Bahamas Remains Committed To E-Commerce Objectives

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

16 June 2004

Bahamas Minister of State for Finance Senator James Smith has told an information technology conference that the government remains committed to the goal of making the country a world leader in the sphere of e-commerce.

"As the government continues preparing the country for the inevitable challenges and opportunities of globalisation, it is firmly committed to the view that, across all sectors, information and communications technologies are fundamental to the sustainable growth of the Bahamian economy and the social development of our people," Senator Smith told the seminar entitled "Trusted Information Sharing in Global Markets."

He continued: "For this reason the government has set as a long-term, broad-based objective, the transformation of the Bahamian economy to a digital one as a means of generating viable opportunities for Bahamians to participate in the global economy."

Smith outlined a four-pronged policy approach to achieve these objectives: legislation; regulation; service provision at governmental, business and individual level; and educational policies.

He stressed that legal certainty is a particularly important factor to enable e-commerce growth, and explained that significant progress has been made in the respect with the passing of key legislation last year including the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 2003, The Computer Misuse Act 2003, and the Data Protection (Privacy of Personal Information) Act 2003.

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