Mr Yeo Cheow Tong): Sir, currently, Netrust is the only public certification authority (CA) in operation in Singapore. CISCO Security and Singapore Post have recently announced their plan to operate another CA, called ID.safe, under a 50-50 joint venture. Both Netrust and ID.safe have indicated to NCB that they will be applying for CA licences, which is a voluntary licensing regime, under the Electronic Transaction (Certification Authority) Regulations 1999.

Mr Chuang Shaw Peng (Nominated Member): Sir, are there any new foreign entities who would like to apply as a CA? It looks like most of the CAs come from Government agencies or GLCs. Does it imply that most of the users today are Government agencies or GLCs and not commercial entities?

Mr Yeo Cheow Tong: Sir, we have received enquiries from various organisations. But so far, only CISCO and Singapore Post have publicly announced their decisions. I suppose once the other companies have made up their minds and decided to go forward, they will then proceed to make their announcements. Secondly, in terms of the users, many of the users are in fact Government agencies but there are also many commercial operations, eg, the banks. Many of the banks are actually active users of the system as well.

Mr Chuang Shaw Peng: Sir, do we have any restriction on foreigners applying as a CA? I understand that one of our neighbouring countries has actually restricted foreigners from applying so that only their own local CAs can operate.

Mr Yeo Cheow Tong: Sir, as far as I know, there are no restrictions on foreign ownership.