Business is meant to be Simple.
Although eBay is not doing well in China, and by proxy PayPal (è´å®)， this is something to cheer about.
This has been a long time in the waiting. A big boost to ecommerce in Singapore no doubt.
Singapore badly need a payment system to complete with those pricey solution from eNETs and WorldPay. If PayPal get their way, more people would be opening online stores from their bedroom.
Can’t believe it. The famous Nigeria scan is now in Singapore - complete with UOB and Government of Singapore.
If only entrepreneur are as creative…
Compare this to this. Guess which site I read more?
I don’t get it why SPH is blocking readers at the door. I click on a link, see the sign in and leave immediately.
Frankly I never care about their news now that I’m outside of Singapore. Any news of importance are cover elsewhere too, why go where you are not welcomed.
When remarkable things happened people are eager to share the story. With Internet and blog, it is so much easier to tell the whole world.
And my remarkable story? Remarkable service by the Singapore Immigration & Checkpoints Authority.
As a Singaporean, I am delightedly proud to sing the praise of my fellow countrymen. Here’s the story.
My China visa was due to expire soon (in 2 weeks time), so naturally I had to renew it. What I did not notice was that my passport is also expiring and did not have the necessary valid period to renew the visa. So I had to renew the passport first.
A call to the Singapore Consulate-General in Shanghai suggested 2 options
For me only option 2 is the only feasible option. I was adviced to follow up with an email to request priority processing. (But what happened suggests this is probably not necessary.)
Applying a Singapore passport online is really easy. Just follow the instruction on the website. With a digital camera a photo can be taken in no time. Stand a against a white wall, take the photo, download the photo into the computer and adjust the balance with Gimp. After that just upload the photo and make an online payment with credit card.
That was last Thursday afternoon.
The next day I received an email informing me the application had been processed and will be really for collection on Monday (if I am in Singapore).
On Monday, another email (from a real person, not an annonymous address) replied, telling me that the passport is on its way flying to Shanghai.
Thursday a call to the Consulate confirmed that the passport had been received.
Friday morning, passport happily collected.
Now isn’t a remarkable example of excellent service combining technology, across different government departments, across country.
After hearing horror story of how visa application can be like, I am biased to conclude Singapore service is very much ahead.
Tell me any other remarkable or horror story you have.
To those that make this all possible, I thank you from my heart. Keep up the good work!
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