UNCTAD asked to develop global transaction system

GENEVA (JP): A meeting held during the TELECOM Interactive 1997 Forum has asked the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to develop a global system for trade transactions, covering both exports and imports.

The meeting, attended by delegates and experts from over 100 nations and organizations, urged UNCTAD to identify obstacles to its implementation and propose practical means to overcome them.

The three day meeting, from Sept. 8 to Sept. 10, was the first of its kind to concentrate on the potentially huge opportunities and challenges that the expansion of electronic commerce will provide for developing nations and countries with transitional economies, UNCTAD said.

"Technology is not the problem anymore. What the new infrastructure needs is to be able to carry the applications and services which will make it economically viable, particularly in those regions of the world which are less advanced technologically," UNCTAD secretary-general, Rubens Ricupero, said at a joint session with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) here Wednesday.

He said the rapidly growing field of electronic commerce needed new regulations. "It's important to know who will be in charge of different aspects of this subject, which goes well beyond trade to encompass security and public interest questions."

The meeting agreed to closely examine the issue of secure electronic payments and the transmission of trade-related information over international networks such as the Internet.

The experts recognized that present standards used for trade transactions made it difficult to fully benefit from existing international networks, for example the difficulty of using an export declaration form to clear imports.

The meeting recommended the UNCTAD Commission on Enterprise, Business Facilitation and Development should convene as early as possible expert meetings on issues such as banking and insurance aspects, including electronic payments.

Other proposed issues were the legal dimensions of electronic commerce and other relevant legal aspects of business practices and trade efficiency and human resources development in the area of trade efficiency.

The discussion underlined the continuing uneven character of the so-called "information revolution". It was stressed that Africa and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in general, still lag behind in terms of access to basic telephonic services. Practical ways to help these countries catch up, such as the U.S. "Leland Initiative" and UNCTAD's "Web Incubator", were presented.

The meeting, called on by UNCTAD member states to discuss the potential impact of telecommunications on business facilitation and trade efficiency, was attended by 20 participants including delegates, telecommunications experts and businesspeople.

Focusing on the possible impact on international trade and development of electronic commerce, particularly the Internet, the meeting followed U.S. President Bill Clinton's July 1 address on a "Global Framework for Electronic Commerce" and the July 8 Bonn Ministerial Declaration on Global Information Networks.

Participants highlighted the potential of UNCTAD's Global Trade Point Network as a tool for the acceleration and enhancement of smaller players' participation in electronic commerce. They identified a series of obstacles to such participation and to the implementation of the recommendations of the 1994 United Nations International Symposium on Trade Efficiency (UNITE). (icn)