World Telecommunication Day 1999 |
Aplethora of on-line electronic commerce sites is accessible to anyone with electricity, a telephone, a computer, an Internet service provider and some form of electronically acceptable payment. But e-commerce potential in the developing world is frequently hampered by a lack of one or more conveniences often taken for granted in most developed countries.
The result, especially for heavily indebted poor countries, has been deprivation of many of the benefits of both the expanded reach of information technology and the advantages of e-commerce. A remarkably large slice of the global market is cut off from e-trading facilities, competitive prices at e-auctions, less expensive e-tail products and the availability of myriad e-services.
Not only are electricity, telephones, money and computers often scarce in the developing world, but there are also habitual hurdles such as insufficient banking, financial and telecommunications infrastructure, as well as more down-to-earth problems encountered with international shipment and customs clearance procedures.
Automatic teller machines and credit cards, for example, are still a rarity in countries like Rwanda, where the concept of virtual banking and on-line procurement is still in the realm of science fiction for most of the population. And with a vast e-commerce market in industrialized countries still largely untapped, developing countries are hardly a priority for most companies in the business.
Nevertheless, some working strategies for exercising e-commerce in telecommunications-deficient environments have emerged. Entrepreneurs in developing countries, for example, occasionally find business partners or clients in more industrialized nations where network infrastructure and payment services already exist.
There are also various organizations geared toward developing nations wishing to enter the e-commerce world. The International Institute for Communication and Development (www.iicd.org), which was established by the Netherlands Ministry for Development Cooperation in 1997, is ''promoting a world in which developing countries will have unrestricted access to information and communication,'' and its current programs often emphasize e-commerce.
Some unexpected countries are already benefiting from a comparatively long-term approach to the on-line world. The Tunisian Electronic Commerce Hub (www.ecom.tn) offers a virtual Tunisian E-Shopping Center, selling everything from handicrafts and dates to hotel rooms and tours of the Sahara. The site makes a point of mentioning that it features ''secure credit card ordering technology by VeriSign,'' prices everything in U.S. dollars and provides specifics regarding shipping and other technicalities that concern virtual shoppers.
Tunisia's sophisticated e-commerce effort is due to the rapid development of both its Internet and telecommunications infrastructure, where investments have almost quadrupled during the last 10 years. President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali regards the information highway as a vehicle to improve the country's economic efficiency and has personally made it clear that he wants the business community to aggressively exploit the benefits of e-commerce.
To kick off the Tunisian effort, a national commission for electronic commerce and electronic data interchange (EDI) was formed in 1997 to study the judicial, commercial, financial, fiscal and security implications of e-commerce. Following the submission of a report to the government late last year, six pilot projects were launched in May in areas that include virtual shopping galleries, digital signature certification and an EDI linking banks, customs offices, e-commerce retailers and other parties. In addition, several reductions in telephone and Internet access rates now enable Tunisians to enjoy some of the lowest rates in the Mediterranean.
Other creative e-commerce options can be most easily investigated by browsing some of the nearly 1,000 Web sites listed when ''e-commerce'' is plugged into the Yahoo! search engine.
Web surfers can find everything from e-commerce market research to articles in the E-Commerce Times, or visit the Malaysia E-Commerce Hub (www.ec.com.my), which is host to forums on topics like e-agriculture, e-economy, e-service and e-manufacturing. There are also numerous offers for CDs that ''enable the creation of an e-commerce site'' and details provided by companies like BizAutomation.com, which specializes in e-commerce application development, integration and customization. In addition, there are intriguing niche players like MBT International, which focuses on e-commerce auctions for farming, agriculture and horse-related industries.
Joel Stratte-McClure