Prime Minister Office Move to Electronic Mail
Sing Post is increasing its rates for mails and parcels. This is unavoidable, as their operating cost has increased. There is an increased volume of mail and parcels to be delivered. Their existing rates are not adequate to meet the operating cost.

It is time for us to move to more efficient ways of communication. 

What can be done?

Most people and businesses are now communicating by e-mail and whatsapp. They have found it to be efficient and free. 

But government agencies and businesses continue to use hard copy mail for their business communication. They do not want to send these communication by PDF attached to e-mails due to the perceived fear that the mail may be seen by unauthorized third parties. 

Some organizations do send their communication by e-mail but they took the step to encrypt the mail with a password. Most recipients find the encryption to be troublesome. They prefer to receive the communication without encryption.

In most cases, the communications, while being personal, are not really confidential. They can be sent by e-mail without encryption. 

The government needs to take the lead to make this change. If most business communication can be sent through e-mail, it can improve the productivity for the country significantly. It can reduce the big volume of mail that is being sent through the postal service. 

Apart from using e-mail, there is another solution but it requires the government to take the lead. The government could set up a common portal for all organizations to send their business communication. This can be made secure.

A few years ago, an government agency did take the initiative to create the One Inbox portal. Unfortunately, there was no strong drive to get the various agencies to use this portal. It was discontinued after a few years.

It is time to reintroduce this portal and get all government agencies to use it. Commercial organizations should also be allowed to use this portal.

I hope that the prime minister office can take the lead to make this move. 

Tan Kin Lian 

Vote - should we encourage the use of a portal to send communication from organizations to replace hard copy mail?
 

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