SINGAPORE – 19 FEB 1999
The Ministry of Trade and Industry has appointed Mr Michael Yap Kiam Siew, 38, as Chief Executive, NCB, with effect from 1 March 1999. Mr Yap succeeds Mr Stephen Yeo Siew Chye, who will be leaving the Board to join the ...
The Ministry of Trade and Industry has appointed Mr Michael Yap Kiam Siew, 38, as Chief Executive, NCB, with effect from 1 March 1999. Mr Yap succeeds Mr Stephen Yeo Siew Chye, who will be leaving the Board to join the private sector with effect from 1 March 1999.
Mr Yap was one of the NCB's first batch of overseas scholars in 1982. He completed with top honours a B.SC in Economics and Computer Science, and a M.SC at the University of Maryland, USA in 1987. Since 1987, he has worked in the Information Technology Institute (ITI), where he focused on research and development and led efforts in software engineering; the National Information Infrastructure Division of the NCB; before being promoted to the appointment of Assistant Chief Executive (Infrastructure & Systems) in April 1997. In May 1998, he was appointed Deputy Chief Executive of the NCB. Mr Yap is also a recipient of the 1998 National Day Public Administration Award (Silver).
In his role as Deputy Chief Executive of the NCB, Mr Yap is responsible for the development of Singapore's information infrastructure and the deployment of strategic nationwide IT initiatives. He is the project director and principal architect of major national initiatives including Singapore ONE, Electronic Commerce Programme, and the National Chinese Internet Programme.
Mr Yap oversees the Internationalisation Office whose role is to support the development of Singapore into a vibrant and robust Global IT and Knowledge Hub. He drives efforts to establish infrastructural, business, policy and technical linkages with countries around the world, as well as to extend applications and services in major initiatives such as Singapore ONE and the Electronic Commerce Programme to the international marketplace. Mr Yap has been instrumental in establishing bilateral IT agreements with countries such as Canada and Thailand, and represents the Singapore government at OECD, APEC, and ASEAN in matters concerning IT.
Mr Yap has also initiated various industry-based programmes including the Online Technologies Consortium (OTC), the Singapore Computer Emergency Response Team (SingCERT), and the National Information Infrastructure Standards Programme.
Mr Yap has played a major role in Singapore's IT2000 initiative since its inception. He was part of the secretariat responsible for driving the IT2000 study and co-authored the landmark IT2000 Report.
Mr Stephen Yeo joined the NCB in April 1995 as Deputy Chief Executive. He was appointed Chief Executive in July 1995. He heads a team of more than 600 professional staff at the NCB, and is responsible for overseeing the Board's mission to drive comprehensive national information technology (IT) planning, policy formulation and implementation.
Since assuming the helm at the NCB, Mr Yeo has successfully led the NCB in spearheading major initiatives that led to he accelerated implementation of the IT2000 masterplan under five strategic thrusts:
- To spearhead the vision of a connected government to realise new levels of productivity and a more responsive public service.
- To seed IT2000 flagship projects and deploy strategic applications that will change the way Singaporeans work, do business, study and play, to bring about quantum gains.
- To evolve a National Information Infrastructure that will bring the benefits of IT into every Singaporean home.
- To nurture a vibrant and competitive IT industry that will place Singapore among global IT players
- To plant an IT culture among Singaporeans, making IT an integral part of their lives.
One of Mr Yeo's first tasks was to drive the restructuring and repositioning of the NCB to steer the Board in realising IT2000. He successfully led in the corporatisation of the Civil Service Computerisation Programme (CSCP) and the reorganisation of the NCB along application clusters.
10. Mr Yeo is involved in driving the work of the various application clusters within the NCB. Under his leadership, a number of IT2000 flagship projects were implemented in key industry sectors, to help them harness IT to bring about increased productivity and performance.
As part of the work in strengthening the National Information Infrastructure (NII), Mr Yeo oversaw the development and implementation of Singapore ONE, driving the growth of applications and subscribers, and ensuring that the full spectrum of its benefits is brought to all Singaporeans, in the workplace, at home and in school.
With the move of the NCB from the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Trade and Industry in April 1997, Mr Yeo worked on building up the NCB's role in Singapore's efforts to globalise. Under his guidance, the NCB worked closely with other economic development agencies in the MTI family to develop Singapore into a Global IT Hub for the Asia-Pacific region. To achieve this objective, a key focus has been to develop the internationalisation of Singapore's IT industry through initiatives such as government-to-government agreements as well as projects which attract international participation such as Singapore ONE.
In 1997, Mr Yeo led the NCB through further organisational changes. These included the privatisation of National Computer Systems Pte Ltd (NCS) in September 1997 and the merger of the Information Technology Institute (ITI) and Institute of Systems Science (ISS) to form the Kent Ridge Digital Labs (KRDL) in January 1998.
Several new companies were also spun off by the NCB. These included the Bangalore Development Centre to exploit the software development skills in India; SGNIC to administer Internet domain names in Singapore; and Netrust Pte Ltd, the first local digital certification authority.
Mr Yeo has been a strong advocate of the need to promote IT fluency among Singaporeans. He initiated the IT Culture Promotion programme in 1995. Since then, the focus of the programme has matured beyond promoting IT awareness among the general public to encouraging Singaporeans to use IT as an integral part of their daily lives.
With a view to Singapore's future IT manpower needs, Mr Yeo is involved in the IT Manpower Committee together with industry and the institutes of higher learning.
For his role in the development of Singapore's IT industry, Mr Yeo was conferred the Person of the Year in the IT Leader Awards 1998 by the Singapore Computer Society.
The NCB wishes to express its deep appreciation to Mr Yeo for his invaluable contribution to the development of the national IT movement. Under his sterling leadership, the NCB has gained recognition in Singapore and abroad for its innovation, dynamism and high technology. The Board wishes Mr Yeo every success in his future endeavours.
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