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To: cellhigh who wrote (2994)	4/13/1998 2:31:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

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