SINGAPORE: Computer Centres Will Help Bridge Digital Divide For Elderly

SINGAPORE (The Straits Times), November 25, 2007: Senior citizens and the underprivileged here will not be left behind by the digital divide. This was the promise of Vivian Balakrishnan, Second Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, at the launch of a new three-year $2.5 million initiative yesterday to equip senior citizens here with the required infocomm skills. The Silver Infocomm Initiative will train 30,000 senior citizens in courses ranging from basic computer appreciation to setting up a wireless network at home to blogging. The fund will be used to set up and run eight infocomm learning centres for senior citizens in the heartland. The Infocomm Development Authority's annual infocomm usage survey last year showed that only 25 per cent of the 650,000 Singaporeans aged 55 and above here use the Internet. Speaking at the launch of the first of the eight infocomm centres at Bishan Junction 8, Dr Balakrishnan vowed to increase the proportion of Net-using senior citizens to 75 per cent within the next two years. Dr Balakrishnan, who is also the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, said infocomm technology is essential to everyone today, but there were three groups of people who were at risk of being left behind -- the elderly, the disabled and the less well-off families. 'We are making the commitment to ensure that in Singapore there will be no digital divide, nobody will be left behind because of lack of opportunities to use infocomm technologies,' he added. For the disabled, a new Infocomm Accessibility Centre will be set up within the Society of the Physically Disabled's premises by the middle of next year to train 4,000 disabled persons over three years in infocomm skills, to help them become more employable. Dr Balakrishnan also unveiled a new public and private sector fund called the Inspire Fund, which aims to help needy families get a computer and broadband Internet for free. They would be able to get these by performing six to 12 hours of community service, depending on the age of the applicant. Inspire is applicable only to households with monthly income of under $1,500 or under $300 per capita income. By Oo Gin Lee