New: Study on the harmonization of cyberlaws in Latin America, June 2009

A new UNCTAD study on cyberlaws in Latin America was launched in June 2009. It provides a basis for advancing plans for a harmonized legal framework to support the development of Internet-based commerce in countries of the Asociación Latinoamericana de Integración (ALADI). The study was prepared as part of UNCTAD's assistance to ALADI member countries in the area of ICT and law reform. This work is conducted jointly by the ICT Analysis Section and the TrainforTrade prorgamme. To spur the increased use of and reliance on ICTs, especially the Internet, for commercial and administrative activities, new laws and regulations are needed and existing laws may have to be revised. This is particularly relevant for entrepreneurs in developing countries who are increasingly using ICTs to conduct business and for the delivery of e-government services. To ease cross-border transactions, legal issues arising from new technologies should be addressed in a harmonized manner within and among ALADI member countries, the study recommends.

This UNCTAD study is the first of its kind. It presents a comparative review of the laws and bills of 11 ALADI member states Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela were represented at the capacity-building workshops organized by UNCTAD in 2007 and 2008. in the area of electronic transactions and electronic signatures, consumer protection, data privacy, cybercrime, intellectual property and domain

names.

Click here to download the study

Second meeting of the East African Community Taskforce on Cyberlaws
Harmonizing cyberlaws among Partner States
Kampala, 23 to 25 June 2008

The second meeting of the East African Community Taskforce on Cyberlaws discussed the legal framework prepared by UNCTAD, based on the review of existing draft laws in the region and the priority list of cyberlaws as defined in January 2008 at the occasion of the first meeting of the Task Force (Arusha, Tanzania).

Harmonizing cyberlaws among Partner States (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda) will strengthen their regional integration and support the implementation of the e-government program initiated by the EAC secretariat in 2005.

The final harmonized legal framework is to be considered by the EAC Taskforce in September (Burundi) and adopted by the relevant organs of the EAC by November 2008.

>> Read the Final Report

As mandated by paragraph 108 and the Annex of the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society, UNCTAD, the International Trade Centre (ITC), the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) organize jointly the third WSIS follow-up Action Line Facilitation Meeting on "E-business".

The meeting will be held in conjunction with a number of WSIS follow-up events and with the meeting of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development.

The purpose of the meeting is to revisit the development of e-commerce in developing countries and present concrete and innovative e-commerce projects. The meeting will also identify the challenges and opportunities of e-commerce encountered by those countries and discuss successful e-commerce policies and strategies that facilitate the access of developing country SMEs to world markets, focusing on the legal framework.

The meeting is open to all WSIS stakeholders interested or involved in the fields related to e-business and the information economy more broadly.

>> Official web page

New: First UNCTAD ICT Policy Review, 10-14 May 2009, Egypt

At the request of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), UNCTAD is undertaking a review of selected policies of Egypt's ICT Strategy 2007-2010. UNCTAD’s review will serve as one of several inputs into the country’s new national ICT strategy to be prepared next year. The review will help the Government of Egypt to quantify the main achievements regarding the implementation of ICT policy measures as foreseen in its strategy; identify critical success factors, best practices and conditions, as well as reasons for failure. The findings will be a basis for adjusting and reforming the country's ICT policies with new and targeted policy proposals to support and accelerate ICT penetration with government, businesses and the society at large.

A first mission was carried out in May 2009 and the UNCTAD team met with H.E. Tarek Kamel, Minister of MCIT, to discuss priority areas, objectives, expectations and timeline for the review. Many meetings were also held with high level representatives of MCIT affiliate institutions, such as ITIDA, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economic Development, Ministry for Administrative Development, Agency for Investment (GAFI), training institutions such as NIT, ITI, and Universities. The private sector views were collected from local and international companies, such as Hewlett Packard, Alcatel Lucent, CISCO and IBM. Stakeholders were invited to share with the UNCTAD team their overall assessment regarding the successful implementation of certain policies/initiatives, as well as bottlenecks they may have encountered or foresee. A first draft of the ICTPR is expected to be available by end of February 2010.

New: National workshops on e-commerce law Reform : Laos PDR (2-3 April 2009), Cambodia (6-7 April 2009)

National sensitization workshops on the draft e-commerce legislation for key stakeholders were held in both countries in April 2009. There is still a need to strengthen national capacity to ensure that the draft e-commerce laws are understood by the different stakeholders who need to review the drafts before enacting them. Law adoption is a very long process but both countries plan to pass the law before the end of 2009. In Lao PDR, the workshop was chaired by H.E.Hounphanh, Vice-Predident of the National Authority for Science and Technology (NAST) and attended by 30 participants from national banks, the court of justice, National Authority for Post and Telecom (NAPT), Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ASEAN Department, National University. In Phnom Penh, the workshop was opened His Excellency Pan Sorasak, Secretary of State of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce, and attended by 36 participants coming from various institutions such as Ministry of Post and Telecommunication, Law and Judiciary Reform Council of Ministers, Council of Minister, the Prime Minister's Office, the National Bank of Cambodia, the National ICT development Authority (NIDA) and the Ministry of Interior.