Netherlands Antilles Continues To Put E-Commerce Infrastructure In Place

Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

02 February 2001

Tax-news.com is grateful to Mr Guido H Jansen of PricewaterhouseCoopers for providing information for this story: guido.h.jansen@an.pwcglobal.com

As reported recently in tax-news.com, the Netherlands Antilles government has passed a National Ordinance on Electronic Agreements which provides for digital signatures, recognition of electronic records, formation and validity of contracts, data protection and consumer protection.

Now the government is preparing special tax legislation for international internet companies on Curacao. The legislation should be finalised this week in the Parliament - it was originally introduced in April last year. The new 'Ordinance on E-zones' will come into force as from March 1 2001.

In addition to progress on the legislative front, Curacao has a semi-official E-commerce platform at www.e-curacao.com where representatives from business and governmental operate a public-private partnership. The platform consists of four task forces: logistic, financial, legal/ tax and technological. Each task force works on amendments and improvements in their respective fields and when necessary engage in cross- border activities that help fulfill the objective of improving the e-business infrastructure on Curacao.

Leading figures behind the Curaçao e-platform think that the jurisdiction's traditional strengths in distribution facilities, international financial services and a stable legal and political environment, underpinned by its relationship with the Kingdom of the Netherlands put it in an ideal position to provide a regional base for international e-businesses.

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