By Jacqueline Wong
SINGAPORE, April 13 (Reuters) - Singapore unveiled plans on
Monday for a legal framework to push forward its ambition to
become an international hub for electronic commerce.
A task force, led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore,
the country's de facto central bank, recommended some guidelines
and changes in law to meet rapid growth of the E-commerce trade.
"The technology is moving so fast, if you wait for the
courts to develop the common law, it may be too late," Charles
Lim, a senior official at the Attorney-General's office, told
Reuters.
He said some form of legislation was necessary to jumpstart
the process, to create predictability in E-commerce.
These include proposals for an Electronic Transactions law,
which could be approved this year, Lim said.
The proposed legislation would include a commercial code for
electronic transactions and cover regulatory and enforcement
issues, such as how a contract can be formed electronically.
A proposal to limit the liability of network providers who
carry third party information would also be included.
The providers, however, would still be obliged to block
access to sites banned by the Singapore government, which
requires service providers to use proxy servers to deny access
to selected sites, mostly concerned with sex.
The task force also made recommendations on payment, misuse
of computers and infrastructure.
Lim said arbitration of disputes over E-commerce
transactions could be costly if such codes were not in place as
E-commerce and the Internet were still very new.
The proposed legislation would act as a "short-cut" in
dealing with electronic contracts and documents, he said.
The government would put the details of the proposed
legislation on its web site and invite comments, Lim said.
Michael Yap, deputy head of the National Computer Board,
said Singapore should capitalise on its strengths to form a
predictable environment needed for E-commerce to thrive.
This would broaden its influence in the electronic market
and aid the development of the medium here, he said.
"We see ourselves plugged into the global zone, and we see
ourselves as major players," Yap told the news conference.
"We have to make sure our policies are innovative and
liberal and consistent with the international arena," he said.
Imports, exports, cross-border trade issues, foreign rules
and regulations needed to be reviewed and adapted, he said.
Tax and investment incentives, for example, to draw in
companies under the government's Cyber Trader scheme, would also
need to keep pace with the developments in global E-commerce, he
said.
Singapore is trying to lure companies like the largest
seller of books on the Internet, Amazon.com.Inc AMZN.O and
retailer Kmart Corp KM.N to set up servers and operate sales
to the region from here, trade officials said.
REUTERS
Rtr 04:20 04-13-98 |
