BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : OCTOBER 23, 2000 ISSUE
BUSINESS WEEK E.BIZ -- STRATEGIES Prodding Singapore (int'l edition) Michael Yap devoted his 11 years in the Singapore government to wiring the tiny city-state. As the tech policy czar, he devised the blueprint for a broadband Internet infrastructure that created one of the world's most electronically advanced governments. But when he was about to turn 40, he caught the entrepreneur's bug--striking out on his own to set up an online marketplace called Commerce Exchange. Then the economics of the Internet in Asia taught Yap a cruel lesson: No matter how well-wired Singapore is now, it will take years for the local business community to take full advantage of all that technology. Singapore companies aren't logging on because the markets where they do business are mired in the Old Economy. Among Singapore's largest trade partners are Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and China--countries where the Internet is still a work in progress. Yap got past this initial disappointment quickly. He devised a strategy that allows Commerce Exchange to grow while Singapore's business community slowly joins the Internet era. Companies can either have Yap set up a portal on his online exchange or buy the software to create their own Web portal. Everybody doesn't have to join the e-marketplace at first. ''For B2B to evolve, the Internet has to adapt to the existing way the world works,'' explains Yap. Yap tries to make it compelling for companies to join in. Clients get secure portals so they can connect easily with their banks and customers, cutting down the time it takes to make deals and move goods. Yap expects revenue of $4 million this year from transaction fees. Finally, all that spadework he did as the country's tech czar may pay off. By Michael Shari _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS EBIZ Contents for issue dated Oct. 23, 2000 Asia's Internet Deficit (int'l edition) CHART: Asia Execs Tiptoe into E-Commerce TABLE: Playing Catch-Up (int'l edition) Prodding Singapore (int'l edition) Revving Up in India (int'l edition) Korea's B2B King (int'l edition) Drug Coup in China? (int'l edition) ONLINE EXTRA: Q&A with Gartner Group's Lane Leskela INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

Copyright 2000-2009, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved. Terms of Use   Privacy Notice