Policies and Institutions for E-Commerce Readiness

Abstract

E-commerce policy priorities evolve with a country’s transition through phases of “e-commerce readiness”. For most developing countries, getting the basic telecommunications infrastructure, competitive environment, and regulatory framework in place to support widespread and affordable Internet access remains the highest priority. Telecoms privatisation needs to be accompanied by expanded competition, not excessively generous exclusivity agreements. In important middle-income developing countries, governments must address a further challenge: ensuring an e-commerceconducive business environment. Some issues, like consumer protection, are familiar even if cross-jurisdictional, remote and anonymous transactions in a virtual environment complicate dispute resolution. Other issues are unique to or especially acute in a virtual environment, like protection of privacy, security of transactions, and authentication of electronic signatures. The OECD has devised a number of guidelines ...