RIYADH, 22 April — Saudi Arabia has formulated a draft bill on e-commerce, which is currently being reviewed at the top level. This was announced by Minister of Commerce Osama Faqeeh at a high-profile conference on e-government and e-commerce here last night.
Prince Sattam, vice governor of Riyadh, inaugurated the three-day conference. "The laws have been drafted and they are being reviewed before final adoption," Faqeeh said.
The event is being sponsored by several companies including Saudi Research and Publishing Company (SRPC), publishers of Arab News, and international IT giant IBM. The conference is held on the sidelines of a five-day international IT exhibition, which was opened simultaneously at the Riyadh Exhibitions Company grounds.
More than 500 local and international companies are participating in GITEX 2002, the first international IT exhibition hosted by Riyadh.
Asked about the volume of e-commerce and the future projections for growth in online business, Faqeeh said that it was enormous. He reiterated that the e-commerce regulations will conform to the principles of Shariah, which will add protection and confidentiality to the financial transactions.
Piero Corsini, IBM vice president, said the Kingdom has gone a long way to acquire new technology. He, however, said that in Saudi Arabia, where the Internet access is still limited, the e-government journey is at an early stage. "Therefore, before you start any project, you should know where you stand," Corsini said, and added that it is really important to make a readiness program assessment at the country or the government level.
He said the creation of a national body in Saudi Arabia — the Electronic Commerce Standing Technical Committee — by a royal order reflects the strong interest in e-government and e-commerce initiatives.
Some experts attending the inaugural session said e-commerce is growing very fast in the Middle East region. It is evident from the fact that the region’s e-business has recorded a substantial increase during the last few years.
"I have seen projections of a 1,000-fold increase in Internet traffic in the next few years," said IBM’s Corsini.
"Inside IBM we talk about 10 times more connected people, 100 times more network speed, 1,000 times more devices and a million times more data. Most of the infrastructure technology that exists today is not ready to handle what is coming. In Saudi Arabia, it is better to concentrate first on a portal tailored mainly for enterprises," he added.
According to some estimates, the global value of the Internet trade could hit $3 trillion in the year 2003. Corsini said that there will also be change in terms of technology and usage.
"Today, 98 percent of Internet access is through traditional PC-based browsers," said the IBM executive, adding that this will drop to just 50 percent during the next five years. In the next two years, 35 percent of all Internet transactions will be on mobile devices, he said.
