OPENING ADDRESS BY RADM(NS) LUI TUCK YEW, ACTING MINISTER FOR INFORMATION, COMMUNICATIONS AND THE ARTS AT THE APEC DIGITAL ECONOMY FORUM FOR WOMEN ON 3 AUGUST 2009, 9.00AM, AT THE RAFFLES CITY CONVENTION CENTRE
Mrs Yu-Foo Yu Shoon, Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports,
Dr Young Sil Han, President of Sookmyung Women’s University,
Ladies and gentlemen
Good Morning
I am pleased to join all of you here this morning at the 5th APEC Digital Economy Forum for Women. I would also like to extend a warm welcome to all overseas delegates. Singapore, as the chair of the APEC meetings this year, is honoured to organise this Forum.
2 I am heartened to note that since its inception five years ago, the Digital Economy Forum for Women has become an important platform for APEC women leaders to share their experiences and facilitate potential collaborations so as to empower and enhance the role of women in the area of infocomm technology, or ICT.
ICT Offers Opportunities for Women
3 Women perform a multitude of roles in our society – as a worker, a daughter, a wife, a mother. The digital economy that we live in today has offered new opportunities for women to enable them to manage their work and personal commitments more effectively. The pervasiveness of ICT in today’s digital economy has had a great impact on the way we work, live and play. ICT empowers women to choose the path that would give them the most satisfaction and fulfilment while contributing to society. ICT has also led to a proliferation of work practices – tele-commuting, tele-conferencing – which contributes to greater work-life balance. ICT has also opened up many new economic opportunities for women, and I would just like to cite a couple of examples to illustrate this point.
4 In Singapore, women are given equal access to education. The high literacy rate amongst women has created a group of Internet-savvy women who are able to exploit ICT to set up online businesses. These women are able to enjoy the best of both worlds – the ability to make economic gains without compromising their own needs and interests. But beyond economics, ICT also brings people of common interests together. For instance, there are many online portals and forums for mothers which allows for knowledge sharing, bonding and emotional support.
5 ICT has also enabled home-based businesses in both urban and rural settings to export their products and services to a wider market. For instance, producers of handicraft in rural Thailand managed to increase their sales and widen their business network through e-commerce. The Northern Homebased Workers Network, an association of village groups in Northern Thailand, benefited from the establishment of a database containing information on both the group members as well as enterprise customers, which helped them to keep track of their production capacity as well as their incoming orders. A website with automated order forms was also set up to widen the reach of their marketing channels, which led to an increase in foreign buyers, notably from Japan.
6 Women entrepreneurs in Korea were also able to export their products through internet marketing, bypassing traditional methods of seeking help from industry associations and informal business networks. As the majority of women-owned businesses in Korea were extremely small in scale and concentrated in the service sectors, they faced difficulties in getting access to finance and marketing. The use of ICT such as in e-marketing, coupled with Korea’s significant investment in high speed ICT infrastructure, provided opportunities for many women entrepreneurs to overcome traditional business limitations and grow their exports.
7 These are a few examples of how ICT has benefited many women in business. It also bears testament that ICT is indeed a key enabler of economic growth in many countries. Let me share with you Singapore’s experience in leveraging on ICT as a strategy for economic growth.
ICT as a Key Driver in Singapore’s Economy
8 Singapore’s efforts to harness ICT started almost 30 years ago. The journey started with the simple objective to automate and improve public administration through ICT. Thereafter, ICT was leveraged upon to systematically transform Singapore and make it a global ICT hub. Today, ICT is a key driver in Singapore’s economic growth.
9 We have a vibrant ICT sector. Last year, the sector registered S$58.10[1] billion in revenue, which is a 12.4 per cent increase from 2007. We also have a high mobile penetration rate of 134[2] per cent, as well as household broadband access reaching 115[3] per cent. Internet and broadband access is also pervasive amongst businesses in Singapore, with the penetration rate at 90 per cent.
10 We are now into our sixth ICT masterplan, known as the Intelligent Nation 2015 Masterplan or iN2015 (in twenty-fifteen). This latest masterplan is a result of the collaboration between the private, public and the people sectors. More details on the iN2015 masterplan will be shared by the speaker from the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore later.
ICT Transforms Businesses
11 At the enterprise level, ICT levels the playing field and can give businesses, both large and small, a significant competitive advantage. The ever-changing business climate also dictates that enterprises must differentiate themselves in order to capture mindshare and market share. Here is where ICT can make the difference. Other than enhancing productivity and operational efficiency, ICT can also seed ideas for innovation and make the process of creating new and quality products and services easier and more effective.
12 The advent of the Internet and Web 2.0 technologies has afforded businesses with a low-cost marketing platform to brand and sell their products and services. Today, one can easily create a web presence with a virtual shopfront or use social media platforms to connect to potential customers worldwide. Using shared services like Software-as-a-Service will also help cut business costs and reduce the ‘time-to-market’ or simply, the time required from the conception to the eventual production and sale of goods and services.
13 ICT is also a key enabler in transforming businesses, through the re-engineering of operations and workflows for more efficient use of resources. One good example I would like to share is Greenpac (S) Pte Ltd. Greenpac was started by Ms Susan Chong in 2002 and specialises in customised and environmentally friendly packaging services.
14 Last year, Greenpac implemented an Enterprise Resource Planning system to better manage inventories. Inventory holding time was significantly reduced, from an average of six weeks to two weeks. This resulted in better planning of resources and minimised unnecessary inventory holding. In addition to the packaging business, Greenpac also developed expertise in supply chain management services with its trademarked real-time web-based Warehouse Management system, which garnered a 20 percent increase in sales.
15 The business grew under Susan’s leadership and won her the Singapore Packaging Star Award. Susan was also presented with the Entrepreneur of the Year as well as Innovation Award in 2008. Greenpac was also put on the Enterprise 50 list in 2008, which represents the cream of Singapore's business crop. Greenpac is a good example of how businesses can reap huge benefits with their ICT investments and I hope this will inspire other entrepreneurs to do the same.
16 In Singapore, help is also available to small and medium-sized enterprises, or SMEs in short, to kickstart ICT adoption. The SME Infocomm Package provides packaged infocomm solutions tailored to the needs of SMEs, with a subsidy to encourage SMEs in developing their first website. Two SMEs Infocomm Resource Centres have also been set up to provide consultancy, prototype development and ICT-related training for SMEs.
Successful Women in the ICT Industry
17 Ms Susan Chong is a successful woman entrepreneur who has seen the potential benefits of ICT and used it well to bring her company to greater heights. Women have made their presence felt in the ICT industry. There are many successful women leaders in the ICT industry, which is still largely dominated by men. Some successful women leaders in the ICT industry include Ms Meg Whitman, who was the Chief Executive Officer of popular online auction site eBay, and Ms Ann Livermore, Executive Vice President at Hewlett-Packard.
18 In Singapore, we also have similar examples who can serve as role models for other women leaders. I would like to mention several successful women leaders in the Singapore ICT industry - Ms Chua Sock Khoong, Ms Karen Kooi, Ms Jessica Tan, Ms Tan Yen Yen, and Ms Teresa Lim.
19 Sock Khoong is the Group Chief Executive Officer of Singapore Telecommunications, the largest company by market capitalization listed on the Singapore Exchange. Karen is the Chief Executive Officer of MobileOne, a major Singaporean telecommunications provider. Jessica is my fellow Member of Parliament and is also the Managing Director of Microsoft Operations Pte Ltd. Yen Yen is the first woman Chairman of the Singapore infocomm Technology Federation, and is also the Vice President and Managing Director at Hewlett-Packard Singapore (Sales) Pte Ltd. As for Teresa, in addition to being the Managing Director of IBM Singapore, she also finds time to serve as a member on the Information Technology Advisory Committee of Nanyang Polytechnic and the Management Board for the Institute of Systems Science. It is commendable that all of them have dedicated time to contribute to the local ICT community while juggling their professional and family commitments.
20 I note that women continue to be under-represented in the ICT sector, both in the workforce and in higher education. In Singapore, based on 2007 figures, women accounted for 32 per cent of the university intake and 41 per cent of the polytechnic intake for IT courses. Compare this with the overall figures of 54 per cent and 48 per cent respectively for all courses. In the workforce, the percentage of women among the infocomm manpower pool is 30%, and this figure has not improved over the past decade.
21 We find that these statistics are consistent with studies in Europe and Asia which show that women are under-represented in ICT fields such as computer science and computer engineering. I would like to take this opportunity to encourage women to contemplate taking up or moving to an ICT career. The core skills that you develop will provide you with a tremendous range of career prospects, given the fundamental importance that ICT has acquired in our digital economies. I hope the role models I have just highlighted inspire the younger generation to make ICT as a career choice.
22 It is also my hope that all of you here who are leaders in your own field, will be able to positively influence others to embrace technology and leverage on ICT to improve the way we work, live, learn and interact.
23 On this note, I wish all of you a successful Forum. I also wish our overseas guests an enjoyable and professionally enriching stay in Singapore.
Thank you.
[1] Source: IDA Annual Survey on Infocomm Industry for 2008
[2] Source: IDA Statistics on Telecom Services for 2009 (Jan-Jun).
[3] Source: IDA Statistics on Telecom Services for 2009 (Jan-Jun). Includes wireless access plans (provided via 3.5G/HSDPA and WiMAX or its equivalent). It excludes subscriptions to 3G and Wi-Fi hotspots. This figure is computed using the total number of residential broadband subscriptions on a per household basis.