NATIONAL IT POLICY ABSTRACT: Government as the Driving Force Toward the Information Society: National  Computer Policy in Singapore Vijay Gurbaxani, Kenneth L. Kraemer, John Leslie  King, Sheryl Jarman, Jason Dedrick , K.S. Raman and C.S. Yap [1990, The Information Society, 7(2): 155-185] CONTACT JOURNAL In an attempt to make Singapore an economic power in the post-industrial information era, the Singaporean government is implementing a series of national computer plans designed to further the country's efforts to move up the value-added chain by driving information technology into all sectors of society.  These plans can be divided into three distinct phases with the goal of the first phase to computerize the government sector; the goal of the second phase to  computerize the country; and the goal of the third phase is to turn Singapore into an information society with global connections. In looking at IT  (information technology) policy for Singapore, we see that the government has had a high level of involvement in the computerization and informatization of Singapore. The Singaporean government has taken a large participatory role and a smaller but significant regulatory and coordinating role in the development and  diffusion of information technology throughout the country. While production and use of IT srted out as equal priorities, over time the emphasis has shifted to promoting IT use as a means of increasing the competitiveness of all sectors of the economy. The government has played a strong role in developing the necessary  IT infrastructure and maintaining a favorable investment climate to attract IT  producers and sophisticated IT users to the island. Ironically, it is the strong government participation that has taken Singapore so far so fast, and which  might now be a constraint to reaching the next logical stage of development. <top>