Singapore aims to be the regional hub for E-Commerce in the Asia-Pacific and is committed to pursuing three measures: (A) a new legal and regulatory framework to support E-Commerce (B) infrastructure and support services and (C) E-commerce promotion. 1 This article will focus on the first measure, in particular the Electronic Transactions Act and the Computer Misuse (Amendment) Act which were passed as recently as 29 June 1998. It will also comment briefly on the remaining measures.
A.THE NEED FOR NEW LAWS
It is well known that laws relating to traditional forms of transacting business are inadequate to support a new electronic environment. In announcing the need for new laws, the Prime Minister explained that "such legal framework would provide the business community greater certainty in conducting electronic commerce and help foster its development".2 The task of examining "the issues and making recommendations on providing a conducive legal, regulatory and enforcement framework to support electronic commerce" fell to an advisory sub-committee, the Legal, Regulatory and Enforcement Study Group. 3 The Study Group recommended a Commercial Code for Singapore, drawn from the best features of international models. 4 The philosophy underlying its recommendations were: a) "The need to conform to international standards and models in order to plug into the emerging global electronic commerce framework b) The need to avoid over-regulation c) The need to be flexible and technologically neutral to adapt quickly to a fluid global environment d) The need to be transparent and predictable in our laws". The result is the Electronic Transactions Act (theAct).At the same time, with new computer-related offences appearing, it was necessary to amend the Computer Misuse Act, enhance security in computer transactions and provide for stiffer penalties. It was also found necessary to review copyright law to cover original works in cyberspace and this is currently being done.