Now this is GOOD NEWS--tell me this won't help us tomorrow
Monday November 30, 5:39 pm Eastern Time
Clinton unveils steps to promote Internet commerce
(Recasts with announcement, details, quote)
WASHINGTON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - President Bill Clinton on Monday announced
steps to promote electronic commerce while hewing to his largely laissez-faire stance
toward the burgeoning trade on the Internet.
''We have to clearly commit ourselves to making the most of what is clearly the engine
of tomorrow's economy: technology,'' Clinton told industry and administration officials
at ceremony at the Old Executive Office Building next to the White House.
''We have to make ourselves absolutely committed to the proposition that we will first
do no harm,'' he added. ''We will do nothing that undermines the capacity of emerging
technologies to lift the lives of ordinary Americans.''
His message of non-intervention was music to the ears of the many executives who
attended the event and who stand to benefit handsomely from the continued explosion in
electronic commerce.
John Chambers, the chief executive of networking hardware maker Cisco Systems Inc,
spoke before Clinton and estimated that Internet commerce may surge to $1.5 trillion
in 2003 from about $10 billion last year.
But some consumer groups argue that industry self- regulation does not work and that
the government should do more to protect consumers from fraud in Internet
transactions as well as from the invasion of their privacy.
''In the privacy and consumer areas, self-regulation has not worked very well,'' said
Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington-based civil
liberties group. ''People still have considerable concerns about privacy.''
Clinton announced five steps to encourage Internet trade:
-- ordering the Commerce Department and the Federal Trade Commission to educate
consumers about fraud on the Internet, to promote industry self-regulation and to
ensure that existing anti-fraud laws can be enforced;
-- ordering the Commerce Department, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative and
the Federal Communications Commission to pursue policies to encourage more private
sector investment in high-speed Internet networks;
-- asking the Commerce Department and the Small Business Administration to
encourage small businesses to connect to the Internet;
-- requiring the White House National Economic Council to lead a government effort to
measure the impact of the Internet and electronic commerce on the U.S. and global
economy;
-- In addition, the White House said U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright would
launch a program to promote growth of the Internet in developing countries.
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Clinton asking Commerce and the FTC to educate consumers about fraud on the
internet.....doesn't that sound strange coming from the king of fraud ?
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