PanNotes

The long overdue electronic transactions bill that passed last week has sparked new interest in the online opportunities available to local businesses. Though short on solutions for the real problems hindering e-commerce in Jamaica, the bill at least gives legal recognition to electronic commerce here and raises awareness with the general public.

This legislation has been “coming soon” since as far back as 2001. According to this overview, the majority of the act deals with providing legal recognition for the electronic equivalents of many of the paper based processes that we deal with today (e.g. ). It goes into great detail about personal electronic signatures and transmitting documents electronically.

While those issues are certainly relevant to the ministry’s vision of e-government, they have little impact on what most people think of when they think about internet transactions: buying things online. You have to skip all the way down to clause 26 of 39 before you find anything related to e-commerce.

The passing of the bill is definitely a step in the right direction, and while most Jamaicans may not understand the actual implications of the entire act I am sure that many people who hear the news reports will feel a little more comfortable with the idea of conducting business online. When this is combined with the revolutions happening in the wireless and broadband internet markets, it seems like a pretty good indicator that we making progress towards becoming networked society, however there are still a few hurdles that need to be overcome before we can get there.

For one, more people need computers. I thought Cable and Wireless was on to something when the launched Max but that doesn’t seem to have taken off. If I had to make a guess I would blame this failure on the improper marketing/distribution of the product and C&W’s over-inflated broadband prices. Maybe Flow can do better, they certainly have done better in terms of speeds and pricing. The fact that they also provide cable service could lead the way to having a computer in every home that has a cable box. If the government’s new e-learning project decides to equip children with $100 laptops from the One Laptop Per Child project that would also significantly boost the number of households with internet access. It seems like the IADB formalized and agreement with the OLPC project recently, so who knows.

The second thing that needs to be addressed is the credit card issue, or better yet, the lack thereof. The vast majority of Jamaicans simply do not have credit cards. Don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating a system where people spend beyond their means and become laden with debt, especially with the interest rates on credit cards in Ja. However the fact of the matter is that in today’s world, the credit card is easiest way to purchase goods online. There are a number of other virtual payment systems out there like PayPal, but even those tend to be backed by credit cards and bank accounts. Until a solution is found for the virtual payment problem in the Jamaican context, e-commerce levels will remain low.