(September 13 – 13:45 ET) –
International business leaders have
for the first time agreed on the
fundamental principles of global
electronic commerce and urged
governments to co-ordinate
e-commerce policies.
Chief executives and board
members of leading companies
reached consensus on nine basic
issues critical to e-commerce
during the inaugural meeting in
Paris of the Global Business
Dialogue on Electronic Commerce
(GBDe). They invited governments
as well as international
organizations to jointly develop
the tremendous potential of
e-commerce.
“Policy makers worldwide should
treat e-commerce with a sense of
urgency,” says Thomas Middelhoff,
chairman of GBDe and chairman and
CEO of Bertelsmann AG.
“The development of e-commerce is
an important factor for economic
growth and for the creation of new
jobs. A global medium like the
Internet needs a global policy
approach.”
Recent studies show worldwide
e-commerce sales will reach a
volume of about US$1 trillion in
2003.
“It is the consensus position
of the GBDe that conflicting
national patchwork regulation
will deprive consumers of the
economic benefits of an innovative
marketplace and be a source of
significant insecurity for them,”
he said. The GBDe urges
governments and international
organizations to coordinate their
regulatory efforts regarding
e-commerce.
The group reached consensus on
the following issues:
authentication and security,
consumer confidence, content and
commercial communications,
information infrastructure,
intellectual property rights,
jurisdiction, liability,
protection of personal data,
and taxes and tariffs.
IE Staff
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