T.R.A.D.E. Occasional Papers 5

INTRODUCTION

As a consequence of the fast development of information technologies, and especially the Internet, many new types of transactions have been developed in recent years. Before the Internet, several kinds of business transactions were normally carried out by telephone, telex and by fax. However, it was not until the development of a network that could transfer vast amounts of information together with interactive features and with the digital capacity for making high quality copies that the term e-commerce could be properly used.

Currently, there seems to be a great deal of confusion about the use of the term e-commerce and the Internet. According to many authors, the Internet is just a media where information in multiple forms can be disseminated, used and interactively exchanged. In contrast, e-commerce is considered, according to the Work Program on E-commerce (WPEC) of the WTO, as the production, distribution, marketing, sale or delivery of goods and services by electronic means.1 The Internet, together with the use, convergence and improvement of new technologies, is creating new challenges and opportunities for developing countries. The use of these technologies for the manufacture and exportation of goods and services are among these challenges and opportunities.

Many issues have been identified as being of crucial importance for building, consolidating and improving the capacities of the developing world to enjoy the opportunities that the internet as a new media has brought, particularly for the better use of e-commerce. There is a need for information networks, creation of a telecommunication infrastructure, availability of new financial structures and transactions, hardware and software, reform of educational programs, establishment of legal rules adapted to the on-line environment and the existence of an appropriate intellectual property regime that ensures access to new technologies, promotes domestic innovation and encourages technology transfer. The devising of new ways and means to improve research and development activities (R&D), the ability to compete against highly subsidized technology and the capacity to absorb new technologies and the development of new products will be necessary to close the existing digital gaps.

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