GOVERNMENT MINISTRIES AND AGENCIES (Services on alternative Internet browsers),GOVERNMENT MINISTRIES AND AGENCIES (Use of carpets in buildings)

GOVERNMENT MINISTRIES AND AGENCIES:

(Services on alternative Internet browsers): 3.

Prof. Ivan Png Paak Liang asked the Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts whether Government Ministries and agencies will make services available on alternative Internet browsers, in view of the relative insecurity of Internet Explorer.

Dr Balaji Sadasivan (for the Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts): Mr Speaker, Sir, Prof. Png asked whether Government online services could be made available on Internet browsers other than Microsoft Internet Explorer.

There are more than 1,600 Government e-services online today, which were developed over the last six years. To ensure that these e-services are accessible by users using alternative browsers, the Government Ministries and agencies have, as far as possible, avoided using browser-specific features in the development of their e-services. As a result, the majority of these services are accessible on a range of browsers.

However, it would neither be feasible nor cost-effective to mandate that all these 1,600 e-services inter-operate with all alternative browsers given the wide

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range of choices available. Instead, the Government Ministries and agencies strive to ensure that e-services can be delivered to as wide a population as possible, by making sure that they work well with the most commonly used browser. Since 2002, Microsoft Internet Explorer has been and still is the most popular browser with more than two-thirds of the global market share.

We have noted an increase in the percentage of Internet users using alternative browsers. We will continue to monitor this trend and ensure that Government e-services continue to be accessible by the vast majority of our users.

Prof. Ivan Png Paak Liang: Sir, would the Hon. Minister please consider coordinating with the regulatory agencies, such as MAS, to persuade our banking and financial institutions to offer their services on browsers other than Internet Explorer? As the Hon. Minister has just observed, one-third of the users are not using Internet Explorer. I would like to stress that Internet Explorer has been documented to be a much less secure browser than other alternatives. So it behoves us in the interest of our population to encourage our banking, healthcare and other sectors where security is important, to make their services available on something other than Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Dr Balaji Sadasivan: The world of browsers is a dynamic world. The companies that develop browsers are constantly updating their browser systems. So it is a question of keeping up with the changes in the industry. At the same time, we encourage our Government services as well as the private sector to offer their e-services on as many browsers as possible. The situation is not too bad. Currently, the commonest browser is Internet Explorer with about 66% of the market. The next

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most commonly used browser is Firefox which has 25% of users, and Mozilla is 3.1%. The other browsers combined is about 2%.

If we take Firefox and test it with the various Government agencies, it works on ACRA, CPF, HDB, IRAS, LTA, MINDEF, MOF, MOM, NLB, ROM and URA services. We have not done an extensive test on all the possible e-services available. But the vast majority of e-services can be accessed by Firefox. We will continue to encourage all providers of e-services to keep up with the changes in the Internet world.