Ministry of Communications and Information

Ministry of Communications and Information
Agency overview
Formed	1 November 2012
Preceding agency	Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA);
Jurisdiction	Government of Singapore
Headquarters	140 Hill Street #01-01A, Old Hill Street Police Station, Singapore 179369
Motto	Knowledge is Meant to be Shared
Employees	2,651 (2018)[1]
Annual budget	S$1.04 billion (2019)[1]
Ministers responsible	Josephine Teo, Minister and Minister-in-Charge of Cybersecurity; Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State; Tan Kiat How, Minister of State; Rahayu Mahzam, Parliamentary Secretary;
Agency executives	Yong Ying-I[2], Permanent Secretary; Joseph Leong[3], Second Permanent Secretary; Janadas Devan, Chief of Government Communications;
Child agencies	Cyber Security Agency; Infocomm Media Development Authority; National Library Board; Personal Data Protection Commission; REACH;
Website	mci.gov.sg

The Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI; Chinese: 通讯及新闻部; Malay: Kementerian Perhubungan dan Penerangan; Tamil: தொடர்பு, தகவல் அமைச்சு) is a ministry of the Government of Singapore responsible for the information and communications technology, the media and design sectors, public libraries, as well as the government's information and public communication policies.

History

The Old Hill Street Police Station is currently the headquarters of the Ministry of Communications and Information

On 5 June 1959, the Ministry of Culture came into being with the swearing-in and appointments of ministers of the new Government of Singapore. On 1 February 1980, the Broadcasting Division of the Ministry of Culture became a statutory board, the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation.

1985 saw the dissolution of the Ministry of Culture. Its Information Division came under the new Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI). Its arts promotion component was assimilated into the Ministry of Community Development (MCD) as the Cultural Affairs Division.

Five years later, on 28 November 1990, the Information Division of the MCI and the Cultural Affairs Division of MCD, together with other associated departments and statutory boards, reunited to form the Ministry of Information and the Arts (MITA).

On 1 September 1991, the Festival of Arts Secretariat, Singapore Cultural Foundation, the Arts Division of MITA, and the National Theatre Trust merged to form the National Arts Council (NAC).

On 1 October 1994, the Singapore Broadcasting Authority (SBA) was formed as a statutory board under MITA to oversee and promote the broadcasting industry in Singapore.

On 23 November 2001, the information and communications technology (ICT) functions under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology came under MITA. The expanded Ministry was renamed the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, but retained the acronym MITA. In that year, Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) became one of MITA's statutory boards.

On 1 January 2003, the Singapore Broadcasting Authority, Singapore Films Commission and Films and Publications Department (previously under the MITA headquarters) merged to form the Media Development Authority (MDA). On 13 August 2004, the Ministry's acronym was changed from "MITA" to "MICA".

On 1 November 2012, MICA was renamed the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI). The move followed the restructuring of two previous ministries – MICA and the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) – into MCI, the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) and the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF). REACH (Reaching Everyone for Active Citizenry @ Home) was assimilated into MCI while the resilience, arts and heritage portfolios became part of MCCY. MCI now oversees the development of the information and communications technology, media and design sectors, public libraries, and the Government’s information and public communication policies.[4]

On 18 January 2016, MCI announced that the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and the Media Development Authority (MDA) will be restructured into two new entities: The Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) and the Government Technology Organisation (GTO) (now Government Technology Agency; GovTech), in the second half of 2016.[5] The new statutory boards were formed on 1 October 2016.

Organisational structure

MCI has two statutory boards, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and the National Library Board (NLB).

MCI also manages the Cyber Security Agency, a national agency overseeing cybersecurity strategy, operations, education, outreach, and ecosystem development and the Personal Data Protection Commission, Singapore's primary data protection authority.

Ministers

The MCI is headed by the Minister for Communications and Information, who is appointed as part of the Cabinet of Singapore. The incumbent minister is Josephine Teo.

Portrait	Minister	Start of Term	End of Term
Minister for Culture
	S Rajaratnam	5 June 1959	12 August 1965
	Othman Wok	12 August 1965	15 April 1968
	Jek Yeun Thong	16 April 1968	25 September 1977
	Ong Teng Cheong (acting)	26 September 1977	6 January 1981
	S. Dhanabalan	6 January 1981	1 January 1985
Minister for Social Affairs
	Othman Wok	31 December 1976	30 June 1977
	Toh Chin Chye(acting)	1 July 1977	4 September 1977
	Ahmad Mattar	6 January 1981(Acting)	31 May 1984
		1 June 1984	1 January 1985
	S Dhanabalan	1981	1985
Minister for Communications
	Yong Nyuk Lin	16 April 1968	15 September 1972
	Lim Kim San	1 August 1975	30 June 1978
	Ong Teng Cheong	1 July 1978	6 January 1981
	Ong Pang Boon	9 May 1983	6 September 1983
Minister for Communications and Information
	Yeo Ning Hong	7 September 1983 (Acting)	31 May 1984
		1 June 1984	13 September 1988
Minister for Information and the Arts
	George Yeo	28 November 1990 (Acting)	30 June 1991
		1 July 1991	2 June 1999
	Lee Yock Suan	3 June 1999	22 November 2001
Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts
	David Lim Tik En	23 November 2001 (Acting)	11 May 2003 (Acting)
	Lee Boon Yang	12 May 2003	31 March 2009
	Lui Tuck Yew	1 April 2009 (Acting)	31 October 2010
		1 November 2010	20 May 2011
	Yaacob Ibrahim	21 May 2011	31 October 2012
Minister for Communications and Information
	Yaacob Ibrahim	1 November 2012	30 April 2018
	S. Iswaran	1 May 2018	14 May 2021
	Josephine Teo	15 May 2021	Incumbent

References

"Singapore Budget" (PDF).
Au-Yong, Rachel (5 March 2019). "Several ministries to get new permanent secretaries from April 1". The Straits Times. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
"Permanent Secretary Appointment - 28 Jan 2019". Public Service Division. 28 January 2019. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
Imelda Saad; S. Ramesh (31 July 2012), MCYS, MICA to be restructured to form 3 new ministries, Channel NewsAsia
"IDA, MDA to be restructured to capitalise on converging media and ICT landscape". Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved 23 January 2016.

External links

Official website of the Ministry of Communications and Information

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[budget2019-1] "Singapore Budget" (PDF).

[2] Au-Yong, Rachel (5 March 2019). "Several ministries to get new permanent secretaries from April 1". The Straits Times. Retrieved 12 October 2020.

[3] "Permanent Secretary Appointment - 28 Jan 2019". Public Service Division. 28 January 2019. Retrieved 12 October 2020.

[4] Imelda Saad; S. Ramesh (31 July 2012), MCYS, MICA to be restructured to form 3 new ministries, Channel NewsAsia

[5] "IDA, MDA to be restructured to capitalise on converging media and ICT landscape". Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved 23 January 2016.