Govts should provide IT infrastructure

Singapore owes its development to information and communication technology.

Singapore, the tiny island nation, has grown into an advanced economy as well as a modern society by effectively using the information and communication technology (ICT) as a development tool, said Alex Slow Yuen Khong, acting secretary-general of the Asia ICT confederation and former chief information officer of Singapore Housing Board, which caters to the housing needs of more than 80 per cent of the population in his country.

"This has been achieved due to the foresight of the Singapore government," Alex said at the valedictory function of the 40th annual convention of Computer Society of India (CSI) on Saturday, while stating that providing the basic IT infrastructure like fibre optic connectivity should be taken care of by the governments.

According to him, the Singapore government, after witnessing the results of IT implementation in the housing board under him, had decided to provide fibre optic cable connectivity to each and every household in the country in 2000 and went ahead with its plans. Due to this decision, over 98 per cent of the Singapore households have computers, he said.

Alex has also emphasised on the quality of IT education, warning the administrators that a small compromise on the standards of education would end up in a vicious circle of deterioration, affecting the quality of human resources thereby business and development.