Project

Electronic Commerce for Developing Countries (EC-DC) Project.

Objective: Infrastructure Development.

Mission Report. (Three missions)

Status

At the initiative of the Government of the Kingdom of Morocco, under the sponsorship of the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) and within the framework of the ITU ECDC project, a one-week mission was carried out in July 1998 with the following objectives: to explain the requirements and platform an on-site evaluation, advise on the steps to be taken and recommend future actions.

A pilot project was developed to demonstrate the feasibility of electronic commerce in Morocco. The country fulfilled all the requirements for implementing Internet Commerce using the ECDC model. Both private & public sectors showed a lot of enthusiasm in participating in this project. The ITU has provided technical expertise to assist on the deployment of e-commerce. In August 2000, a second mission was undertaken to assist the Government of Morocco in selecting a Moroccan company to provide e-commerce services to local businesses in the artisan, agricultural and tourism sectors.

The ECDC Project Manager went on a third mission to Morocco from 19 to 22 March 2001. This mission was the last phase of an ongoing collaboration between the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) and the Government of the Kingdom of Morocco in e-commerce.

The purpose of this mission was to provide neutral and objective advice and recommendations on the desired technical features for a national e-commerce infrastructure. It was aimed performing an objective analysis of the features provided by the infrastructures put in place by the Moroccan companies selected with the assistance of the BDT (during the second mission).

The objectives of the mission were the following:

1. On the basis of the required features for a secure, scaleable, shared and trusted e-commerce platform with automated online payment solutions, evaluate the technology features to determine if they met the predefined criteria.
2. Present a confidential report to the Government of the Kingdom of Morocco indicating if the evaluated infrastructures met the requirements.
3. Recommend corrective measures and provide advice if the services provided by these infrastructures should be open for businesses and if the infrastructure should be made operational.