Ecquaria awarded pilot phase of project that will enhance online business license processing for existing businesses with new license update, renewal and termination functionality

Singapore (19 Oct 2004) - Ecquaria Technologies (www.ecquaria.com), an associate company of leading pan-Asian IT service provider, Frontline Technologies Corporation Limited, today announced that it has helped the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) launch 69 licenses, registration and permit applications electronically on the Online Business Licensing Service (OBLS) and more than triple the number of new business license applications made online since the pilot key project started in April 2003.

With the OBLS, first-time applicants can register a business and apply for all required licenses at one website, instead of going to different agencies. This is the first key project under the Singapore government’s S$1.3 billion e-Government Action Plan (eGAP) II to deliver one-stop, integrated services to better meet the needs of citizens and businesses through multi-agency collaboration and efficient delivery of customer-centric services. Ecquaria has been pivotal in assisting the government to kick-start the project, built on Ecquaria’s proven and feature-rich Service-Oriented Platform™, the Ecquaria SOPTM, with its official launch in January this year.

Ecquaria, homegrown enterprise business platform provider, once again demonstrated its strengths in implementing large-scale, time-sensitive enterprise infrastructure solutions by completing the first phase of the OBLS project ahead of time in January this year. The complex project involved the management of more than 30 government agencies and over 200 stakeholders.

“Ecquaria’s capability and expertise in launching the Online Business Licensing Service rapidly and efficiently have far exceeded our expectations. We are already seeing positive results in having achieved over 4,000 online business license applications today compared to 1,000 when OBLS was introduced as a pilot trial in April 2003. We aim to convert half of all business license applications into electronic ones by end March 2006,” said Alfred Low, Senior Assistant Director of E-BIZ Unit, Ministry of Trade and Industry.

With the successful launch of the OBLS, MTI has awarded Ecquaria the second phase of the project to build new features and greater flexibility into the system to accommodate changes and special requests as business needs evolve. The new features will enable existing businesses to update, renew or terminate their licenses online. The second phase is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2005.

“With the newly added functionality, we can provide greater convenience to a larger pool of businesses in operation to access the OBLS anytime, anywhere, saving them time and costs. Processing agencies can also look forward to dedicating their time to providing value-added customer-centric services with a reduction in processing time,” Mr. Low added.

For example, come early 2005, an existing employment agency business owner can update particulars of his new business partners or renew or terminate his license to operate an employment agency using the OBLS without having to make a physical visit to the licensing agency, the Ministry of Manpower.

Eight licenses from various participating licensing agencies are included in the second phase. Some examples include the Import/ Export License (Fish/ Meat), Import/ Export License (Fruit/ Vegetable), Import, Export or Transshipment of Ornamental Fish and Registration of processed food importers from the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) in addition to some Liquor Licenses from the Singapore Police Force.

“Our win for the next phase of OBLS is a strong endorsement of our proven Ecquaria Service Oriented PlatformTM that empowers the Singapore government to rapidly deploy a robust and a highly scalable system of public service delivery. We are proud to play a significant part in realizing Singapore’s eGAP II vision in the next phase of OBLS that sees a seamless, fully integrated state-of-the-art system that simplifies the use of eGovernment services as well as enhance the experience of every Singapore citizen and business user,” said Dr Foong Wai Keong, CEO and President of Ecquaria.

Backed by its deep domain knowledge and experience in enterprise infrastructure for service-oriented governments worldwide, Ecquaria has successfully enabled the business of Governments to provide the highest levels of service satisfaction to public users. Some of Ecquaria’s customers include the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore, Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, Ministry of Finance, Central Provident Fund Board and The World Bank Group (Mexico Urban Micro Business Project).

About Ecquaria Technologies
Ecquaria is a leading enterprise business platform provider and an associate company of Frontline Technologies Corporation Limited. Unique in the industry, Ecquaria has pioneered a simple and effective way to provide software integration and new application development all in one single, integrated enterprise business platform. Based on a service-oriented model and Business Performance Management capabilities, the Ecquaria Service-Oriented Platform™ (Ecquaria SOP™) offers a comprehensive business platform to deliver a secure, scalable and reliable process-driven infrastructure for all the enterprise’s applications. Ecquaria strives to help customers put in place business processes that are integrated end-to-end across the enterprise and with key partners, vendors and customers. These processes can be reviewed easily by managers, who can respond with flexibility and speed. Offering enterprise-class capabilities, Ecquaria SOP™ enables the enterprise to automate its business processes and provide an efficiently integrated information flow throughout the organization. While providing critical and complete information across the enterprise, Ecquaria SOP™ supports key business objectives to help the enterprise to manage all aspects of its business. Ecquaria is established with offices in Singapore, China, Mexico and U.S. with an expanding network of global partners to support the activities of customers worldwide. More information is available at http://www.ecquaria.com.

About Frontline Technologies Corporation Ltd
Frontline Technologies Corporation Ltd is a leading IT service provider of end-to-end services that include technology consulting, infrastructure design and implementation, applications development, system integration, security solutions and implementation, outsourcing and as well as education services.

Since establishment in 1993, we have built up a strong and diversified base of customers in the transportation and logistics, telecommunications, financial services, education, manufacturing, healthcare and public sectors. Our strategic partnerships with leading IT companies such as Sun Microsystems, Oracle, BEA Systems, Veritas, Hitachi, Internet Security Systems, Computer Associates, Netegrity, etc provides customers with an optimal combination of solutions and services to meet their performance and cost requirements.

Listed on the Main board of the Singapore Exchange, we are headquartered in Singapore and have operations across Asia - China, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand - to better service multinational businesses.