Public
FTAA.soc/w/163/Add.1
September 4, 2001

Original: Spanish
Translation: FTAA Secretariat

FTAA - COMMITTEE OF GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES ON THE PARTICIPATION OF
CIVIL SOCIETY

CONTRIBUTION IN RESPONSE TO THE OPEN INVITATION

Executive summary

Electronic commerce

The rapid expansion of the Internet has opened up an area of great potential offering major benefits for all network users — namely electronic commerce.

This tool is available now, and it greatly facilitates commercial transactions around the world at very low cost compared to transactions via physical media.

It is very important, and also encouraging to know that the FTAA Ministerial summits include conversations on the importance of electronic commerce in negotiations within member countries, and between them and the rest of the world.

In developing countries like Colombia, it is essential to promote and popularize the use of electronic mail between and within firms, in order to slow down the depletion of natural resources involving a high percentage of indiscriminate tree felling in order to produce the paper needed to satisfy demand from industry in document transfer processes.

In Colombia, the panorama is worrying because there is still a long way to go. In general, it is possible to identify some of the causes that impede the adoption and use of the Internet in Colombia. These are extensively discussed in the document to which this is the executive summary.

 

This document has been previously distributed in error as FTAA.soc/w/163, dated Octuber 24, 2000.