JEDDAH, 9 March 2005 — Draft laws to streamline e-commerce in Saudi Arabia are being drafted. Prince Dr. Bandar ibn Salman ibn Muhammad Al-Saud, adviser in the Court of the Crown Prince, and chairman of the Saudi Arbitration Team announced the move at the opening of a three-day seminar on electronic commerce and the implications of e-signature in the light of the Shariah at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) yesterday.

Prince Bandar said it was necessary to have a clear system to organize e-business and that Islam encourages trade and the Kingdom has already prepared Shariah guidelines for electronic business.

“The Kingdom is providing the infrastructure to enable e-commerce to expand,” he said and called on creating awareness and trust in the technology because e-commerce was set to expand not only in the Kingdom but also all over the Arab world.

E-commerce is now a standard business practice and growing fast. Prince Bandar said that the appropriate legal structures and validations of business transactions be put in place.

Prince Bandar said the Kingdom has one of the highest growth rates of Internet use. In view of that e-commerce has a huge market and potential of success.

Abdullah ibn Muhammad Al-Yahya, deputy minister of justice, said IT had created a revolution, impacted economic thinking and brought about changes and challenges that had to be faced and solved.

He said the Ministry of Justice had computerized its work and was preparing the ground to enter e-trade under Shariah regulation.

Saud O. Ounallah, general director, JCCI, told Arab News that the chamber already has a program and a contract to start e-signatures among the chambers of commerce in the Kingdom. The contract has been signed and has started training employees to begin the trial work of e-signature. “This would help a lot. Most members sometimes are required to have e-signature when they are out of Kingdom and the only person authorized to sign is also out of the Kingdom,” he said.