Government
over-regulation could endanger e-business
 |
| The
Global Action Plan - business should create and foster trust in e-commerce
through self-regulation and technological innovation |
Paris,
12 September 2002 - Leading business organizations made a "hands
off" appeal to governments today on a wide range of e-business issues and
said government regulation should focus on providing a stable environment in
which it can flourish.
They said: "The pace
of change and nascent state of electronic business have heightened the risks
associated with premature or unnecessary government regulation."
This made it all the more
essential that business should create and foster trust in e-commerce through
self-regulation and technological innovation.
The business call for minimal
government intervention came in the third Global Action Plan for Electronic
Business published by the Alliance for Global Business (AGB), which links five
business associations.
They are the International
Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the International Telecommunications Users Group
(INTUG), Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC), the World
Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA), and the Global Information
Infrastructure Commission (GIIC).
ICC is the business partner
of the United Nations for the World Summit on the Information Society to be
held in Geneva next year and Tunis in 2005. The Global Action Plan will provide
a basis for the business stance at the summit.
On the role of governments,
the action plan said their intervention may be required in such areas as intellectual
property protection, taxation "and the removal of barriers to competition
in providing the underlying infrastructure for e-business."
It added that in other areas,
self-regulatory business solutions and technology tools were to be preferred
as more effective than legislation in creating trust in e-business.
The plan, listing dozens
of successful business self-regulatory initiatives, constitutes a business blueprint
for guaranteeing the development of e-business on an expanding worldwide market
in the 21st century.
Ayesha Hassan, ICC senior
policy manager for e-business, information technology and telecoms, said: "The
plan gives policy makers and regulators an accessible set of business responses
to all the most urgent issues surrounding the development of e-commerce."
Business actions and views
are contrasted with recommendations to governments on a wide range of e-commerce
issues, from privacy protection to the role of small and medium sized enterprises,
provision of new electronic delivery systems for the public sector and promoting
competition in telecoms.
Ms Hassan said: "This
format provides clear, succinct and easily referenced views on over 50 e-business
issues."
For more information contact Ayesha Hassan, Senior Policy Manager
for e-business, information technology and telecoms on +33 1 49 53 30 13,
Click here to send a mail
The
Global Action Plan for Electronic Business