Prodding Singapore

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.