IDA Distinguished Infocomm Speaker Series

Mrs Tan Ching Yee, Chief Executive Officer Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore Welcome Address - IDA Distinguished Infocomm Speaker Event, Ritz Carlton Singapore, 9 March 2004

Mrs Tan Ching Yee, Chief Executive Officer
Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore
Welcome Address - IDA Distinguished Infocomm Speaker Event, Ritz Carlton
Singapore, 9 March 2004

Mrs. Carly Fiorina, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Hewlett-Packard company,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. It gives me great pleasure to welcome Mrs. Carly Fiorina, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, of Hewlett Packard to Singapore. Carly is no stranger to Singapore, having last visited 2 years ago. It is good to have you back!

2. HP and Singapore have a longstanding and multi-faceted partnership that spans many areas, from manufacturing to services and R&D.

3. In the infocomm space, HP is one of IDA's valued partners in helping to develop capabilities of the local industry. HP has participated in various programmes that benefit the local industry, among them IDA's Call for Collaboration programme in the wireless arena and the Infocomm Local Industry Upgrading Programme in the web services and wireless technology domains.

4. Last year, HP joined forces with Oracle and other partners to set up 5 regional technology partner and customer centres. The first of these centres, called PITSTOP centres, was established here, in Singapore. These PITSTOP centres aim to help regional independent software vendors in technology co-development and ASEAN market expansion.

5. To position Singapore as a Digital Living Lab for infocomm, IDA is keen to work with partners to identify promising technology and business ideas ripe for test-bedding in Singapore.

6. One major concern of users is how they can contain the cost of IT while deriving maximum business benefit from their IT investments. HP has unveiled its "Adaptive Enterprise" strategy to address this very real concern.

7. The promise of Grid and Utility computing where scalable resources can be shared and consumed as and when required, is an exciting one. Users can look forward to greater agility and flexibility, which in turn bring about cost savings and increased business efficiency.

8. IDA is in close discussion with HP to see how we can combine the strengths of HP and Singapore to test-bed and showcase the benefits of Grid and Utility computing. I believe that this combination will create a winning proposition.

9. The agility and flexibility I referred to earlier are really responses to a world that is changing rapidly. Our Distinguished Infocomm speaker today has led HP through a period of intense change. I believe this is a gross under-statement.

10. Making change work must be something that comes with ease for Carly. Since she joined HP in 1999, she has not only accelerated HP's growth amidst turbulent waves in the infocomm landscape, but also increased the company's long-term shareowner and customer value.

11. Many of you may know that Carly did not begin her career as a technologist. She might tell you that she majored in medieval history and philosophy at Stanford University. She took to heart, the wisdom of Confucius who said "study the past if you would define the future." And she has certainly derived learning from HP's past, taken the best of it, reinvented the rest and in so doing, has defined the next frontier for HP.

12. Under Carly's leadership, HP has returned to its roots of innovation and inventiveness, and has stayed focused on delivering the best total customer experience.

13. For us in Singapore who are experiencing the pains and joys of economic restructuring and social transformation, if I want to add a tad of baby blues, Carly's talk on "Change and Competitiveness in a Global Age" is most timely.

14. Please join me in giving a warm welcome to Carly.

15. Thank you.

Please click here (106.08KB) for Carly Fiorina's speech: