Creating the Digital Economy: Strategies and Perspectives from Singapore

Margaret Tan
International Journal of Electronic Commerce,
Volume 3, Number 3, Spring 1999, pp. 105.


Abstract: Based on the concept of the information superhighway in the United States, many countries around the world have planned their own information highways. In the Asia-Pacific region, Singapore laid the foundation of its information highway as early as the 1980s, and today, at the turn of the millennium, its vision of a smart city, or intelligent island, is becoming a reality. Singapore ONE (One Network for Everyone), a nationwide broadband high-speed network launched in 1997, delivers interactive multimedia applications and services to every home, school, and office in Singapore. One-stop, non-stop business and government services, cybershopping, on-line banking, Internet trading, virtual college, and digital library are some of the implementations of its electronic commerce hub. This paper provides an analysis of how Singapore is creating a digital economy that will have a tremendous impact on its ability to succeed and sustain its strategic advantage.

Key Words and Phrases: Digital economy, national information infrastructure, technology diffusion.